Congregation Based Community Organizing (CBCO)
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What’s New?
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FREE 5
Min. CD
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A presentation about CBCOs was shown in General Assembly plenary
last June. If you would like a FREE 5 Min. CD about One Congregation’s
Story: ARISE – First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany NY’s
experience with their CBCO, write to Audra Friend, Assistant to
Office for Congregational Advocacy and Witness at afriend@uua.org.
It’s guaranteed to inspire!
You can also view the 30 min. presentation on
CBCO at GA 2004
– Sunday Plenary III and fast forward to 2:42:28. [For
the ARISE video go to 2:59]. |
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One Congregation’s Story
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| The Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa and HOPE
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa is a founding member of HOPE, Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality. HOPE is affiliated with the D.A.R.T. Network (Direct Action & Research Training Center) in Miami, FL, and is a member of the F.D.O.F. (Federation of DART Organizations, Florida).
HOPE was founded in 1988 as a private, non-partisan organization in Hillsborough County, Florida. Like Congregation Based Community Organizations elsewhere, HOPE is a multi-issue community organization consisting of multi-racial and interfaith congregations representing the cultural diversity of Hillsborough County. MORE >>
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Congregation Based Community Organizing (also called Faith-Based or Broad-Based) is a movement that seeks to establish inter-faith, cross class, multi-ethnic and multi-racial grassroots organizations for purposes of increasing social integration and power in civil society and for making civic, regional and state-wide changes for social improvement. By "civil society," we mean the voluntary sector, including religious institutions.
CBCO groups see their "primary role to develop participants' leadership skills, build a strong web of relationships through congregations and other institutions, and turn those relationships into civic power capable of making changes to promote the public good." (Interfaith Funders, 2001).
The Scope of CBCO Activity
In 2001, there were a total of 133 CBCOs active in 33 states and the District of Columbia with a total of some 4000 member institutions, of which 87% were religious institutions. The remaining member organizations were primarily labor unions and public schools. Catholics make up 33% of the membership in CBCOs, followed by Baptists (including Missionary) who contribute 16%. Another third is made up of United Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and the Untied Church of Christ. The Church of God in Christ, Jewish and Unitarian Univeralist congregations make up the remaining 3 percent. (Warren and Wood, Interfaith Funders, 2001).
UU Participation
At last count, 101 UU congregations are members of CBCOs – 10% of our denomination. These CBCOs are supported by "Networks" which provide training leaders and organizers, support and consultation to organizers who do the day-to-day work of organizing and provide organizers to the local CBCOs. Forty-five of our congregations are involved with CBCOs supported by the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), 18 by the Gamaliel Foundation, 9 by InterValley Project, 7 by Direct Action Research and Training (DART), 7 by Pacific Institute for Community Organizing (PICO) and 7 are independent, and not affiliated with a national network. About 11.3 percent of our congregations are CBCO members. UU Churches involved in CBCO activities are comprised of 25,882 members or 11.9% of our total certified membership. Comparative figures with other religions groups are not available.
Congregational size of involved congregations ranges from 1300 to two congregations
that have 10 members each. Mean size is 575 certified members.
Read more about UU participation in the report on the GA 2002 Workshop entitled
“Grassroots Organizing:
How Can We Do it?”
Structure and Process
While there is variation between networks and sites within networks, CBCOs are typically composed of 20-40 congregations, sometime with other organizations, sometimes not. Each organization (church) maintains an organizing committee for that church, and there is an overall governing board for the CBCO itself composed of representatives of the respective congregations and the organizer(s). Larger CBCOs will divide into sections around problem areas such as education, health care, housing, and carry out the necessary research and consider strategies for change. The CBCOs membership determines the priority of alternative projects, strategies are developed and "actions," pubic meetings involving decision makers and as many people as the CBCO can turn out, are held. Timeframes for action and accountability to CBCO membership is established and followed-up. The key concepts that guide CBCO work are self-interest, power, agitation, and accountability.
Effectiveness
There seems no doubt that congregation based community organizing is an effective strategy for a wide range of civic problems, from securing a stop sign to increasing the state budget for education. Other forms of community action (legal advocacy, community education (media), simple protest, self-help action groups, negotiations and lobbying and action research) while effective for many problems do not provide the diversity (cross-class, multi-faith, multi-ethnic) contact and potential for integration as does congregation based community organizing.
Financial Costs of Participation
Financial costs (dues) are required of congregations involved in CBCO activities as member organizations. The amount of dues is dependent on the network and the decisions of the local CBCO. Following are the basic orientations of the major networks on the dues issue:
Direct Action and Training (DART)
No firm DART policy for all churches in DART CBCOs. Typically, dues are $400-$600 per church, plus $1 to $2 per church member. Some include a percentage of the operating budget. No church is paying over $5,000 per year.
Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)
No national policy on dues, rather IAF staff will work with local organization
through relational organizing and help them to develop a structure that serves
the local organization. An informal guideline is $10 per parishioner per year.
There is no policy or practice that supports the 1-2% of budget idea.
