Organizing 4: Key Learnings

In Organizing 3 and 4, I have learned several key concepts and skills.  I loved learning about self-care and how important it is when engaged in organizing work.  In my Organizing 4 signature assignment, I learned about transformative organizing and in that model self-care, specifically, is an important piece.  I like that this concept over-lapped in that way.  This signature assignment also opened up a whole new world of learning for me, one that I will be reading about during our break.  There is a rich history of transformative organizing and much to be learned about movements I had known nothing, or at least very little about.

I also very much needed to learn about the different media that are useful in organizing.  I had not made a Facebook page, a video story, or a newsletter before.  The learning curve was high, but it will be much easier now that I have had some experience with it.

The mini-internship has proven to be an incredible piece to this course.  I have learned a lot about political campaigning, something I had never participated in before.  Previously, that was not part of my interest in this program, but it very much is now!  I love the energy and excitement in it!  I truly hope I’m not devastated, come November, but we are all working hard to make sure that is not the case.

Lynn Soukup

Organizing 4: Key Learning

Over the course of Organizing 4, I depend my understanding about how to practice effective community organizing tactics in multiple spheres: personal, professional, and digital. One of the key pieces of new learning I integrated was the concept that self-care for the organizer is vital in successfully mobilizing social movements or organizing communities. An organizer must be mindful that they are holistically taking care of their own needs in order to be their best self in the work of caring for others. For me this quarter, I was mindful of a work-school-life balance in which I needed to eat healthy, dance regularly, and participate in meaningful social conversations. This allowed me to more clearly engage in community organizing conversations, one-to-ones, and other graduate school work. I will carry those practices with me as I move forward as an organizer.
Another key piece of learning from this block was the concept of evaluating sustainability within an institution or social movement. In order to assess an organization’s ability to be sustainably operational, an organizer must look at the institutions equity practices, accessibility, social culture, and financial stability.
I was struck by the notion that an organizer’s attachment to a campaign can run so deep, that it can feel like break up if the campaign is lost. I appreciated the reminder that we must allow ourselves the space to go through these emotions. This is an aspect of self care. We have to grieve the loss and allow it to move through us in order to fully show up for our next campaign, ready to put our whole energy into a new fight (Saadeh, 2018).
Another theme from the quarter was the idea of boundaries as a community organizer. It is vital to remember that it is not our job to change people! We cannot take the views of others personally–we must remain steadfast in our objectives and not get washed away in dramatic conversations or altercations. We have permission to say no. These healthy boundaries will keep us able to keep our sight on the prize, which is transformative social change. We do not need to get bogged down into the individual psychology of ourselves or others in order to create collective change/
This block gave me tangible and solid reminders of how to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships (to others and to myself) as I navigate the more technical, logistical, evaluative pieces of the Community Organizing Role. These final pieces of learning are the glue that will hold the learning from previous blocks in place and ensure that we are the strongest organizers we can be when executing previously learned tactics.

Mackenzie Packard

 

Macke

My Learning in Organizing 4

My biggest takeaways from this semester of Organizing 4 really revolve around the importance of sustainability and self-care as organizing practices. I am the type of person that gets overly excited and passionate when I get involved in social justice work and organizing, which leads me to dive head first in anything and everything I do. I have a tendency to become a “yes” person who wants to get involved anyway I can in everything I can. However, this semester really made me evaluate how sustainable my own actions and practices are. Having a full time job, a full class load, involvement in my mini-internship as well as other local arts events, family engagements, trips to visit friends, and tending to a long-distance relationship across the country, I have found that my time is incredibly limited. Every free moment seems to be filled with some form of homework or extracurricular activity, which is clearly unsustainable and often leads to burn out.

This realization of the lack of long term sustainability in my life and work also brought up the importance of self-care. This is something I am actively working on being mindful of and finding time to carve out for myself in addition to learning what self-care practices are helpful to me. The information we have learned this semester in this course has helped me realize the incredible importance self-care and sustainability practices have to ensure the longevity and quality of my organizing practices.

-Hanna Leister

New Learning in Organizing 4

This quarter built upon the learning in last quarter expanding upon some of the concepts introduced in Organizing 3. Despite taking these courses out of order (I’m signed up to take Organizing 1 in the fall) I was able to apply the concepts to my own life and mini-internship. The two topics I most enjoyed learning about were organizational sustainability and self-care. And fortunately for me, my mini-internship organization was able to move from a place of not being sustainable to being on more solid ground over this past six week term. Sustainability at my job is still up in the air however it is something I am more focused on and I will continue to look for opportunities to begin a conversation about succession planning in my program.

