STRENGTHENING

DEMOCRACY IN THE
GRASSROOTS…
...THROUGH
COMMUNITY
ORGANIZING
May 18th Asian Human Rights Folk School

Aug. 19, 2008

Ms Jessica E. Amon
CO Trainer
Community Organizer Multiversity
 Why Community
Organizing?
Community
organizing provided
the opportunity for
the people to
enhance knowledge,
skills and attitudes
needed to address
issues.
 Community Organizing
 It is a process
 It is learned through an
experiential process
 It is a method for organizing poor
communities
 Why do we organize
people?
 One of the sources of power of
the poor is their number
 But number without change of
values and attitudes is not power
 What are the poor’s
attitudes that make them
powerless?
 Tendency to run away from
responsibilities
 Tendency to oppress fellow poor
people
 Tendency to depend on chance or
that a superpower will fight the
enemy for them
 Tendency to put oneself down
 How is community organizing
done?
 There are steps that have been
proven to be effective in making
people act on their issues.
 The dialogical method is used
 Strategies and Tactics are used to
enable the poor to assert their
rights.
 The Basic CO Concepts:
 The poor have their number and this is a
source of power.
 People can make things happen once they
decide to do something
 Continuous oppression radicalizes the people
 People act on the basis of their self-interest
 Start from simple to complex
After deep analysis of issues with the
people, the people make the decision
 start where the people are but do not end
where they are
Situation of the Urban
Poor
Today
Collective assertion of citizenship rights
in front
of Quezon City Hall resulted in a dialogue
between ULAP and Acting Mayor Herbert
Bautista.

Senate:
Demanding Government
Accountability to the Poor by
Pushing for Legislative Inquiry
 There is power in
number. But warm
bodies alone
without collective
consciousness is not
power.

Participatory Decision-Making
Process
in the community is the path to
collective self-determination.
 Community
Organizer
Multiversity
(COM)

A VISION, A PLACE,
A PEOPLE
 In 1994, the Community Organizers
Training Research and Advocacy Institute
(CO Train) was founded by community
organizers and social development professionals
to create a learning institution in which
knowledge, skills and orientation of
development practitioners could be continually
improved to adapt to changing situations.

In 1998, CO Train evolved into

Community Organizers Multiversity
(CO Multiversity)
 CO Multiversity
 CO Multiversity is a capability building
institution that promotes empowerment
of communities.
 It aims to respond to the difficult
challenges faced by the marginalized
communities in addressing the impact
of poverty brought about by the
globalization process.
 VISION:
Empowered
Communities

MISSION:
Develop, enhance and nurture
committed Community
Organizers, CO trainers,
People’s Organization and
other Development
 Goals
 To produce and nurture
committed community organizers
and leaders of People’s
Organization
 To enhance the issue-based CO
methodology
 To build and promote working
models on community organizing
 To work for the acceptance of CO
framework by policy makers or
other decision makers.
 Strategies
1. Training of
Community
Organizers and
People’s
Organizations in
the identified
learning centers.
2. CO Consultancies
3. Promotion of
issue-based
Community
Organizing as tool
for people
 Strategies
1. Documentation
and Popularization
2. Linkages
3. Assisting people’s
process in
engaging in
electoral
processes
 Programs
1. Capacity building and enhancement of
Community Organizers, CO trainers and
People’s Organization

 Training and organizing process revolves

around issues on land and housing rights,
ancestral domain, peace and development
and basic services issues.
 Programs
Provides hands on/experiential methods
of training on the following courses in
Community Organizing:

 Basic Community Organizing Course

 Advance Community Organizing Course
 Trainers’ Training Course in Community
Organizing
 Programs
1. People’s School: Provides leadership
courses to People’s Organization
 Topics on situation analysis, facilitating
skills, organizational mechanics skill,
self-awareness, concept of power,
community organizing and other
related topics.
2. CO Consultancy Training
3. Provide CO Orientations,
forum, seminars
5. Gender Mainstreaming
THANK YOU!