Intervalley Project (IVP)
Has recently gone through a dues determination process. They began with three criteria as follows: active membership numbers ("regular givers"), the size of the operating budget (excluding capital campaigns, schools, pass-throughs and individual member organizations ability to pay (self-assessment). As it developed, criteria 1 and 3 were used and a tiered structure based on membership proposed. Annual dues, based on membership are as follows: 10-49= $250, 50-99= $500, 100-224=$750, 225-374=$1,000 325-549=$1,500, over 550=$2,000.
Pacific Institute for Community Organizing (PICO)
CBCO determine dues locally, typically 1-2 percent of operating (church only) budget, with a cap of $5,000. While some CBCOs use church membership (size) as a basis, this is unusual.
CBCOs not affiliated with national networks determine dues for their member congregations.
CBCO Networks:
The five networks active with UU congregations are:
- Direct Action Research and Training, www.thedartcenter.org
 , P.O. Box 370791, Miami, FL 33137-0791, (305) 576-8020.
- Gamaliel Foundation, www.gamaliel.org , 203 N. Wabash Ave., Ste. 808, Chicago, IL 60601, (312) 375-2639.
- Industrial Areas Foundation, www.industrialareasfoundation.org , 220 W. Kinzie St., 5 th Floor, Chicago, IL 60610, (312) 245-9211.
- InterValley Project, www.intervalleyproject.org , 1075 Washington Street,
West Newton, MA 02465, (617) 796-8836.
- Pacific Institute for Community Organization, www.picocalifornia.org , 171 Santa Rosa Ave., Oakland, CA 94910, (510) 655-2801.
Find a CBCO near you  .
CBCO and the Unitarian Universalist Association
The Office for Congregational Advocacy and Witness provides resources and support for congregations interested in or engaged in CBCO.
Contact Susan Leslie, Director of the Office for Congregational Advocacy and Witness, at sleslie@uua.org for more information.
Click here for a list of UU Congregations engaged in CBCO.
CBCO-L provides a forum for members and ministers of UU congregations participating in or interested in congregation-based community organizing. The information exchanged also helps staff learn how to best support these efforts through identifying needs and resources, providing information and workshops, and creating networking opportunities. To subscribe go to lists.uua.org/mailman/listinfo/cbco-l .
Dr. Fred Seidl, a UU volunteer and former college Dean of Social Work is working with the Office for Congregational Advocacy and Witness to promote and enhance congregation based community organizing. Fred conducted a survey of UU congregations to learn more about UU involvement in this movement. He is available for consultation and connecting UUs who have an interest in or are currently active in Congregation Based Community Organizing. You can contact him at Fseidl@uua.org.
Unitarian Universalist Congregations and Congregation Based Community Organizing
"We have a history of providing social services. Now we have an opportunity to engage in social action for social change." …UU Minister
"I had almost given up on trying to do anything positive about (this city.) Then this came along and now we are making progress." …UU Minister
CBCO groups with UU involvement have been successful in a wide range of "actions," from securing a needed stop sign to improving police protection and accountability to securing millions of public dollars for affordable housing in a "hot" housing market. Groups have been successful in reducing class size in a public school, improving teacher training and in the development of after school programming. Working together, CBCO groups involving several UU congregations were able to persuade the State of California to allocate $50 million for primary health care clinics, $50 million for after-school programs and a $9.2 billion bond for school repair and construction.
CBCO groups are not "single-issue" organizations. They do not break up following achieving an objective. Rather, other "actions" are planned. Congregational financial and participatory support is also longer term, and can continue indefinitely. In our survey of UU congregations, no one contacted indicated an interest in disaffiliating with their CBCO, nor did they regard their involvement as temporary.
"For me, personally, it is clearly in my self-interest as a person who believes that the deconstruction of the social sin of racism will happen only when white institutions like my own learn to take leadership from Black institutions, communities and Individuals." …UU Minister
Interfaith work puts us into the mix with other religious, labor and community groups. UUs are working, as peers, with members of other religious traditions. Our survey reports concerns in this area, both in accepting work with people of other faiths and in being accepted. To be successful in faith based organizing, UU congregations must be able to accept leadership from Black and Hispanic congregations and individuals.
Since it is important that a broad-based organization be maintained, only actions
that can win the support of that base are promulgated. UUs share with people
of other faiths concerns about the quality of the educational system, racism,
the environment, housing, immigrant rights and freedoms, public transportation,
and affordable, accessible health care. There are concerns important to UU congregations
that will not be addressed by CBCOs. Participating congregations know that their
social concerns programming cannot rely solely on community organizing, and
have stepped up their activities in other areas while remaining active in CBCO
groups.
UU witness comes in part from assisting CBCO groups to broaden their base not
only to include us, but Jewish, Islamic as well as other non-Christian congregations
and to pave the way for more inclusive religious practices. CBCO participation
has spurred some congregations to include religious orientation in diversity
training workshops and other offerings.
