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Community Organizing 101: How to Start a Social Movement [1]

['Marta Brzosko']

Date: 2023-10-16 10:07:35.564000+00:00

Community Organizing 101: How to Start a Social Movement

A practical guide to leading your local initiative, even when you have zero experience Marta Brzosko · Follow Published in CivLead · 14 min read · Oct 2, 2023 -- Listen Share

Original photo by Henri Mathieu-Saint-Laurent via Pexels

I used to think social movements needed to be big to have an impact.

Today, I don’t think that’s true.

Since starting an Authentic Relating group for my community in Edinburgh, I realized that the size of the group isn’t the most important. As Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Would everyone agree that communication workshops with 20 participants can change the world? Maybe not. But I can see our bi-weekly sessions having a ripple effect. People report having new relational experiences in their daily lives — including more emotional intimacy, setting healthier boundaries, and better conflict resolution.

The consequences of what we’re doing in the group extend far beyond the individuals who participate in them.

Large movements always start small. You cannot have thousands of people advocating for a cause if you first don’t have ten. That’s why I think most of us can start a social movement within their community.

In this article, I want to share with you a blueprint for how to do just that.

Introducing the Concept of a “Local Social Movement”

You don’t need to be an activist or have leadership skills to start a movement. What you need is to change your mindset about what a movement is.

The way I see it, we can’t afford to wait for major leaders to ignite a social revolution. With the complex world we live in, the revolution needs to happen quietly, in a decentralized way, and from the bottom up. Different people are able to see different slivers of reality and, consequently, different social needs. They are the best candidates to address those needs — as they’re closest to the issue.

How would they do it, though? This is where the idea of local social movements comes in.

First, what are social movements? There are tons of academic definitions. However, this simple one from Lumen Learning, a company providing learning resources, will serve us well.

Social movements are “purposeful, organized groups that strive to work toward a common social goal.” Local social movements are those that operate on the level of a town or city, or even within a smaller entity, e.g. a college campus.

There is no minimum number of people that warrants talking about a movement.

What matters is the organized effort toward a common social goal. On a local level, this could mean:

Advocating for more equal treatment of patients in a local hospital

Mobilizing artists in a neighborhood to put on an exhibition together

Writing a petition to the city council to save the local park

A host of other activities geared toward creating a better society.

The important thing about local social movements is that anyone can start one. You don’t need specific credentials, experience, or education. As long as you genuinely want to benefit your community, it’s unlikely that people will question your efforts.

If you’re passionate about a social cause or change you’d like to see — do everyone a favor and start a movement. Even if it seems small and insignificant, the consequences will ripple out into the world.

Original photo by Dani Hart via Pexels

What do YOU Want?

Social movement leaders often think they need to serve the community first. This leaves little to no space for connecting to their personal aspirations.

In my experience as a community organizer, one of the most important things has been connecting to my intrinsic motivation for social action. Naming what kind of world I wanted to live in, what fascinated me, and what skills I wanted to be learning gave me the fuel I needed.

And trust me — if you want to be a community organizer and not burn out, you need a lot of good fuel.

I learned this by first picking a cause that didn’t suit me. After Greta Thunberg’s COP24 speech and the rise of climate activism in 2018, I thought this was all that mattered. I joined Earth Strike. Then, I jumped at the first opportunity to organize a climate protest.

After a few months of relentless action, I understood that — as vital as it was — talking about climate wasn’t my cup of tea. I dreaded doing the research. I didn’t have the drive to understand the scientific intricacies. I ended up feeling burnt out and frustrated before the group I was co-leading even gained any real momentum.

Since then, I learned that the first step to starting a movement is sourcing motivation within yourself. Don’t think about the big, lofty goals you think “the world needs.” Start with yourself:

How would you like to change?

What would you like to learn?

What kind of culture do you want to be surrounded by?

I asked myself these questions when starting the Authentic Relating group, two years after my climate activism fell flat. I realized that, after as a solitary writer coming our of the pandemic, I mostly yearned for authentic connection with people. As others around me suffered from loneliness, too, I understood this to be a broader social need.

The idea for the group came from merging my personal motivation with the need I saw in the world. To this day, this combo is what motivates me to keep going — even if the process gets messy.

In the next part of this article, I’ll lay out four steps of my community organizing process which I hope can be a blueprint for your movement. Ready?

