Principles 16 страница

There are at least six essential elements to planning: (1) a commitment to do so; (2) time; (3) resources; (4) careful crafting of goals and objectives; (5) implementation and contingency planning; and (6) evaluation. Each of these elements brings with it a set of perspectives, rewards, challenges, and con-flicts that must be acknowledged and addressed for youth-led community organizing to succeed.

Murphy and Cunningham (2003, 154) highlight the importance of plan-ning in organizational and community development: ‘‘Both organizational planning and community planning require patience, flexibility, the ability to meld disparate interests and ideas, persistence, hope and a positive out-look, and confidence that the job can get done. Both are grounded in max-imum resident participation producing locally grown and rooted plans. ’’ The authors’ named qualities inherent in planning apply also to community organizing, whether youth led or adult led. Also, these qualities bare strik-ing similarities to the qualities of youth-led leadership that were identified in chapter 6.

It should be noted that, for youth-led community organizing, the im-portance of planning is not restricted to social-action campaigns; it also is necessary for strategic organizational planning. However, youth organizers may not be familiar with a strategic planning process and the organizational development terminology can be confusing and intimidating. Young peo-ple, as a result, can benefit from coaching or consultation from adults (Young Wisdom Project 2004), but they must have a central role in carrying out this type of planning.

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5. Leadership Development as a Central Feature

Chapter 7 is devoted to leadership development while much of chapter 6 examines the roles for and recruitment of leader-organizers; this cover-age indicates the importance of this concept in the youth-led organizing field. Indeed, as previously noted, both the youth development and overall youth-led fields give leadership development the highest priority. In both of these instances, however, the focus is on development of personal com-petencies and individual skills. Gambone and colleagues (2004) found that, when compared to youth development organizations, youth organizing agencies are characterized by youth having more meaningful experiences with leadership, decision making, and community involvement.

Youth-led organizing additionally places young people in decision-making roles, as noted in the previous crosscutting theme. However, it also requires that they develop other abilities and skills that enable them to function effectively in multiple leader and staff roles in a collective con-text, as discussed in chapters 6 and 7 (e. g., recruitment, facilitating meetings, problem solving, action research, strategic planning, direct action tactics, public speaking, negotiating, internal conflict resolution, team building, media relations, lobbying, advocacy, administration, management, evalu-ation).

It also entails development of critical thinking skills, as examined in multiple chapters of this book, as well as learning from veteran leaders and others who provide mentoring and role modeling. In fact, in the youth-led organizing field, consciousness raising to understand the causes and con-sequences of oppression often is given equal weight to skill development. And this political awareness is linked to collective action as a way to alter existing power relationships in pursuit of a social and economic justice agenda.

The fact that youth leaders age out at a rapid rate necessitates ongoing processes to develop replacement leadership without loss of organizational momentum and continuity. While qualities and characteristics such as pa-tience, open-mindedness, interactive skills, commitment to social justice, questioning of the status quo, willingness to take risks, and ability to work with adult allies may be more or less present in some individuals before they become involved in a youth-led organizing project, these attributes can be developed and sharpened through training, direct experience, mentor-ing, coaching, consultation, technical assistance, observation, readings, films, street theater, conferences, role playing, and other methods and techniques. And the predominant democratic, inclusive ethos in youth-led organizing (Transformative Leadership 2004) is consistent with the notion that there are multiple forms of (and needs for) leadership that transcend any one par-ticular function, personality, or skill set (Staples 2004a).

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6. Learning

Emphasis on the opportunities to learn is a crosscutting theme not restricted to youth-led community organizing, and it should be an integral part of any social intervention, organizing or otherwise. Learning can be achieved in nu-merous innovative and participatory ways. Youth-led community organizing has managed to use many forms of informal education during the process of bringing about social change, and in a manner that is affirming, relevant, and fun. Social action campaigns, after all, are not just about bringing about change at the community and macro level; they also transform the lives of the individuals who participate. That is, young activists have profound learning experiences when they engage in social-action campaigns that challenge ex-isting patterns of institutional power relationships.

