Grow Grassroots Skills

Grassroots organizing skills are essential when working in "influence without authority" situations. The obvious situation is when you are an "outsider looking in" seeking to influence an agenda that effects you, your family, friends, and neighborhood. But you need these skills, too, to be effective when self-organizing among a group of peers. Just because there is no "boss" does not mean that there cannot be effective leadership. Rebuild and Grow offers grassroots leadership training and mentoring to any community member or group seeking to contribute to the rebuilding and growth of Cedar Rapids.

Grassroots Organizing – Identify Your People Networks

August 19, 2008 - 1:51am — Timlynn Babitsky

In Phase One of our Grassroots Organizing process you did your homework on The Big Picture of your issue area and selected a specific agenda on which to work. Understanding the Big Picture of your issue is crucial to grassroots organizing but so is doing your homework on the People related to your issue area. In Phase Two you identify The People Networks related to the agenda you just selected and dig in deeply to assess your network resources and support.

Grassroots Organizing - Map Your Issue Space

August 15, 2008 - 5:41am — Timlynn Babitsky

Now that you have done your homework and researched The Big Picture surrounding your issue, it is time to Map the Issue Space. Mapping the issue space helps you to find a course of action - your agenda - with goals you can measure and success you can track. This is a real brainstorming event, and it gets to be a lot of fun.

Broadmoor's Insight: The Bottom-up Neighborhood Approach

August 13, 2008 - 8:38pm — Jim Salmons

It is no accident that Sohodojo is a sponsor and program administrator for Rebuild And Grow. Sohodojo has a long-standing mission to envision and support innovative networks of microenterprise and small business networks in rural and distressed urban communities. These networks are, by definition and design, decentralized and distributed. So Timlynn and I were excited to see this insight and strong recommendation cited in the Introduction of The Broadmoor Guide to Community-Driven Recovery...

Grow Grassroots Skills

Broadmoor Guide to Community-Driven Recovery

August 13, 2008 - 8:10pm — Lynette Richards

Best Practice Recommendation – The title of this 124-page document says it all: The Broadmoor Community Planning and Implementation Process: A Guide to Community-Driven Recovery. This document is a shining best practices example of 'how' the grassroots-organized neighbors of the Broadmoor community of New Orleans are rebuilding their neighborhoods to be even better than before Katrina changed their lives forever.

Login to post comments
Read more
1 attachment

Grassroots Organizing - Do Your Homework

August 10, 2008 - 12:31pm — Timlynn Babitsky

Tunnel vision is a real hazard of grassroots organizing. When you are passionate about an issue or focused on a specific agenda, your view of every thing else around it can get mighty cloudy. You might hear what you want to hear, see what you want to see and put on blinders to any competing information. The problem is that YOU may not see/hear alternative viewpoints, but others in your community will not be so blind or deaf. And, your credibility can be gained or lost forever if you are not well prepared with real information.

Beacon of Hope Mentoring Experience Report

August 10, 2008 - 5:44am — Mike Richards

Lynette and I are about to wrap up our extraordinary week here in New Orleans. We're completing an intensive training/mentoring experience organized for us by the good folks who created and run the Beacon of Hope Resource Centers. Although many of these wonderful people we've met this week were unknown to us just days ago, we can't help but feel comfortable among our new friends.

Our Training/Mentoring Schedule at Beacon of Hope

August 5, 2008 - 8:16pm — Mike Richards

UPDATE: To learn more about our mentors and what we did while in New Orleans, please read my mentoring experience report.

On our first day with the folks at Beacon of Hope Resource Centers has already convinced us more than ever that we are in good hands for our crash course in neighborhood disaster recovery.

Grassroots Organizing - Choose Your Issue

August 5, 2008 - 7:21am — Timlynn Babitsky

Activists will be most successful if they work on an issue that passionately excites them because there will always be frustration and unexpected setbacks. If individuals do not care passionately about what they are involved in, it will be much too easy to give up and walk away.

Mike and Lynette Visit New Orleans' Beacon of Hope!

August 5, 2008 - 7:04am — Mike Richards

This morning Lynette and I left Cedar Rapids for the Big Easy! New Orleans and Cedar Rapids now have a connection that transcends so many other experiences. The Katrina Disaster and our Great Flood of 2008 have wrecked natural disaster on both our beloved cities. Now, like the good folks who founded and operate the Beacon of Hope Resource Centers, we have to be vigilant and engaged to make sure that we don't follow a natural disaster with a man-made one.

Grassroots Organizing - Identify Issues

August 3, 2008 - 6:06am — Timlynn Babitsky

In Phase One of the Influence without Authority (IWA) grassroots organizing process, you go through 4 steps to help you choose and define an issue on which to work. Choosing the right issue on which to work is often the most difficult part of the IWA Win-Win Process. It is also the most critical. Focusing on the wrong issue, or on the right issue at the wrong time, can waste precious energy and resources. Worse, it can discourage volunteers, or undermine the credibility and reputation of an advocate or an advocacy group.