Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest.
Community organizing has as a core goal the generation of durable power for an organization representing the community , allowing it to influence key decision-makers on a range of issues over time. In the ideal, for example, this can get community-organizing groups a place at the table before important decisions are made. A central goal of organizing is the development of a robust, organized, local democracy bringing community members together across differences to fight together for the interests of the community.
Community organizers attempt to influence government, corporations, and institutions, increase direct representation within decision-making bodies, and foster general social reform more generally. Where negotiations fail, these organizations quickly seek to inform others outside of the organization of the issues being addressed and expose or pressure the decision-makers through a variety of means, including picketing, boycotting , sit-ins , petitioning, and electoral politics.
Organizing groups often seek out issues they know will generate controversy and conflict. This allows them to draw in and educate participants, build commitment, and establish a reputation for advancing local justice. Community organizers generally seek to build groups that are democratic in governance, open and accessible to community members, and concerned with the general health of a specific interest group, rather than the community as a whole.
In addition, community organizing seeks to broadly empower community members,through mobilizing efforts, [ 5 ] with the end goal of "distributing" power and resources [ 6 ] more equally between the community members and external political and social figures of power. These include:. Because of its focus on "local" issues and relationships between members, individual groups generally prioritize relatively local community interests by focusing on local issues. Brady and Mary Katherine O'Connor construct a starting point for a general practice model, [ 8 ] a model that defines community organizing as its own field of practice; [ 8 ] however, this model depends on existing practice models adapted by the different types of community organizing.