It is essential never to lose sight of how important youth learning is dur-ing any process that emphasizes achieving goals for social change (Beyond Base 2004, 2):

To do so, youth learn to hone their analytical skills through political ed-ucation and analysis, research, reflection and evaluation. With the sup-port of adult allies, they also develop skills through the overall develop-ment and functioning of organizations—making decisions, fundraising, facilitating meetings, recruiting members and other tasks to strengthen the institution. This experience trains young organizers to think critically, be unafraid to ask hard questions, and most importantly, apply these skills to achieve palpable change. One young person said he learned to be critical and analytical, but ‘‘not just to be critical, but to be critical so that we could do something about it. ’’

The problem-solving skills that youth acquire in their organizing roles will serve them well later on. Furthermore, knowledge acquired regard-ing communication, relationship building, exercising power, and history can be of great use in academic pursuits. In short, young people learn a great deal about themselves that will become a basis for future decisions and actions. Unfortunately, the subject of learning has acquired a negative connotation for many marginalized youth in this country, and mere men-tion of the word can be off-putting for some. Nevertheless, learning must play an instrumentally explicit and implicit role in youth-led community organizing.

Finally, any initiative that places youth in leadership positions must take into account the time and resources needed to facilitate learning and re-flection (Gambone et al. 2004). Gambone and colleagues cite the tension that is inevitable when goals for social change conflict with those for individual growth. Both are important for youth-led organizers, and attempting to balance the two is not easy. Youth leadership requires an even greater ex-penditure of time and resources; however, the long-term benefits make this expenditure of resources worthwhile.

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7. Importance of Fun

What does fun have to do with social change? After all, social change is about addressing issues of oppression and their associated pain. However, to relegate fun to the margins of youth-led community organizing would be a serious mistake, for both the young participants and the sponsors of this form of social intervention. Fun-related activities and a fun-filled atmosphere contribute the balance youth organizers need in their lives. Fun easily can be equated with edginess and being cool (W. K. Kellogg Foundation 2000). These labels can go far in helping organizations recruit young people and attract badly needed funding.

McLaughlin (1993, 66) addresses this need for balance, also noting the important role adults play in this quest. ‘‘Enabling inner-city youth to find balance in their lives comes down to enabling trust in and positive involve-ment with adults. Leaders with fire in their belly are an ingredient essential in constructing the environments in which such trust can be nurtured and sustained. ’’ Adult organizers who have managed to keep that ‘‘fire in their belly’’ while balancing fun, learning, and personal and familial relationships are excellent direct and indirect role models for young activists, who oth-erwise might lose their sense of proportion and equilibrium. The Young Wisdom Project (2004) also identified the need for self-care and balance in the lives of youth organizers because young people face multiple life-defining issues and are making important decisions about their lives. It’s not considered extraordinary for organizations to include self-care packages in their benefits for employees, including counseling, life planning support, alternative health care and massage, among other offerings.

There is universal acknowledgment in the youth-led/youth develop-ment literature that activities must provide meaning, learning, and fun in order to attract and engage young people (Delgado 2000). Cultural activities also can be a way to introduce fun into youth organizing while infusing important content. For instance, young people can express their ideas and frustrations in a ‘‘cultural space’’ that otherwise has brought them to the table in a more overtly political way (Weiss 2003).

It is possible to learn, produce results, and have an enjoyable time in the process. This multifaceted approach does not take away from the impor-tance and seriousness of the work of achieving social and economic justice. No job will prove rewarding if it has no element of fun—and this obser-vation takes on even greater significance when youth are involved. The manner in which fun is introduced and sustained can vary, of course, ac-cording to the methods and styles of the organizations involved. Never-theless, the high stakes and emotionally charged nature of social-action campaigns require that organizers have a sense of humor and a broad per-spective; they must be willing and able to laugh and enjoy the moment whenever possible.

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8. Funding of Projects

As noted throughout this book, funding for youth-led community orga-nizing projects is a crosscutting issue and a perpetual challenge, although this field of youth practice slowly is taking center stage, with many funding sources (Quiroz-Martinez, HoSang, and Villarosa 2004; Scheie 2003; W. K. Kellogg Foundation 2000). In fact, it is rare not to have the subject of funding addressed as a major challenge and recommendation in the field, as evi-denced in the countless research studies cited in this book.

