APPLY: In community organizing, this model is best used in situations where problems exist within a small community where goals identified are to be accomplished through the use of official, bureaucratic channels and citizen interactions. For example in addressing neighborhood crime, a civic model would first create a forum where neighbors could meet and exchange information about the problem. They would then connect with existing channels of government to create a plan of action.
ADAPT: An example of civic community organizing are neighborhood crime watch groups and neighborhood associations.
Smock, Kristina. (2004). Democracy in action: Community organizing and urban change. New York: Columbia University Press.
Apply: This model is the theory of community organizing that ROC-MI is rooted in. ROC-MI (the restaurant opportunities center) is where my current field placement is, and there are member based policy meetings held bi-monthly. These public policy meetings are a space for members to gather together and voice major concerns that they all desire to address within the community and on a policy level. For example, one concern that was mentioned at the last meeting was racial discrimination in the work place. Another concern was raising the minimum wage. When a collective concern is identified, these meetings are used as spaces where the members collectively decide on a plan on action on a political level. This model of community organizing allows for individuals to unite and have their voices heard as a result.
ReplyDeleteAdapt: This model could be adapted in any setting. It is a way for individuals to rally together to identify a collective issue, and then think of ways to bring that to a political level, to create change on a systemic level. I am specifically thinking of education. Parents or students could gather in a community to discuss issues surrounding the educational system in the community. A major issue could then be identified and through collective brainstorming, steps could be formed that the community will take on a political level. Change can happen when people come together.