VOICE and our sister IAF organizations have earned a long track record of success because we have always started with deep listening to determine the shared interests we want to act on and then built the relational power needed to get officials to work with us to ensure real results, using the following process.
Organizers need to choose a model and then we can build out these pages. JdR provided a model based, I believe, on the VB training. However, do we want to use the five steps in the cycle of organizing instead?
I recommend we hide this page so that we can go live, and then make the page visible once it’s built out.
Whichever model we choose, I recommend that we use the approach illustrated by #1 and #2 – with a short summary on this page, and then a “read more” page that follows the same structure and provides resources.
1. Hold Relational Meetings
The first step is to build trust and open the door to possible collective action by holding Relational Meetings. These meetings can be held with other VOICE Leaders, members of your institution, or people who have a stake in your community such as business leaders, landlords, educators, representatives, clergy, etc. (Read more)
2. Conduct Listening Campaigns
At VOICE, we identify the burning issues that affect the lives of people in our community by holding listening campaigns using deep listening. This allows us to both identify issues of common concern, and identify potential leaders. (Read More)
3. Build Leaders
Leaders are community members who are willing and able to take action on an issue. The best leaders share specific qualities, and can be nurtured by organizers and other leaders. (Read more)
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4. Select Winnable Issues
Listening campaigns provide the general problems which affect people’s lives and where people want to see changes made but don’t individually have the power to affect systemic changes. They are generally broad and not actionable. Research is needed to pinpoint what issues are actionable and winnable changes that can be made. (Read more)
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5. Organize Actions
An Action is a public meeting community members affected by issues share their stories, and where decision makers commit to specific actions to address these problems. (Read more)
6. Encourage Accountability
We promote accountability by publicly celebrating victories and decision makers’ roles in making improvements in their communities. We use a variety of strategies when decision makers do not take actions they promised. (Read more)
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