Empowering Communities Through Community Organizing - Essay Sample

Introduction

Community organizing is a technique that involves engaging and empowering individuals to increase the influence of underrepresented groups in policies and decision-making (Santilli, Carroll-Scott, & Ickovics, 2016). Primarily, community organizing is a process aimed at addressing specific issues while also enhancing long-term engagement and empowerment. As a community organizer, the main objectives of community organizing are to develop the capabilities and increasing the power and influence of underrepresented groups in society. Such practices of community organizing are prevalent in low-income and minority communities. Throughout history, most community organizers have relied on community members to remain centered on their purpose of empowering community stakeholders to take action. The organizers often act as drivers of the desired change. As a community organizer, my mission has been to act as a liaison between community members and leaders in society. Organizers build organizations that maximize the power and encourage the participation of the community members. They work towards ensuring that people and structures remain in place to create a pathway to shared power. Decision-making processes, in community organizing, are primarily reserved for the community stakeholders. During this process, they gain information and develop a process to engage leaders. Community organizing aims to make a difference by encouraging people to work together towards achieving a common goal.

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Pertinent Literature

A careful analysis of community organizing is essential since it fosters an understanding of the role of the community members in society. For a long time, people in society have been left out of the process of decision-making. In most cases, decisions made by society's leaders tend to favor a small group of individuals in society. According to Asher and Sarah (2017), locality and interests are the main factors that define a community. The role of a community organizer is to ensure that those in authority can meet the needs of the community members. More importantly, community organizing entails intensive actions of volunteer work, however, it does not necessarily focus on hierarchies. Instead, the role of community organizers is to generate social capital and advocate for positive change in society. Therefore, community organizers are often informal and unelected individuals.

According to Martiskainen (2017), community members need to be involved in creating the desired change required to support a structure that encourages people from all walks of life. Positive change and development of grassroots leaders, through the process of community organizing, should start in the community. The role of organizers, in these situations, is to encourage community stakeholders to develop positive change. Consequently, this creates a dynamic for communities to work together to change the unjust circumstances in society.

As Chang (2015) argued, community organizers can use research to identify education interests and influence the school systems to serve the interests. For example, access to understanding and knowledge, as mentioned earlier, is the foundation of the development of grassroots leaders. Importantly, community leaders should be held accountable for community issues such as the lack of access to education. The study by Chang (2015) persuaded the school facilities to repair their institutions and aid in assisting decision-makers in the state to make relevant changes to improve school attendance. Mainly, the article recommends the use of research to hold school systems accountable for failure to respond to the main agendas in the community.

Furthermore, community organizing's leadership ought to be streamlined to achieve the objective of developing grassroots leaders. According to Chang (2015), the development of leaders is the underpinning objective of community organizing. Similarly, Santilli et al. (2016) argued that when a community organizing institution or movement is working towards developing dynamic leadership at all levels and ages, most of the problems in society are likely to decline in number and distribution as well. Community organizers should be skilled, reliable, and inspiring leaders to meet the challenges in the responsibilities of community organizing. Santilli et al. (2016) stipulated that leadership is the fundamental building-block of all the organizing efforts that seek to empower grassroots and offset the power of the selfish and dominant leaders in society. It is worth noting that with the extent of problems faced within a community, the existing prospects are better with experienced and stronger leaders that advocate for the rights of the oppressed.

Theoretical Framework

This study will use a framework containing the five stages of community development. The model aims at examining the grassroots development of a community action group. Similarly, the model will be used in this research paper to show the actions of individuals when called to respond to different social injustices that cause increased poverty and oppression in society.

Based on the literature review, a theoretical framework-based conceptual paradigm of community leadership has been presented (Figure 1). The model incorporates the previous recruitment and development of grassroots leaders through community organizing, as identified in the literature. Furthermore, the model is structured following recommendations associated with prior attempts to develop leadership frameworks or models. Definitely, the model extends upon the five prime exercises to task accomplishment as proposed by Santilli et al. (2016): initiation and spread of interest, leadership, commitment and strategy formulation, awareness, and implementation of strategic plans in the recruitment of grassroots leaders. The details proposed under each activity heading are based on relevant interests identified within the literature when viewed from a community leadership perspective.

Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: leadership frameworks

Statement of the Problem

Social change is dependent on the democracy of engagement and the participation of residents. However, community decision-making, in the world today, is isolated to the people in power. Communities today are viewed as lacking inspired leaders that have the capability of leading grassroots movements. Leaders are often absent and hardly recognized in society until the development process starts and they are considered publicly as a leader.

As Asher and Sarah (2017) argued, in every successful movement, the dynamic leaders at the top often came up from the ranks at the bottom. Such leaders pushed from the grassroots level and were challenged to lead due to their charisma, character, commitment, and competence. Asher and Sarah (2017) gave an example of the National Nonpartisan League that pushed for the nomination and election of leaders who were not just looking out for themselves, but also wanted to help others. The leaders present in society are seeking various leadership positions for selfish gains, which hurts the progress and equitability state of society. This emphasizes the fact that we need quality leaders today that advocate for the common good, hence, showing the need for community organizers to recruit and develop leaders from the grassroots level.

Community organizers have relied mainly on the members of society to remain focused on their purpose of empowerment for change while the organizers act as change agents. As Holgate (2015) indicated, community organizers often serve as a liaison between community members and leaders. The term community organizing, as defined by Asher and Sarah (2017), is a process of engaging people, communities, and organizations towards the goal of increased individual and community control. In professional practice, community organizing has been used to challenge unjust systems and policies while also promoting interconnection among members of the community. The primary responsibilities of community organizers are to build relationships with members of society to provide a positive environment within the community for fostering change and prosperity of community members.

Social change requires the engagement and participation of the society's members. Social action often brings people together. The main purpose of social action is convincing, pressuring, and coercing external decision-makers to meet the desired goals. However, for social action to be effective; there needs to be a clear mission. Every individual needs to have a universal and unified understanding for change to be introduced and implemented successfully. For years, community organizers have united community members by encouraging them to stand together to foster equality and fairness in society. Organizers have made significant changes in the history of America. Through collective action, community organizers form movements to avert and curb oppression while developing grassroots leadership that will aid in building new governance systems that prioritize justice and equity. Organizing and leadership development are critical in society since they assist in bringing the desired transformations that make a more equitable society.

Purpose of the Study

This study explores how leaders emerge and engage with efforts of community organizing and how communities support and develop this form of leadership. It will identify the process of community organizing that leads to the emergence of leaders within the community. It will also focus on how communities support and develop leadership from the grassroots level. Notably, this study has a significant contribution to the existing literature since it addresses the gaps in research on leadership development through the community organizing process. The study derives from my personal experience of 15 years in community organizing in various fields such as unions, environmental, rural, and education reform. The best way to understand the influence of community organizing on grassroots leadership development is to examine the firsthand experiences of people during the process or those that have been in the field of practice. This research examines why community organizing was founded, the different styles of community organizing, and community organizing's impact on leadership development.

Overview of Methodology

This research will be an autoethnography that utilizes a modified electronic Delphi qualitative approach. As Belkhir et al. (2019) indicated, autoethnography is a form of qualitative study where an author utilizes self-reflection and writing with the intent of exploring personal experience and connecting it to the cultural and social meanings and understanding. This study will use a modified Delphi approach to gather personal experiences from myself as well as those of other expert community leaders. It will consist of two rounds of interviews that will be used to develop a consensus among experts about the role of community organizing in leadership development. The modified Delphi approach will allow the participants to remain anonymous.

Research Questions

The questions for this research will focus on personal experiences of community organizers, including my own personal experiences as well as those of other community leaders. This study seeks to answer the following questions:

What can be learned about leadership from the experiences of community organizers in their efforts to address social issues in the community?

How are leadership skills cri...