Helping people and communities develop the tools to shape their own futures has long been a focus of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The following edited transcript is from one of seven videos by Mott in which those working in the field of community organizing reflect on the lessons, opportunities and challenges for creating lasting social change.
Question: What role does organizing play in democracy?
Dee Washington
Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods
Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Organizing matters to democracy because it’s participatory, it’s about being involved. As citizens, people and residents, democracy doesn’t operate without us. And if democracy doesn’t operate without us, then what is a vehicle or mechanism by which we participate in that democracy? That vehicle is organizing. We have to talk and collaborate amongst ourselves, and think and brainstorm and be creative about how we want to live collectively. That’s what makes organizing part of democracy and why it‘s important to democracy, because if no one participates, then what is democracy? It’s just a really good plan.
Milan Kajo Zboril
Center for Community Organizing
Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
Democracy is a gift for us, but not one that we just receive, put somewhere and think that everything will be okay. I see it as a gift that we have to maintain and take care of. And I think that organizing matters because it’s a way that ordinary people can be involved. It is also a way for us to understand what democracy is, that it’s not just voting in elections every four years, but also holding our representatives accountable. It’s a way for us to understand our civic responsibility, for us to be part of the public arena and part of the process to build our society, our communities and make them better. It isn’t about fighting between politicians and citizens, but about cooperation. And if we want that cooperation, then we have to be involved. It is time for us to do something, not just wait.
Rowena Pineda
Spokane, Washington
Formerly with the Idaho Community Action Network
I think people sometimes think or take for granted that they live in a democracy, but don’t really have an idea of what that is. The community members that we work with in Idaho are primarily low income, including immigrant and low-income white communities. And for many of them, they may live in a democracy and may have an abstract view of what that is, but they don’t really feel that their voices are heard. Community organizing gives them the opportunity to participate in the legislative process and impact policies that affect them.