How can we develop far more community leaders and organizers with the skills, knowledge and vision to create the positive change America needs?
HOW CAN WE Scale up and tap the full potential of
change agents from low-income and working-class communities and communities of color?
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There are a growing number of new answers to these questions. Particularly promising are new pathways which combine paid internships and college courses designed specifically to prepare people for careers and leadership roles in disinvested communities like their own.
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Core subjects
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These pathways vary in the core courses they offer, depending on what the local community and academic partners see as needed and how much flexibility the college provides for new courses and modifying existing ones.
However, the most promising ones all offer students a set of courses aimed at building their knowledge, skills, commitment and vision concerning community and social change, preparing them for jobs or further education in this field. In particular, they enable students to develop the initial knowledge and skills they will need to begin mastering “organizing”. These include competencies in reaching out to people of color and others with low-incomes, bringing them together, building relationships, identifying and analyzing common issues, and preparing to take collective action on them while developing community leadership and power. In creating a set of courses linked with experiential learning including internships, these educational pathways go well beyond single courses or training programs. They enable young and adult learners to develop the vision, extensive knowledge, and critical thinking, interpersonal and practical skills they need to prepare fully for careers and leadership roles in creating social and community change. The pathways range from 3-5 core courses and vary in how topics are combined and taught. The diagram to the right illustrates the most common topics covered in community change studies programs. Each topic and its importance is described in the boxes below the video. |
Core Subjects
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In this story video, 4 organizers from different networks talk briefly about the excitement they get from constantly learning as they organize people and develop community leadership and campaigns. Professor Rich Wood of the University of New Mexico moderated this Virtual Learning session for the Brown Community Organizing. Initiative. The participants are Catalina Morales Bahena of Faith in Action, Kahn Key from Gamaliel in St. Louis, Katie Cohen of Valley Interfaith-IAF and Ivan Parra of North Carolina Peoples Action.
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The following boxes briefly summarize typical content for each of seven topics included in this section of the website. Each section includes background, links to readings and syllabi, and other useful learning materials.
7. Other courses
Some programs also offer such electives as:
- Introductory courses focused on applying change strategies to specific sets of issues and professions (See website section on Key Issues and Strategies)
- Advanced community organizing, campaigns, and movement-building
- Political theory, democracy and the rule of law, history of social movements and social reforms
- Social media and communication strategies for social change
- Legislative and electoral organizing strategies
- Nonprofit management and organizational developmentIssue-Focused Courses/Strategies
learning from Several Different Traditions of Collective Action
for Social and Community Change
Experiential Education
Preparing for leadership and organizing roles in social and community change requires in-depth practical field experience as well as reading, research and learning in the classroom. Community organizing requires an extensive set of practical skills ranging from such interpersonal skills as listening, building relationships, and searching for issues which unite people, to skills in building effective organizations and mastering complex social and political issues.
Like such other professions as medicine and law in which clinical experience is essential, preparation for careers in community planning, organizing and development requires substantial time learning through experience, trial and error, with training and mentoring by an expert practitioner.
This requires collaboration between academics and practitioners with each overcoming at least some of the skepticism each may have felt toward the value of the other’s knowledge, understanding, and traditional ways of learning. There is no denying that many academics -- except those in medicine and law and other professions which depend on clinical education -- have little respect for practice-based education, especially when it’s taught by practitioners rather than career academics. Similarly, it’s clear that many organizers and community leaders doubt the relevance of academics to what organizers need to know: typically they see them as removed from the community, focused on theory with little practical experience, often based in elitist institutions which neglect and sometimes disrupt nearby neighborhoods.
Like such other professions as medicine and law in which clinical experience is essential, preparation for careers in community planning, organizing and development requires substantial time learning through experience, trial and error, with training and mentoring by an expert practitioner.
This requires collaboration between academics and practitioners with each overcoming at least some of the skepticism each may have felt toward the value of the other’s knowledge, understanding, and traditional ways of learning. There is no denying that many academics -- except those in medicine and law and other professions which depend on clinical education -- have little respect for practice-based education, especially when it’s taught by practitioners rather than career academics. Similarly, it’s clear that many organizers and community leaders doubt the relevance of academics to what organizers need to know: typically they see them as removed from the community, focused on theory with little practical experience, often based in elitist institutions which neglect and sometimes disrupt nearby neighborhoods.
Both academic and experiential learning are essential for community change agents pressing for progress on social, economic and political issues. Each brings to the work knowledge, skills, understanding and vision, character-building, analytic and strategic thinking capacities which change agents need to maximize their capacity to foster change.
