HOW THE ORGANIZING PROCESS WORKS

The golden rule of organizing is to never do for others what they can do for themselves.

CLJ organizers support leaders in identifying, researching, and taking action on issues that impact them. This is concrete action. Below outlines the normal steps of an organizing campaign.

  1. Individual Meetings:  Individual meetings are the fundamental building blocks of organizing together.  It is an opportunity for two souls to connect face-to-face.
  2. House Meetings: 60-90 minute conversations with 7-9 people led by a leader.  This is an opportunity for people to deepen relationship, engage one another, and together imagine how to improve our neighborhood and city.  Effective house meetings are built around good storytelling: stories that illustrate people’s deepest concerns and stir us to action.
  3. Research & Cutting Issues:  Common issues that arise from the house meetings are then researched and cut into campaigns that are specific and resolvable.
  4. Action & Evaluation: We hold structured public actions where leaders and organizers confront decision makers capable of effecting desired change.

In August 2017 CAC launched its first organizing campaign at the request of residents. Since that time CAC and residents have won 8 campaigns.

  • Hartford residents forced out of apartments through no fault of their own changed the city’s relocation program and worked with Greater Hartford Legal Aid to a win a $2.75 Million settlement for displaced tenants.
  • Hartford Public Schools failed to provide bus transportation after games and practice for Weaver student athletes who were handed bus tokens and told to make their way home as late as 10pm at night. Parents WON bussing!
  • Parent leaders won a campaign to keep Martin Luther King Jr. School open in the North End. Today it is under renovation and slated to be a state of the art middle school!
  • The PTO at Thirman Milner School organized and won significant safety upgrades for the school and the surrounding streets including a gate that now prevents cars from driving through the playground during recess.
  • Milner School will be closing this year as part of the public school consolidation. Students were told they needed to walk to their new school. Parents organized and won bussing for ALL Milner students to their new schools.
  • No More Slumlords campaign was launched in 2017. To date resident leaders have won three relocation campaigns for 280 families in 40 buildings and brought national attention to the housing crisis.

The leaders from all of these campaigns have formed the North End Power Team. If a small group of leaders can accomplish all of this – in 3 years – imagine what we can do – 50 congregations AND the North End Power Team – working together.

  1.  Allen Chapel, AME, Hartford
  2.  Asylum Hill Congregational Church, UCC, Hartford
  3.  Beth El Temple, West Hartford
  4.  Beth Shalom B’nai Israel, Manchester
  5.  B’nai Tikvok-Sholom, Bloomfield
  6. Center Church, UCC, Hartford
  7. Christ the King Catholic Parish, Wethersfield
  8. Collaborative Center for Justice
  9. Concordia Lutheran Church, Manchester
  10. Congregation Beth Israel, West Hartford
  11. Congregational Church in South Glastonbury, UCC
  12. Congregational Church of Christ, Newington
  13. Emanuel Lutheran Church, Hartford
  14. Faith Congregational Church, Hartford
  15. Faith Lutheran Church of East Hartford
  16. Faith Seventh Day Adventist, Hartford
  17. First Church of Christ, UCC, Glastonbury
  18. First Church of Christ, UCC, Simsbury
  19. First Church of Christ, UCC, West Hartford
  20. Flagg Road, UCC, West Hartford
  21. Franciscan Center for Urban Ministry, Hartford
  22. Grace Lutheran Church, Hartford
  23. Hartford Friends Meeting, West Hartford
  24. Immanuel Congregational Church, UCC, Hartford
  25. Islamic Association of Greater Hartford, Berlin
  26. Jewish Community Relations Council
  27. Kehilat Chaverim
  28. Ministerio Nueva Creación, East Hartford
  29. Muslim Coalition of CT
  30. New Antioch Baptist, Hartford
  31. New Covenant United Methodist Church, East Hartford
  32. North End Power Team, Hartford
  33. North United Methodist, Hartford
  34. Office of the Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus, Archdiocese of Hartford
  35. Riverfront Family Church, Hartford
  36. Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Simsbury
  37. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Manchester
  38. St. Monica’s Episcopal Church, Hartford
  39. Temple Sinai, Newington
  40. Unitarian Society of Hartford
  41. Unitarian Universalist Society: East, Manchester
  42. Universalist Church of West Hartford
  43. Urban Hope Refuge, Hartford
  44. West Hartford United Methodist Church
  45. Westminster Presbyterian Church, West Hartford

Who pays our way? We will, largely through congregational dues. Otherwise the organization does not belong to us.

What kinds of issues will we work on? Together, we will create a vehicle to win on a variety of issues that arise from our everyday lives in our workplaces, neighborhoods, schools, healthcare, etc.

Is organizing political? Yes! Our faiths are inherently political. However, we will engage in the politics of issues and not office, meaning we will remain non-partisan.

Will organizing be confrontational? Yes, “confrontation” properly understood comes from its Latin roots meaning “face to face.” We seek to negotiate directly “face to face” with people and institutions of power.

Is organizing charity? No, organizing addresses the root causes of injustice that result in the need for charity.

How is mobilizing/activism different from organizing? Mobilizing is about bringing people together around set issues or causes. Organizing brings people together to discover what the issues and causes are.  Whereas mobilizing has a centralized hierarchy, organizing is focused on developing leaders who engage others.

Listen to CLJ Mentor Organizer, Pat Speer’s journey into organizing and the power of organizing to enliven faith communities.