Resources
NEW FILM ON COMMUNITY ORGANIZING:
A Community Concern is a documentary that shows the powerful changes that happen when organizers, parents and youth work with educators to improve urban public schools. Companion materials are being developed that will help create a framework to view the film, explore its personal relevancy, and think together about how to harness individual and collective power to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for students in all types of communities. Please look at our website and contact us.
> View the website and video
As Norm Fruchter, Senior Policy Advisor, Annenberg Institute for School Reform says, "A Community Concern is a valuable resource from the front lines of this new arena of education organizing."
Anne T. Henderson, Co-founder of National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education says, "It is a wonderful window onto the world of community organizing….I found it nothing less than inspiring."
> Readings on community and youth organizing
and organizing for school reform. [PDF: 2 pages]
> Bibliography with links to readings
ACORN
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a network of direct-membership organizations of low- and moderate-income families. Founded in Arkansas in 1970, ACORN now counts 350,000 member families in over 100 cities and several countries.
Center for Third World Organizing
The Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO, pronounced "C-2") is a racial-justice organization dedicated to building a social-justice movement led by people of color. CTWO is a 25-year-old training and resource center that promotes and sustains direct-action organizing in communities of color in the United States.
DART
The Direct Action and Research Training Center (DART) is a network of congregation-based, community organizations. Since its founding in 1982 DART has grown to more than twenty affiliates in six states. DART’s organizing method centers on bringing congregations together around issues of common concern to challenge injustices.
Gamaliel Foundation
The Gamaliel Foundation, founded in 1968 in Chicago, has 60 affiliates in 21 states as well as three provinces of South Africa. Gamaliel’s affiliates are congregation-based organizations in urban, suburban and rural communities.
IAF
The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), founded in Chicago by Saul Alinsky, is a network of institution-based community organizations. It has 57 affiliates in 21 states and three countries, made up of congregations, labor unions, parent associations, schools, settlement houses, and other institutions.
PICO
The PICO national network uses a congregation-based organizing model. Founded in 1972 as a training institute for community groups in California, PICO has grown to 50 affiliates in 17 states, representing more than 1,000 congregations.
Southern Echo
Southern Echo is a leadership education, training and development organization founded in 1989 and based in Jackson, Mississippi. Echo is committed to building new, accountable grassroots leadership and organization, based on an inter-generational model, through training, technical and legal assistance. Echo staff works with and in support of African-American and working class community leadership and organizations throughout rural Mississippi, and organizations in 11 other Southern states.
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ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH CENTERS:
Annenberg Institute for School Reform
The Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) develops, shares, and acts on knowledge that improves the conditions and outcomes of schooling for all students, especially in America's urban communities. AISR’s vision is the transformation of traditional school systems into “smart education systems” that develop and integrate high-quality learning opportunities in all areas of students' lives — at school, at home, and in the community.
Ed Trust
The Education Trust works for the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, pre-kindergarten through college, and forever closing the achievement gaps that separate low-income students and students of color from other youth. Its basic tenet is that all children will learn at high levels when they are taught to high levels.
Ed Trust West
EdTrust West, the West Coast presence of The Education Trust, works throughout California with superintendents, principals, students, teachers, parents, business and community leaders who are trying to transform their schools and colleges into institutions that serve all students. EdTrust West works to ensure that all students have the opportunity to enroll in and successfully complete California’s college readiness curriculum. Its goal is that high school graduates are empowered and prepared to choose among all postsecondary options.
National Center for Schools and Communities at Fordham
The mission of the National Center for Schools and Communities is to provide policy analysis, data, and technical assistance for grassroots efforts to win
quality public schools in low-income communities and communities of color.
Research for Action
Research for Action (RFA) employs multidisciplinary, rigorous research, diverse teams, and feedback that challenge stakeholders and researchers to confront assumptions. It shares its research with educators, parent and community leaders, students, and policy makers to build a shared critique of educational inequality and school reform that is socially just.
UCLA IDEA
The Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) is a network of UCLA scholars, students, professionals, advocates, community activists, and urban youth. Its mission is to make high quality public schooling and successful college participation routine occurrence in low income neighborhoods of color. IDEA uses research and advocacy as tools to empower individuals, build relationships, and create knowledge for civic participation and social change.
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