Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy

274 Pages·2006·2.55 MB·English

by  Rinku Sen

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STIR IT UP
Lessons in Community
Organizing and Advocacy
Rinku Sen
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STIR IT UP
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THE MS. FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN
For thirty years, the Ms. Foundation for Women has been a leading advocate for
women and girls, naming the issues in their lives, investing in their strengths, and
helping them take crucial leadership roles in their lives and communities. Founded
in 1972 by Gloria Steinem, Marlo Thomas, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Patricia Car-
bine, the Ms. Foundation was the first national, multi-issue women’s fund.
Marie C. Wilson has led the foundation as our president since 1985. Under
her direction, the Ms. Foundation has created groundbreaking national programs
and granted millions of dollars to grassroots organizations working to move women
toward economic self-sufficiency, to safeguard reproductive rights, and to support
health and safety for women and girls. Executive Director Sara K. Gould joined
the Ms. Foundation in 1986 and propelled the Foundation into the public eye as
the recognized national leader in the field of women’s microenterprise development.
The Ms. Foundation’s hallmark is our support of the right idea at the right time,
whether it is seen as possible or popular. Our work is guided by our vision of a just
and safe world where power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, class,
or sexual orientation. We believe that equity and inclusion are the cornerstones of
a true democracy in which the worth and dignity of every person is valued. Our
many accomplishments include:
• Creating the award-winning Take Our Daughters To Work®Day, a nationwide pub-
lic education campaign that seventy-one million people have participated in since
1993. Through its new program, Take Our Daughters And Sons To WorkSMDay, the
Ms. Foundation is addressing the competing challenges of work and family life.
v
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vi The Ms. Foundation for Women
• Receiving a Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise Development
for our long-standing commitment to improving economic prospects for low-
income women, their families, and their communities.
• Conducting the national Raise the Floor public education campaign promoting
minimum wage, child care, health-care, and tax policies that would ensure that
low-income families in this country can meet their basic needs.
• Being one of the first national organizations to acknowledge that the real bat-
tleground for reproductive rights is at the state level, and supporting groups that
combat the hundreds of antichoice measures introduced every year in state leg-
islatures.
• Becoming one of the first national funders to address violence against women
by funding shelters and crisis hotlines, and helping to create a movement to end
all violence.
• Creating the Women and AIDS Fund, the only project in the country that identi-
fies and supports community-based organizations run by and for women living
with HIV/AIDS.
The Ms. Foundation’s work is guided by our mission to support the efforts of
women and girls to govern their own lives and to influence the world around them.
We believe that economic security is key to women’s choices and their ability to
make their voices heard. Women’s wages and working conditions affect not only
their family’s livelihood but also their access to health care and quality child care
and their ability to escape abusive relationships. Since our inception, therefore,
the Ms. Foundation has supported women’s efforts to organize for better wages,
benefits, and improved working conditions and to mobilize their collective power to
influence government policy.
Women can affect crucial issues by taking charge and organizing for change.
The Ms. Foundation grantees profiled in this book offer lessons and insights not
only for other groups mobilizing low-income women but for any effort aimed at cre-
ating lasting social change.
Take Our Daughters To Work®and Take Our Daughters And Sons To WorkSMare registered marks of the Ms. Foundation.
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STIR IT UP
Lessons in Community
Organizing and Advocacy
Rinku Sen
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Copyright © 2003 by John Wiley & Sons,Inc.All rights reserved.
Published by Jossey-Bass
A Wiley Imprint
989 Market Street,San Francisco,CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com
No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted
in any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,scanning,
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to the Permissions Department,John Wiley & Sons,Inc.,111 River Street,Hoboken,NJ 07030,
201-748-6011,fax [phone],e-mail:[email protected].
Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores.To contact Jossey-Bass
directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S.at 800-956-7739,outside the U.S.
at 317-572-3993 or fax [phone].
Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats.Some content that appears
in print may not be available in electronic books.
Take Our Daughters To Work®and Take Our Daughters And Sons To WorkSMare registered marks
of the Ms.Foundation.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sen,Rinku.
Stir it up :lessons in community organizing and advocacy / Rinku
Sen.—1st ed.
p.cm.—(Chardon Press series)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-7879-6533-2 (alk.paper)
1.Community organization—United States. 2.Social action—United
States.3. Community development--United States. 4.Community
power—United States. I.Title. II.Series.
HN90.C6S46 2003
361.8'0973—dc21 2003001221
Printed in the United States of America
FIRSTEDITION
PB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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THE CHARDON PRESS SERIES
Fundamental social change happens when people come together to organize, advo-
cate, and create solutions to injustice. Chardon Press recognizes that communi-
ties working for social justice need tools to create and sustain healthy organizations.
In an effort to support these organizations, Chardon Press produces materials on
fundraising, community organizing, and organizational development. These resources
are specifically designed to meet the needs of grassroots nonprofits—organizations
that face the unique challenge of promoting change with limited staff, funding, and
other resources. We at Chardon Press have adapted traditional techniques to the
circumstances of grassroots nonprofits. Chardon Press and Jossey-Bass hope these
works help people committed to social justice to build mission-driven organizations
that are strong, financially secure, and effective.
Kim Klein, Series Editor
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CONTENTS
Exercises and Exhibits xiii
Preface xv
The Author xxiii
Profiles xxv
Introduction: Community Organizing—Yesterday and Today xliii
1 New Realities, Integrated Strategies 1
2 Organizing New Constituencies 24
3 Picking the Good Fight 48
4 Ready, Set, Action! 79
5 Leading the Way 97
6 Take Back the Facts 116
7 United We Stand 135
8 Speaking Truth to Power 148
9 Education for Engagement 165
xi