Another important learning came from reading and discussing self-care with my cohort. I enjoyed learning about the ways that people take care of themselves in order to better cultivate the arenas in which they are passionate. I feel that we as a culture do not place a premium on self-care and rather, the praise belongs to business and production. Hopefully, awareness of the importance of self-care will continue to trickle through society and organizing circles.

By Melissa Dunmore

 

Organizing 4 Experience

I really enjoy being challenged to participate and engage in what I’m learning and organizing 4 did this very thing. It forced me to post blogs, learn new applications to technology that I am fairly familiar with. I felt like I grew as a social activist by going public with my first Op Ed. I came to the realization how powerful, meaningful and life changing social activism can effect.

For example, since I discover my disability one day I realized that I was a beneficiary of the laws that folks worked really hard to get congress to pass. It helped me connect to the areas that I want to engage in social activism. Otherwise life can be just a lot of busyness and a shallow existence

I get so inspired by the participation of my classmates (charts) we all share a common trait ” we are compassionate towards others who suffer injustice.” I brag to my family and friends about all the work and ambitions that my professors and classmates are engaged in.

Prescott college really has something going on here, because I was thinking that when I applied to be a student that there was just going to be another academic exercise of reading and writing. Not! You get involved and sure I felt out of my comfort zone but then I grew as a person, student and an upcoming city wide organizer.

By

Manny Mestas

New Learning

This quarter has been filled with new learning opportunities that have pushed me out of my comfort zone.  In particular, I felt pushed in the area of using technology.  Between creating a video, a Facebook page, and a newsletter, I have gained news skills as well as figured out how to use new programs.  Using digital media tools for organizing is so important, so being pushed to use new programs and practice these skills is crucial.

I learned new skills for self-reflection and self-care through this course.  I discovered that these two skills/actions can directly influence an organization’s sustainability.  Self-reflection and care directly have an impact on the “feel” of the organization.  It directly affects relationships within the organization, how well the organization is run, and the perceptions others have about the organization.  It was great to learn so many new strategies that I can actually implement in my life.  The self-reflection piece was huge for me.  Having completed all four organizing courses, I have done a great deal of reflecting back to the beginning and am amazed with all the new information I learned.

I chose to use a photo of a butterfly to represent the metamorphosis that has happened within me through taking these organizing courses.  I have changed as well as deepened and developed my understand of grassroots community organizing. My new growth changed the way I think about community and how I can combat social injustices.

-Erika Huffer

 

 

Learning Reflection

This quarter in Organizing 3 & 4 allowed me to gain a better understanding of organizing in general. Before this quarter, and being a new student into the program, I didn’t know a lot about the organizing portion of this program. I was able to understand different strategies and best practices, as well as struggles within organizing. Something that really stood out, and I’m glad it was included, was the awareness of self care because it’s something I have a difficult time balancing even just in work life.

I also learned a few new skills! Before this I had never created a Facebook page, created a video to share a story, and created a newsletter. These were practical applications to show our learning and something that we can continue to use with our work.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It was valuable to be able to have a mini-internship to see many of this new learning in action. Issue cutting was something that was introduced to me, and through my mini-internship I was able to see this in action.

Learning from my peers was also highly valuable. We have all brought our personal interests into the group and allowed others to see our passions. The structure for that has also allowed us to have a better hope for the future because we see others being a part of the change.

-Jessica B.

My Experience with Organizing 4

This quarter was really wonderful, as we really got to branch out into a wide variety of miscellaneous topics that we haven’t been able to before. These topics, individually, may seem inconsequential, but when taken with organizing as a whole they clearly become very important. An crucial example of this is self-care and sustainability. Through working both with my mini-internship and volunteering with a political campaign, on top of working full time, being a step-mom, wife, and grad student, I had to recognize what was sustainable, and when I needed to step back and do some serious self-care.

I have really benefitted from learning from my cohort this quarter as well. Everyone is very unique and passionate in their own right, and it has been very inspiring to see the work that each one does in their respective internships with their unique skills and passions. I have really enjoyed seeing their portfolios develop and discussing our mini-internships together. I see the extreme importance of community in our classroom, and how we cannot embark on this journey of learning alone.

By Hillary Smith