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WORKSHOP:
ENGAGEMENT
Organizing for Success
Premise: The work of building
community — of achieving
lasting personal commitments
to neighborhood action —
begins with old-fashioned organizing,
sophisticated relationship-building and a
diverse, big-tent approach.
KEY TAKE-AWAY:
PATIENT LISTENING MAY BE THE
MOST POWERFUL TOOL IN ANY
ORGANIZER’S TOOLKIT.
Panelist David McDowell of the
Southwest Organizing Project
explained how Greater Southwest
began its quality-of-life planning
process by identifying 100 community
leaders — people who had followers
and/or systemic influence — and then
interviewing them at their homes or
offices about strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats they saw in
the neighborhood. They then analyzed
and grouped the responses and invited
the leaders to an event to discuss the
findings.
Because they had connected with
leaders who had strong networks, more
people came than the room could hold.
Instead of telling people what the lead
organizations thought the responses
showed, they asked attendees what
they thought the findings meant, and a
lively discussion ensued. This
preparation brought an engaged and
energized group of residents to the
subsequent kickoff of the quality-of-life
planning process.
Explaining how Greater Southwest
used planning not so much to draw up
its plan as to draw in leaders and
potential leaders from all over the
neighborhood:
“ Never in this process did we tell
people we were doing a planning
process.”
DAVID MCDOWELL
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