ABSTRACT
Community organizing may involve not only individuals, but also organizations and networks mobilized to reach a common goal. This chapter discusses the types of strategies that are employed for effecting particular kinds of change. It considers some of the cross-cutting issues and challenges that face the majority of community capacity-building initiatives with an organizing component. Initiatives must identify stakeholders who are ready and willing to translate their commitment to the neighborhood into participation in a capacity-building effort. The chapter highlights several particularly pressing issues because of their bearing on the broader effort to create community capacity. These include outreach and communication activities aimed at the target population, the representation and diversity of the neighborhoods where these people live, and sustaining the involvement of residents from these neighborhoods. The chapter identifies three strategic choices: that between conflict or consensus, between a focus on single or multiple issues, and between direct-recruitment or organization-based mobilization.