Original photo by Kelly via Pexels

Step 1: Anchor Your Intention in a Place and Collaborator

If you’re anything like me, your passion for change may spark a lot of ideas. It can be easy to start with one project and then go off on a tangent before seeing the first goal through.

Sounds familiar?

That’s typical for the Organizer changemaker type. And, quite frankly, it’s also how the human brain is wired. Novelty bias was a helpful adaptation in the times when survival depended on our ability to switch focus quickly to detect potential dangers.

But in the context of community organizing, changing the plan before you give it a real shot isn’t helpful. You need to stay with one idea long enough to allow yourself to really test it. How can you do that?

My answer was anchoring my intention by bounding it to a specific place and a collaborator.

First, I brought the idea for the group to one community center in Edinburgh that I really knew and trusted — The Salisbury Centre. They had a community events program, part of which was providing space free of charge. This is where I decided to start the group. Having the meeting space for free was a massive help in the beginning.

I was also lucky enough to get help from a mentor responsible for community empowerment at The Centre. She met with me a few times before the group started, and then attended the first sessions. Knowing that I was accountable to someone helped me structure and organize those first workshops when I had little idea what I was doing.

I recognize I was very fortunate to get this level of support right from the start. Your situation may be different but, in any case, I suggest you focus on these two things in the first place.

Decide where your meeting spot will be. You need one. Whether that’s your local community center, library, coffee shop, or outdoor location, picking a spot and sticking with it will ground your idea in reality. It’ll be easier for your mind to start envisioning next steps.

Then, find one ally who can support you in the process. Not two, not three — one. I discovered it’s much easier if you have one go-to person to bounce ideas off of at the beginning, as it doesn’t add too much complexity.

You’ll have plenty of more opinions in the mix in due time.

Original photo by Matheus Bertelli via Pexels

Step 2: Prototype Your Activity or Event

Now that you have your anchor, leverage it. Your first task is to organize one activity, meeting, or event that you can invite people to.

This way, you’ll get a chance to talk about what you want to do long-term.

Just like you found one person to anchor you in your intention, think about one event to organize and invite people to. Venturing too much into the future won’t serve you at this point. Instead, focus your energy to hold as good a meeting as possible. Then, use it as a springboard to generate social momentum.

To my mind, you need four basic components to make that happen.

Create an event description

This will help you think about how exactly you want to use your first meetinsg, and communicate it to others. The easiest way to think about it is that you’ll need some text and some visuals. Ideally, the text isn’t too long and straight to the point. Make sure it contains the basics — what, who, when, where, why. The rest is optional.

You’ll also need one or two appealing photos or illustrations that you can reproduce across social media, emails, websites, and posters.

Decide on your communication channels

Who are you going to reach out to, and how? Who can help you get the word out? Do you know of any community spaces, newsletters, local coffee shops, or socially active friends who could pass on the information?

Make a list of people and organizations you can contact, then send them information and visuals you produced in Step 1. Other than that, just mention what you’re doing as much as possible in everyday interactions. The power of word of mouth is huge.

Run your event

This is usually the most exciting, as well as the most scary part. Running the first session or meeting for your movement is a big thing. This is when you’re taking the first action in the real world, verbalizing your cause to others, and inviting them to join.

There are many things you can do to prepare for it. For me, what was useful for the first Authentic Relating was a really detailed plan of what I was going to do and say. I also asked a friend to help with practicalities, arranging the space, etc. This allowed me to feel a bit more prepared for different scenarios.

With that, keep in mind that you can’t prepare for everything that might happen, questions people might ask, etc. Give yourself permission to not be perfect. People usually appreciate the leader being humble and admitting they don’t have all the answers, as it helps them see how they can contribute.

Ask for feedback and contact details

After you’ve run your prototype event, you want to learn from it. That’s why I strongly advise to allocate some time for feedback at the end of the meeting. Ask your questions before people go home — later on, it will be much harder to get responses.

Think in advance of what questions you want answers to. Is it about people’s views on the cause? The format of the meeting itself? The plan of action you proposed? Different questions will make sense in different contexts, so think about yours.

Think about the way in which you want to get feedback. For example, depending on the number of participants, it may be more practical to gather written or spoken feedback.

Finally, don’t forget to ask people for contact details. Then, treat those contacts as invaluable. Congratulations — now you have a bunch of email addresses or phone numbers from people who are actually care about your cause!

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[1] Url: https://medium.com/civlead/community-organizing-101-how-to-gather-a-group-for-meaningful-action-7f5ef0f537b8

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