"No excuses, no regrets"… UU Minister
Everyone contacted in the UUA survey evaluated the overall experience positively. While there were occasional concerns with slowness in organizational development, organizer turnover, and training too basic for UUs who have been politically active and empowered, these problems were not considered severe. No one expressed regrets for having been involved as a congregation in organizing efforts. No one reported that they were planning to withdraw, despite occasional financial concerns. The achievements of CBCOs is regarded as well worth the time, effort and expense of participation.
Getting Started in Congregation Based Community Organizing
More times than not, UU congregations get involved in CBCO when the minister, either as a member of a group of local clergy, or individually, is approached by another minister or an organizer and told of organizing efforts either beginning or currently underway. The minister then takes the question of participation to her or his congregation, typically through representation, frequently with the support of the relevant network and congregational understandings are reached. Projects frequently involve 20 or more congregations of various faiths and signing on means a commitment to work cooperatively and support interfaith organizational efforts financially.
If this has not happened, it is not likely that there is as active CBCO project operating in your area. Then, to confirm whether or not organizational efforts are in effect, contact each of the five networks listed below to see whether or not they are active in your area. If there is a CBCO project in your area, it makes sense to find out all you can about that project and consider participation. It is quite possible that there will be more than one, or none at all.
Either way you have to choose a network. You may want to know who is working nearby, the opinions of your colleagues who are working with one or another of the five networks, the financial cost of involvement and how each of them see the tasks immediately ahead and how all of that "fits" your congregation. This may seem like a terribly big decision, but our survey indicates high satisfaction with all five networks. Assuming no preexisting organization, among the first tasks will be work to organize a substantially large number of congregations as the umbrella organization for community organization efforts. This activity will be guided and supported by the national network you chose.
It is a good idea that interested people take some training. All networks offer training at various sites across the country at various times, and publish their training schedules. Some offer training targeted for clergy. Training may involve a workshop or two, or as much as two weeks of full-time engagement, followed by advanced training. A minister or members of a congregation having received training, having made a good connection with a network, and having worked within and between congregations, have started several successful projects.
Congregation Based Community Organizing (CBCO) Bibliography
Alinsky, Saul D. Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals. New York: Vintage Books, 1971. This primer tells the "have-nots" how they can organize to achieve real political power for the practice of true democracy.
Alinsky, Saul D. Reveille for Radicals. New York: Random House, 1969. Like Thomas Paine before him, Saul Alinsky, through the concept and practice of community organizing, was able to embody for his era both the urgency of radical political action and the imperative of rational political discourse. His work and writing bequeathed a new method and style of social change to American communities that will remain a permanent part of the American political landscape.
Betten, Niel and Michael J. Austin. The Roots of Community Organizing, 1917-1939 . Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990. An illustration of pioneering community organizers. Today's community organizers and social planners have a tendency to ignore their antecedents and to "reinvent the wheel." Offers an historical analysis of the intellectual and practical roots of community organizing in the United States.
Chambers, Edward T. with Michael A. Cowan. Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice. New York: Continuum, 2003. Presents a distillation of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) philosophy and its approach to community organizing and encourages reflection about public life and ideals.
Fisher, Robert. Let the People Decide: Neighborhood Organizing in America. Updated Edition. New York: Twayne, 1995. Insightfully traces the history of neighborhood organizing in the U.S., probably with broader sweep and in greater detail than any other. The book has been regarded by many activists, funders and historians as an indispensable resource for those who want to understand community organizing. Fisher's bibliographic essay that is appended to the narrative is in itself worth far more than the cover price of the book.
Gecan, Michael. Going Public. Boston: Beacon Press, 2002. Reflections of a well-traveled community organizer on relationships, power, effective organization and "public cultures." A good conversational read.
Greider, William. Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy. New York: Touchstone, 1993. Greider calls on us to reclaim democracy from the special interests. In discussing his wide ranging views on what has gone wrong with democracy, the author points to community organizing as a route to making government work for the people. Based on an investigation of community organizing groups in Texas affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).
Jacobsen, Dennis A. Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. A book "written on the run" by a Milwaukee minister deeply and personally involved in community organizing. This book speaks clearly and personally to clergy interested in involving their congregations in community organizing.
Kretzmann, John P. and John L. McKnight. Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets. Chicago: ACTA Publications, 1993. For visual learners, many diagrams are provided illustrating capacity building.
Warren, Mark R. and Richard L. Wood. Faith-Based Community Organizing: The State of the Field. Jericho, NY: Interfaith Funders, January 2001. Basic concepts and definitions concisely presented. A must read.
Winkelman, Lee (2001) Faith-Based Community Organizing, Interfaith Funders, Jericho, NY
WEB SITES: Many valuable resources are linked to the following sites :
VIDEO
Baldwin, Alec, Bob Hercules; Bruce Orenstein . The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and his Legacy. Berkeley: U of CA Extension Center for Media & Independent Learning, 1999 or Independent Television Service, 501 York Street, San Francisco, CA 94110; http://www.itvs.org/. The story of the Industrial Areas Foundation and Alinsky from 1940 to the present.
04/2004
Compiled by Diane Duesterhoeft, First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio, COPS Metro, Industrial Areas Foundation
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