10 Community Organizing Tips
So you want to organize something awesome in your community? When you get started there are a few things that to prepare for! I want you to feel ready to repeat your objectives to others, invite helpers into your work, learn about systems, overcome obstacles and celebrate the victories when they come. If you are just getting started and working with people who have little experience - you must be gentle with yourself and expect that you will fall down at times. The most important part becomes that you always get up.
Whether it’s asking volunteers to give freely of their time to plan something, or you are trying to get people off of their screens and onto the streets for a community event - these tips should help you when you are organizing and you encounter the inevitable challenges that come with it. Before we get started, write your goals down, write your plan down, and practice saying it out loud to yourself so you can communicate it to others with confidence. When you begin taking steps, it might be going well at first, but realize this: there will be obstacles.
When you get to these difficulties, consider these tips:
Ask for exceptions: talk to the human being responsible for your barrier, and ask them why that barrier is there. Once you understand, explain to them what you would like to do, how it would benefit the community and how it would benefit the system. Find out what the system’s goals are, look at our goals and when they overlap, emphasize those connections.
believe in yourself and your idea: when it feels like you are running into a wall, I want you take a step back and evaluate your situation. repeat a few affirmations for yourself, and remind yourself how courageous you are for taking these first hard steps and making the first necessary mistakes. Remind yourself how needed your idea is and when you are ready to carry on, carry on!
build a diverse team: please don’t try to organize large community projects, campaigns or initiatives by yourself. It is an undertaking and the more heavy the topic, the more difficult and complicated the organizing and related systems seem to be. You have to be real with the things you know and don’t know and seek out individuals who have skill sets that are different or complimentary to yours. It’s a good thing if you are not the smartest person in the room, because it means you have a smart team.
be replaceable: have you ever gotten sick? had to cancel something at the last minute? Had to deal with a tragedy instead of your community commitment? Make sure that as you organize things, you are sharing information and processes with your team. Make sure that you are preparing multiple people for every role and explain to folks that we are all going to inevitably slip and fall and we have to support each other as a team and replace each other to achieve our goals.
rotational leadership: have you ever seen the way the geese fly? the way the geese leading changes through the entire team is exactly how you should think about leadership in your team. Let everyone have a chance to fill the many roles, especially the role of team or project leader.
structure must be clear and consistent: if you are going to prioritize particular voices or populations to have more influence or control in the movement - you should be direct with it up front. For example a youth movement should have youth leading, Indigenous movements should have Indigenous people leading etc. There should also be clear entry and exit strategies when people are ready to come or go.
teaching and mentoring is constant: there is no sitting in a classroom when we are doing grassroots organizing. we learn as we go and we teach others as we go. Be real with your team when you make mistakes or don’t know things and take them on journeys to meet people, learn things or grow together. This allows the capacity of the team to be enriched as you grow your own network and skills as a helper too.
value every team member: sometimes when you start something only you will show up. Value yourself because today there was one more person trying to help than yesterday. Try again and this time focus on trying to bring one person there, even if you have to go and get them and take them to the opportunity yourself. Then you value that person. Then they do that to one person the next time, and so on and so on.
have a humorous/relaxed approach: Why so serious? I mean, you may be organizing around a serious topic but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring light and laughter into the things you do. remember how we do things is just as important as what we do, so be kind to your helpers, laugh off the little things and allow yourself to be realized when things go sideways. They will become right again if you and your team persevere.
be flexible: Someone didn’t show up when they said they would? You’re locked out of your building? That’s okay we are flexible! Ask someone who is in attendance to fill in, have your event outside, be creative! When you are disappointed with an outcome, be flexible and be positive. Remember your goals, good thing you wrote it down! It is okay to change the original plan. Then you can take a look at the good things that are happening in this new moment and be grateful for them.
So there you have it! 10 tips to try and help you overcome the difficulties that come with organizing community projects.
Stay safe and stay awesome!
