ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the North American model of Community Organising. The model provides examples of how to organise communities on a large scale in order to achieve significant gains for communities. We look at how:
Community organising is about individuals and local communities taking responsibility for, and solving, local issues
Success is achieved through building powerful autonomous local organisations
Success leads to more members, a stronger organisation, which in turn leads to more success and more members…
Community organisations need to be prepared to fight vigorous campaigns to achieve their goals. However, most campaigns lead to negotiation and compromise
One of the main community organising models is the IAF, which builds coalitions of organisations to maximise local power
Another model is ACORN where individuals are recruited to build a new local organisation
Identifying local leaders and building leadership capacity is central to successful community organising
Community organising, in its various forms, has proved to be an effective way of organising large numbers of people to achieve effective reforms and improvements to local communities.
