I have written about community organizing and social justice over the years, starting with articles about the relationship between organizing and community development and moving on to other organizing-related topics. Here are links to these writings.
On combining community organizing and community development:
1997 Massachusetts Community Development Corporations and Community Organizing. My master’s thesis for my degree in Community Economic Development at New Hampshire College (now Southern New Hampshire University). It discusses the experience of combining organizing and development in Massachusetts. Published on Randy Stoeker’s late, lamented comm-org website.
1998 Organizing Renaissance. An article from the magazine Shelterforce, September/October 1998 issue #1010, about the experience of two community development corporations in combining community organizing and community development.
1998 Organizing: An Investment that Pays. I wrote this overview of the experience of Massachusetts CDCs in combining organizing and community development for NeighborWorks Journal, which was published by the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. The article appeared in the Winter 1998 issue, Volume 16, #2.
On Congregation-Based or Faith-Based Community Organizing:
2002 Faith-Based Community Organizing: Building Democracy for the New Millenium. This is a primer on a congregation-based community organizer I wrote for Interfaith Funders.
2003 Faith-Based Community Organizing: A Unique Social Justice Approach to Revitalizing Synagogue Life. This was the first thing ever written on congregation-based community organizing in synagogues. It was published by Jewish Fund for Justice and then posted on the comm-org website. Julie Chizewer Weill was the coauthor.
Other writings on community organizing:
1999 Evaluating The Effects of Community Organizing. I wrote this for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation’s Community Organizer Symposium in May 2009.
2004. Funders’ Support Grows as the Impact of Community Organizing Grows. Article from the National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy’s annual journal detailing how funding for community organizing has led to significant results. It also provides recommendations for effective grantmaking.
2008 Three Strategies for Bringing Low-Wage Workers Out of Poverty. From the Summer 2008 issue of NFG Reports, Volume 15, Issue 2, published by the Neighborhood Funders Group.
2009 Integrated Voter Engagement: A Proven Model to Increase Civic Engagement. This primer on integrated voter engagement features four case studies. It was written for and published by the Funders Committee on Voter Engagement.
2010 Community Organizer Genealogy Project oral history interview. I was interviewed on video by Don Elmer for this oral history project conducted by the Center for Community Change. I talk about my organizing career and what I see as the challenges for organizing.