Lack of adequate funding for youth-led community organizing has far reaching implications for both individual programs and the field in gen-eral, including (1) chronic staff shortages; (2) inability to take advantage of the latest technology; (3) missed opportunities to learn from other youth programs; and (4) short funding cycles (one to two years), combined with increased expectations on producing measurable changes (W. K. Kellogg Foundation 2000). These and the other challenges discussed below effec-tively limit the potential of this field to make the advances that normally would be expected of such a dynamic and ever expanding field of practice.

The Young Wisdom Project (2004) comments on the difficulties that are unique to fund-raising for youth organizing, since many young people do not have fund-raising experiences, and potential donors may be skeptical and mistrustful of young people’s managing money. In addition, youth need to understand what a fund-raising cycle is, what relationship development with funders is, how to develop a fund-raising plan, and the importance of employing different fund-raising strategies. Sources of funds for social in-terventions that challenge the established sociopolitical order as a central goal often are limited. Not surprisingly, government—a prime sponsor of youth programs—often is not a viable source of funds for youth-led com-munity organizing. Furthermore, youth-led organizing programs can re-quire more funding than conventional youth-orientated organizations be-cause of their emphasis on learning and leadership development. Gambone and colleagues (2004) found that youth organizing groups often have a low staff-to-youth ratio. This ratio facilitates intensive staff work with a relatively small cohort of youth, also making youth organizing programs less com-petitive than conventional youth programs and more expensive to fund.

Sherman (2002, 27), in a rare in-depth analysis of funding challenges en-countered by youth who lead community organizing campaigns, identified five funding practices that undermine these activist endeavors and must be systematically addressed by organizations that sponsor youth-led organizing:

1. Issuing specific funding as opposed to multi-issue, multifaceted funding.

2. [Showing a]n obsession with nonpolitical, bipartisan, ‘beyond ideol-ogy’ approaches to social change.

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3. Failing to provide general support grants that allow for the building of organizational infrastructure as opposed to short-term projects and programs.

4. Failing to provide multiyear grants that allow for planning and pro-gram development; and

5. [Sponsoring] too many under-funded grass-roots nonprofits discon-nected from one another and from a national political agenda.

Sherman’s (2002) insightful assessment raises important theoretical, phil-osophical, and operational issues for the field of youth-led community or-ganizing. When youth-led organizing initiatives totally or almost entirely depend on one funding source, invariably there are concerns about whether and how the funder might pressure organizers to tone down content strat-egies in favor of educational campaigns and collaborative efforts. Funding never is given without strings (Staples 2004a). The question is whether those strings are huge, like tugboat rope, or so small that they can be seen only in the right light, much as a spider’s web.

The Applied Research Center (Weiss 2003) found that foundations are much more interested in funding youth development programs that em-phasize individual-focused goals that do not challenge institutions or at-tempt to redress the balance of power, yet, of course, collective action to alter existing power relationships goes to the heart of youth-led community organizing initiatives. This finding substantiates those of Sherman (2002) and underscores the importance of securing financial resources for social and economic justice campaigns through creative funding initiatives that ensure the independence of these projects. In the late 1990s, no youth-led community organizing campaign in the country had an operating budget of more than $400, 000, while at the same time many youth-development pro-grams were working with multimillion dollar budgets (Youth Organizing 1998). One report identified this issue back in the late 1990s, and it persists today, although not to the same extent.

Even when a foundation is receptive to supporting a youth-led com-munity organizing campaign, there still may be bias toward funding youth development because of the impressive numbers of young people who can be involved in the latter programs. Furthermore, in situations where youth are in leadership positions within the organizations, foundations may raise concerns about those organizations’ ability to sustain that leadership (Youth Organizing 1998). Consequently, what is a central mission and goal in youth-led organizing becomes a limitation from the perspective of many funders. Organizations that sponsor youth-led campaigns often are left scrambling to find creative ways of minimizing these biases.

