By DUANE M. ELLING
Career pathways are not always cut-and-dry. Just ask Jeff Modzelewski.
Raised in an upper-middle class home in suburban Cleveland, he graduated from high school in 1998 and enrolled at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, intending to study computer science.
But frequent bus rides through a poor neighborhood just outside campus prompted him to revaluate his priorities and plans.
Modzelewski, now 29 years old and a married father-of-one, recalls that the bleak landscape of rundown homes, boarded-up businesses and deep-seated poverty “opened my eyes to a world where human need and social injustice are an everyday reality.”
Jeff Modzelewski |
He turned his educational focus to political science and, after earning his degree, began looking for opportunities to help spark community change.
In 2006, after holding a brief succession of “pretty unsatisfying” jobs, Modzelewski learned about the Organizers Institute, a training and development program for community organizers.
“I wasn’t really familiar with the field or what it took to be an organizer,” he says. “But something told me that I’d found a way to have a real impact on the world.”
The Institute is a product of the Miami-based
Direct Action Research and Training (DART) Center, a network of grassroots, congregation-based community organizations in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.
The Mott Foundation has made
$830,000 in grants since 2002 to DART for the Institute.
The idea for the Institute emerged in 1999 when Ben MacConnell, while working for a DART affiliate, realized that practiced organizers were in both high demand and short supply.
“I’d met a lot of people who were interested in the field, but few had any experience,” says MacConnell, who is now DART’s recruitment director. “At the same time, groups were looking for veteran organizers who could hit the ground running.”
“It dawned on me that we had an opportunity to help passionate people become organizers and at the same time build a pipeline of talent that would meet the field’s needs. Those goals formed the basis for the Institute.”
The program, formally launched in 2001, is highlighted by a rigorous recruiting and interviewing process. MacConnell notes that DART staff “spend eight months scouring the country, looking for people who have the passion and potential to be good organizers.” Of the roughly 700 applications received, 20 are selected for each year’s class.
Those students begin their four-month curriculum with a week of intensive coursework on the fundamentals of organizing. Topics include listening to and communicating with others; building trust and relationships; strengthening grassroots networks; and mobilizing people to engage decision makers on key issues and concerns.
Students are then matched with a DART member organization, where they engage in 15 weeks of field training and skill development. Each conducts specialized workshops and one-on-one and group discussions with area leaders and residents about local problems. And they help the communities explore possible solutions and implement action plans.
Graduates receive help with job placement; continuing education and training; and ongoing support and mentoring. Costs associated with students’ participation in the Institute are paid for by DART.
This encompassing approach is key to producing skilled and successful organizers, says MacConnell. The Institute has 118 graduates, including Modzelewski.
The former computer science major, after completing his core training, performed his field placement at
Building Responsibility, Equity, and Dignity (BREAD), a Columbus-based social justice organization comprised of over 50 area church congregations.
Upon graduating from the Institute in 2006, Modzelewski accepted a full-time position at BREAD as an associate organizer and quickly put his training and experience to use.
He helped the organization and its partners launch in early 2007 a statewide campaign to change predatory practices by some cash advance and “payday” lending companies in Ohio.
The business model is common across the country and typically allows individuals to borrow small, short-term loans against anticipated earnings from employment or government benefits, such as Social Security or disability payments.
Consumer advocates note that many low- and fixed-income borrowers often find themselves renewing the loans over and over again, eventually facing annual interest charges and fees that can easily top 400 percent.
After months of active campaigning by BREAD and its partners, policymakers in Ohio voted in May 2008 to cap the annual interest rate allowed by that state’s payday lending programs at 28 percent.
John Aeschbury, BREAD’s lead organizer, notes that if it weren’t for Modzelewski’s efforts, “the campaign would not have gotten off the ground, out of the gate as quickly or with as much momentum as it did.”
Building the pool of such skilled and enthusiastic organizers, says Aeschbury, offers significant hope for the field and the country.
“The Institute is clarifying the standards of organizing and of individual organizers. It’s raising the bar for our abilities and production, both of which are very important to the capacity of local communities to address serious problems.”
And Modzelewski is confident that, with the Institute’s help, his own career path is going in the right direction.
“I would not have been prepared to do this work, to be the type of community leader that I believe that I am becoming, without the Institute,” he says. “The experience is something you can take to the bank.”