Some programs do a remarkable job of creating genuine partnerships across these historic divides, including being highly creative in maximizing opportunities for experiential learning. they use a wide variety of strategies for helping students learn through experience. These start with the faculty and the teaching. Most Change Studies faculty-members bring extensive personal experience in community work to their teaching. Many have been organizers, community leaders or otherwise deeply involved in community change work before beginning teaching. Some are adjuncts whose main job continues to be working on the ground with a community-organization or other nonprofit or perhaps in labor or political organizing, issue research or journalism. In addition, many courses involve community leaders, organizers and other practitioners as guest speakers and discussion leaders, a practice which students consistently praise as particularly motivating and instructive.
Instructors for virtually all courses in Community Change Studies use extensive classroom exercises and group problem-solving and analysis to help develop their students’ practical skills. Many courses require field assignments, often including researching and analyzing community issues, interviewing organizers and community members, and/or taking part in organizing and community improvement efforts. Courses in Participatory Action Research get especially marks for helping students grasp the whole process of creating change: they provide concrete experience learning how community residents can be involved in choosing a priority issue, learning how to research it through interviews and analyzing documents, developing strategies for having an impact, taking action and then reflecting together on what they have learned.
Some programs do a remarkable job of creating genuine partnerships across these historic divides, including being highly creative in maximizing opportunities for experiential learning. they use a wide variety of strategies for helping students learn through experience. These start with the faculty and the teaching. Most Change Studies faculty-members bring extensive personal experience in community work to their teaching. Many have been organizers, community leaders or otherwise deeply involved in community change work before beginning teaching. Some are adjuncts whose main job continues to be working on the ground with a community-organization or other nonprofit or perhaps in labor or political organizing, issue research or journalism. In addition, many courses involve community leaders, organizers and other practitioners as guest speakers and discussion leaders, a practice which students consistently praise as particularly motivating and instructive.
Instructors for virtually all courses in Community Change Studies use extensive classroom exercises and group problem-solving and analysis to help develop their students’ practical skills. Many courses require field assignments, often including researching and analyzing community issues, interviewing organizers and community members, and/or taking part in organizing and community improvement efforts. Courses in Participatory Action Research get especially marks for helping students grasp the whole process of creating change: they provide concrete experience learning how community residents can be involved in choosing a priority issue, learning how to research it through interviews and analyzing documents, developing strategies for having an impact, taking action and then reflecting together on what they have learned.
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Integration with Academic Education
Clearly, experiential education is invaluable for preparing people for roles leading change and organizing collective action. However, it is equally clear that academic education is equally essential. While the courses offered by particular community colleges and public universities offer widely, they all offer many courses which can greatly broaden their graduates’ knowledge and skills in ways which are incredibly valuable for community organizers and leaders, including courses which:
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Well-Paid, Career-Relevant Internships and "Earn While You Learn" Programs
Internships can provide invaluable in-depth experience on the job if they are directly related to community change work which develops the skills and knowledge a change agent needs. Internships also can help students earn references and contacts which may be invaluable in the future as they look for jobs or advanced education.
However, unpaid internships are a luxury few working class or low-income students can afford: to stay in school and cover expenses they need to earn a living wage and therefore have no choice but to take a full-time or part-time job rather than an unpaid internship.
With funding from the State of California and private foundations, the Community Learning Partnership has established a major breakthrough program,-- the California Youth Leadership Corps which provides paid internships for hundreds of students at a growing number of community colleges in California. Pell-eligible and other low-income young people receive both stipends and scholarship aid in this “learn while you earn” program, while they work for social change nonprofits and complete three courses in community leadership, organizing and related subjects, earning a community college Certificate upon completion. This "earn while you learn" program is being expanded to 20 community colleges throughout the state, and each participant receives a stipend of approximately $10,000 plus a $5,000 scholarship as they study and learn on the job by being placed with a social justice nonprofit.
An alliance of the Community Learning Partnership, similar Community Change Studies programs and national organizations is currently collaborating in seeking a mix of public and private funding to replicate the California model in a growing number of states. These would, of course, be adapted to fit local needs, priorities and opportunities.
However, unpaid internships are a luxury few working class or low-income students can afford: to stay in school and cover expenses they need to earn a living wage and therefore have no choice but to take a full-time or part-time job rather than an unpaid internship.
With funding from the State of California and private foundations, the Community Learning Partnership has established a major breakthrough program,-- the California Youth Leadership Corps which provides paid internships for hundreds of students at a growing number of community colleges in California. Pell-eligible and other low-income young people receive both stipends and scholarship aid in this “learn while you earn” program, while they work for social change nonprofits and complete three courses in community leadership, organizing and related subjects, earning a community college Certificate upon completion. This "earn while you learn" program is being expanded to 20 community colleges throughout the state, and each participant receives a stipend of approximately $10,000 plus a $5,000 scholarship as they study and learn on the job by being placed with a social justice nonprofit.