Funding resources that emphasize family (see next section) may be an innovative source of support for youth-led community organizing, as re-ported by Scheie (2003, 27):

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A final area where Hazen might find allies is among funders of family concerns—particularly since Hazen finds ways to highlight how parents and other family elders contribute to youth development and engage-ment, and how youth organizing contributes to stronger families and more family-friendly communities. (Research shows that parents’ values of social responsibility play an important role in whether young people participate in community affairs, for example. ) Families are an issue re-ceiving broad, mainstream support; if Hazen could influence even a small percentage of that field to support youth (or intergenerational) organiz-ing, the influx of resources to youth organizing could be quite large.

Sherwood and Dressner (2004), in their study of fourteen youth orga-nizing groups, reported on the potential of AmeriCorps volunteers to be-come involved in youth-led organizing initiatives. However, this program is not intended to support political organizing, thereby limiting how these volunteers can be deployed to youth-led organizing initiatives. Organiza-tions from the broader community can assist youth-led organizing groups by providing supplies, transportation, space, volunteers, and other in-kind donations; and the process of obtaining such contributions is an impor-tant way for youth-led programs to maintain a community base of sup-port. However, this source of funding is unpredictable and labor-intensive, making it difficult to plan major social-change initiatives when youth-led organizing depends on whether these resources can be acquired.

YouthAction (1998) specifically recommends that grants be given di-rectly to community organizations undertaking youth-led community or-ganizing, without the need to go through typical channels or intermediary organizations. Youth-development focused organizations often are in an advantageous position when compared to those groups that sponsor youth-led organizing because of the former’s track record of obtaining funding from foundations and other sources. For example, employing grant devel-opment directors is a luxury that few youth-led organizing sponsors can afford, while such positions may exist in many youth-development-oriented organizations (Weiss 2003). Thus, it is essential that funders take into account the specific challenges facing youth-led community organizing when comparing it to more conventional youth-development and youth-led initiatives.

Diversification of funding sources is a necessity in this field, particularly when compared to youth development. Grassroots fund-raising can gener-ate money through sponsorship of a wide range of community-based events and activities, such as concerts and dances, car washes, local business do-nations, raffles, talent shows, theatrical productions, bike rides, road races, sponsored walks, individual donors/sponsors, art exhibitions, conferences, a speakers bureau, consultation with other organizations, and membership dues recruitment drives (Weiss 2003; Staples 2004a). A dues system can use a sliding fee scale that takes into account the ability of members to afford the costs, with some expected to pay as little as 25 cents per week or month. This

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money is symbolic and will not generate sizable organizational income; however, the value of such symbolism should not be minimized in any effort to achieve greater social and economic justice. When members com-mit to paying regular dues, they generally have a greater sense of ownership and make a bigger investment in the organizational mission.

9. Family as a Facilitating and Hindering Force

There are countless factors that can be considered facilitating or hinder-ing forces when discussing youth-led community organizing, and the family systems in which youth organizers have been raised and continue to develop certainly are among the most influential variables (Charles 2005; Scheie 2003). The subject of family is one that generally is not encountered in adult-led community organizing unless it is central to the issue being addressed. Yet whether and how family either facilitates or hinders the participation of young activists is a critical matter in youth-led community organizing.

This important topic is only now starting to get the attention and rec-ognition that it deserves in the literature. Indeed, most acknowledgment of and information about family systems as a contextual factor in youth or-ganizing initiatives have been furnished by reports from the field rather than through scholarship. Family, incidentally, plays a critical role in youth-development programming as well, particularly in the case of refugee and immigrant youth from backgrounds where parents wield tremendous in-fluence on whether their daughters and sons participate in outside-of-school activities (Delgado, Jones, and Rohani 2005).

Recruitment of young people for community organizing projects can involve reaching out to parents and working through those who have his-tories of social action. Parents who have had positive experiences in these collective efforts usually make the process of recruitment much easier. The following case examples illustrate two of the many ways in which an in-tergenerational organizing experience may occur (Baxter and Crockett 2002):

1. Lisa Rodrigues, age 17. ‘‘Lisa got involved with the Chicago Youth Council when her mother brought her along to a rally. ‘I was really loud and everyone was like wow, you should come join the group, ’ Lisa said. So she did’’ (1–2).

2. Ales Boykins, age 19. ‘‘Ales Boykins. . . was first exposed to activ-ism in 1997 by her mother, who was involved with a program within the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN)’’ (93).

For young people, the role of the family is of central importance because they need permission to become part of any school or after-school program. Family issues and concerns can motivate youth to undertake an organizing agenda (Cervone 2002, 93):

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Of course, the causes that attract the passions of the Bay Area’s young organizers carry their own fuel. ‘‘The issues kids care about most, ’’ says Rachel Jackson of Books Not Bars, ‘‘are the ones that hit them and their friends and family the hardest. Just about every young person involved in Books Not Bars knows someone who’s been affected adversely by the (in) justice system and found themselves on the ‘‘prison track’’ in school and unable to get off. ’’ Explains a youth with OLIN, ‘‘the reason we’ve had as many as a thousand youth come to our events is that our push for ethnic studies hits home with thousands of students who can’t find their race or language anywhere in the curriculum. ’’

When families are involved in social-change campaigns or young people witness injustices, particularly relating to their parents or other loved ones, such experiences serve to bring a family focus to organizing campaigns. Two more case examples follow, highlighting the importance of family in helping to motivate offspring to engage in organizing.

1. Genevieve Gonzalez, a youth organizer with the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL), Oakland, California. ‘‘I grew up in Chula Vista, California, near the Mexican border. I was in high school during the time when border enforcement and a lot of anti-immigrant legislation were happening, and I saw a lot of blatant racism against my community. My mom was born in Tijuana and my dad was born in the United States, and I remember one time when we were returning from visiting family in Mexico, the border patrol harassed my dad in front of all of us—you know, asked him how he learned how to speak English so good and to prove he was a U. S. citizen. I was so pissed off! I think that is when I really got interested with trying to change things’’ (Ginwright 2003, 10).

2. Murashige (2001, 16), also based in California, illustrates a way that youth can get motivated by social and economic injustices per-petrated on their family: ‘‘We were involved in youth issues, Prop 21. Basically our stuff was oriented toward getting youth to have a voice and speak out for themselves, not to have to worry about being ashamed of what they have to say, what they feel, and our message was to get that across. Don’t be afraid that if you see something wrong, don’t just hide it, but be positive and have a voice and an opinion. . . The fact is that we are all about what happened and it affects us when we get older and then it affects our little brothers and sisters when they grow up older, and they ba-sically go through the same things. ’’

Pittman (2002) highlights the importance of collective responsibility when reviewing the comparative research literature on adolescent views of social activism, particularly as it relates to their families and school. As noted early in this book, young people who had witnessed the injustices carried out in the South frequently participated with their parents in the civil rights

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movement in the 1950s. Youth are also committed to serving their commu-nities, preserving the environment, and assisting those with great financial and social needs.

Finally, Martinez (1996, 30) brings another dimension to family and youth organizing by stressing the need for young people to be able to join with parents and others in position of authority:

Although it began as yet another defensive action, the campaign taught several valuable lessons. A crucial one: the value of youth working closely with parents and teachers in their communities, projecting not only op-position to the curfew but also the need for resources like a youth cafe´ or center. Older people came to recognize that the people most affected by a problem—in this case, youth—can be in leadership solving it.

Martinez goes on to take note of young Latino youth activists:

The second striking fact is Latino youth’s basic grasp of ‘‘the system. ’’ They can break down ruling-class deceptions and double-talk articulately, brilliantly. Even junior high or elementary school students can take your breath away. Like other activist youth they express a profound cynicism about the government, electoral politics, and official institutions, espe-cially as regards racism. Possible reasons for this are having movimiento veterans as parents or older siblings, and the presence of universities with a tradition of activist struggle. (1996, 30)

However, family also can be a hindering force in a number of different ways, including the following:

1. Time and scheduling considerations can influence when young people will have time to organize, especially when parents may be working more than one fulltime job.

2. Negative experiences of parents who have been involved in past social change efforts, such as newcomers who have left countries with a history of dictatorships and oppression, can lead to fears of retribution and reluctance to risk the ‘‘safety’’ of their children.

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