An alliance of the Community Learning Partnership, similar Community Change Studies programs and national organizations is currently collaborating in seeking a mix of public and private funding to replicate the California model in a growing number of states. These would, of course, be adapted to fit local needs, priorities and opportunities.
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Several CLP sites have longstanding partnerships with Americorps’ Public Allies or VISTA programs. Allies offers stipends, health and education benefits for 10 months of service and learning to young people, especially “opportunity youth” from low-income backgrounds. Because of their shared commitment to youth leadership development, CLP sites and Allies programs have built partnerships in four cities so far. The most ambitious of these is run by CD Tech, which operates Public Allies for all of Los Angeles and has over 50 paid volunteers each year. Tech recruits, trains and supervises the volunteers and also offers them free enrollment in 1-2 college credit-generating courses in Community Planning and Organizing at LATTC, CD Tech’s community college partner. Students then can enroll as regular college students with a head-start towards a college Certificate or Degree.
New York City’s Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development recruited, enrolled and trained 10 Public Allies each year for over a decade, adding great organizing strengthen to member organizations. Over 100 young people were placed for on-the-job experience with nonprofit members of the coalition, earning stipends and health insurance. Fully 85% moved directly into jobs with nonprofits in the city. |
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Over the years, DeAnza College has become very creative in developing ways to involve students in tackling on-campus issues in order to avoid adding to the travel burdens of their students, most of whom commute long distances. Recent examples of their focusing “field” work on on-campus issues include work on immigrant students’ rights and sanctuary for those who are undocumented, divestiture of carbon stocks by the college, other policy issues facing the college, and get out the vote efforts.
The City University of New York’s Community Change Studies program has partnerships with 26 organizing groups throughout the metropolitan area, and places students as interns and fellows with many of those groups. Recently, students and faculty at CUNY worked with and assisted an alliance of those groups in winning City Council support for reforms supporting their development of Community Land Trusts to slow gentrification.
Most CLP programs include a practicum or capstone project during which students work with others to make progress on a community issue. They devote substantial time to applying what they have learned from their coursework and field experience to a real life situation, and then reflect in depth on their experience. planning and completing a capstone project analyzing how an organization is addressing a community issue, and include interviews, other field research, and an assessment of lessons from the effort. This includes self-assessment by each student of their own skills, knowledge, and personal strengths and weaknesses as potential agents of positive change. All the syllabi in the Community-Based Action Research section include practical experience and skill-building for students.
The City University of New York’s Community Change Studies program has partnerships with 26 organizing groups throughout the metropolitan area, and places students as interns and fellows with many of those groups. Recently, students and faculty at CUNY worked with and assisted an alliance of those groups in winning City Council support for reforms supporting their development of Community Land Trusts to slow gentrification.
Most CLP programs include a practicum or capstone project during which students work with others to make progress on a community issue. They devote substantial time to applying what they have learned from their coursework and field experience to a real life situation, and then reflect in depth on their experience. planning and completing a capstone project analyzing how an organization is addressing a community issue, and include interviews, other field research, and an assessment of lessons from the effort. This includes self-assessment by each student of their own skills, knowledge, and personal strengths and weaknesses as potential agents of positive change. All the syllabi in the Community-Based Action Research section include practical experience and skill-building for students.
| California Youth Leadership Corps |
Resources for Program and Curricular Development
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Fortunately, there are many useful books and manuals which provide excellent exercises for providing students with practical experience in the classroom as well as through field work. Several of these are available on this website and others can be purchased through www.abebooks.com, Amazon, local bookstores, and elsewhere. CLP’s former Program Director Joan Minieri and Paul Getsos co-authored a particularly good book on Tools for Radical Democracy; and Minieri joined Jacqueline Mondros recently in authoring Organizing for Power and Empowerment. Scott Myers-Lipton has written a useful guide for university teachers looking for methods for providing experiential education on campus (Change: A Student Guide to Social Action). Veteran organizer Arnie Graf recently wrote Lessons Learned: Stories from a Lifetime of Organizing. See Resources section on this website.
This web-site provides direct access to excellent teaching materials which were prepared for CLP by Daniel HoSang of Yale University and Michael Brown, as well as a 70-page guide to teaching organizing by Marshall Ganz of Harvard’s Kennedy School. The site also provides a direct link to a terrific series of handbooks on teaching organizing by David Beckwith and Cristina Lopez. |
Examples of curricula:
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University of Michigan. Dearborn --Community Based Leadership Certificate
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CLP Certificate in Community Leadership -- Example
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L.A. Community Planning Program Overview
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navigate to other Core Subjects
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