Public Policy and Community Service 200

Community Organizing
Spring Semester, 2015
T-Th 11:00-12:20
Wiley 218

Travis Proffitt, professor

Office: Appalachian Center
Phone: 6691
tproffitt@ehc.edu
Office Hours: 8:00-4:00 MTWTF and by appointment
This course is about community organizing. The skills and concepts this class will
discuss and explore have to do with all levels and means and intents of organizing.
Organizing can be bringing together the members of a church youth group for a
yard sale or bake sale, or coordinating the parents in local school district to lobby
for increased school funding, or working to build alliances for social change, such as
the Civil Rights Movement, the Textile Strike of 1934 or the Pittston Strike in Russell
and Dickenson counties of 1989. This course introduces students to the rationale,
goals, tactics, and strategies of community organizing, on all these levels,
examining how people get power and how democracy is built. Differing models of
community organization and their related values, goals, processes, and strategies
are explored. Brief histories of citizen and social movements, along with profiles of
individual organizers are offered to demonstrate how and why people become
involved in their communities. Central to this semester-long conversation will be a
critical examination of the concepts hegemony and ideology and their relationship
to personal identity, social formations, and community organizing. The course
builds also from the concepts and experiences democracy, place, public life,
conflict, politics, community, fear, hope, and civic vision.
Resting at the center of this course is the premise that in the American context all
organizing for social change and justice, all organizing for community-focused work
whether it be large projects or small, the struggle to articulate and realize new
visions for our places and ourselves begins with the long and difficult processes that
result in personal and collective ideological change. Students are expected to
participate in a hands-on community organizing project, which will take place in the
town of Marion, Virginia. Guest speakers, films, and music will complement course
readings and class discussion.
There are five general goals for this course.

1. To provide knowledge about the context of community organizing practices

and the history of social change in the United States
2. To explore differing models of community organizing and their related values,
goals, strategies and tactics
3. To provoke thinking about how political change occurs and the advantages
and limits of various strategies of change;
4. To give students an opportunity to develop and practice basic community
organizing skills;
5. To encourage reflection on our political identity and on ways to integrate it
with other parts of our lives so that political meaning is a part of everyday
life, rather than a process in which others are engaged.
Growing from these general goals for the class, there are seven specific goals for
individual students:
1. Students will demonstrate a working knowledge of and effectively apply the
concepts of place, ideology, hegemony, individualism, culture, cultural and
social conflicts, social change, and social justice.
2. Students will be able to discuss the interrelatedness of these concepts, and
their influence in social movements and how they interact to define questions
and issues of social justice.
3. Students will acquire skills in recruiting and organizing, applying these
foundational concepts.
4. Students will demonstrate an understanding of several movements for justice
in American history, and be able to identify and discuss how the foundational
concepts already outlined were active forces in those movements.
5. Students will be able to discuss the social and relational character of political
identity, political struggle, and social change.
6. Students will work to articulate a vision of social change for which they want
to work in their lives.
7. Students will be able to articulate their own political identity, demonstrating
the ways that the foundational concepts for this course have affected who
they are becoming.
This class asks much of students. As a class in community organizing, students are
asked to think of themselves as organizers, learning what it means to be a
community organizer by becoming a community organizer. Working in organizing
teams, students will be engaged with the community, working with others to plan,
implement, and carry through with ideas or visions for our shared project. The
organizing effort in which each team is engaged will build on the work of persons
that have gone before, and will lay the foundation for future work. As such,
students will also learn what it means to organize for sustainability of organizations,
of movements, and of communities.
The classroom portion of the course will provide students with the philosophical,
theoretical, and historical groundings necessary for effective organizing and civic
leadership. The course also offers a series of readings and hands-on sessions
designed to provide practical tools for organizers, tools applicable in the organizing
projects undertaken as a part of this course.
This course brings together experience, theory, critical thinking, and hard study to
provide the necessary opportunities for reflection. Honest and systematic reflection

is central to the course because in joining organizing experiences with the learning
offered through the texts, students will come to understand that there are a range
of ways for persons to be activists and organizers. The tools, insights, histories,
experiences, and theories the course will address are equally applicable to efforts at
broad social movements, local efforts to build healthy communities in rural and
urban places, or the work of an individual or a team of persons seeking to bring
change to a school system or even one school. All of this is community organizing;
all of this is politics; all of this is important; all of this is part of what it means to be
an active, engaged citizenry organizing for a vibrant and enduring democracy for all
persons. None of this can happen without a vision, an idea about the world we
would like to inhabit. While never easy, reflection is the process by which this vision
evolves. And this, really, is the nub. We are here not just because of the tools,
history, and the models of organizing, but for the vision that gives organizing its
blood and bones, its life and breath. As a class we are building a community to
work together, to join organizing experiences to life experiences to classroom
learning in order to provide the tools necessary to envision the world we want to
inhabit and the world we want to make possible for ourselves, our neighbors, and
the children who will come after us in the places of our lives.
Welcome to this journey. You bring much to this effort and I am honored to be able
to learn from you.
Required Texts:
Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, Steve Max. Organizing for Social Change: Midwest
Academy Manual for Activists. Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks Press. 2001.
Linda Stout. Bridging the Class Divide. Boston: Beacon Press. 1996.
Required Reading Excerpts From:
Saul Alinsky. Rules for Radicals.
Mary Ann Hinsdale, Helen Lewis, Maxine Waller. It Comes from the People.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1995.
Paul Loeb. The Impossible Will Take a Little While. New York: Basic Books. 2014.
Paul Loeb. Soul of a Citizen. New York: St. Martins Griffin. 2010
Paulo Freire. Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Ellen Ryan. Building Public Relationships: The Cornerstone of Our Approach. Virginia
Organizing Toolbox
Ellen Ryan. Why Organize? Virginia Organizing Toolbox
Kristin Szakos, Joe Szakos. We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About
What They Doand Why. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. 2007
Henry David Thoreau. Walden and Civil Disobedience. New York: Signet Classics.
1980.
Others As Assigned

Class Schedule:
Readings
T 1/13

Th 1/15

M 1/19

T 1/20

Th 1/22

T 1/27

Friere;
Palmer

Topic/Question
Course Introduction/Who
Are We? Why are we
here? Telling our story.
Educational philosophy of
this course. Introduction
to ORGANIZING PROJECT
and Class ePortfolio

Organizing
Work/Assignment Due
One-on-Ones

MLK Observance
Keynote Address:
Muhammad Ali, Islam and Civil Rights
in Multi-Religious America
Dr. Martyn Oliver
Monday, January 19, 10 a.m.
Memorial Chapel
Basic understandings;
learning to question the
norm.

Foundational
Definitions;
Civil
Disobedience
; Loeb 249252
Organizer in Action! GUEST LECTURE: Helen Ryde
Regional Organizer, Reconciling Ministries Network, Asheville, NC
www.rmnetwork.org
Alinsky
Foundational readings in
ALL PPCS 200 STUDENTS
Rules for
organizing.
WILL BE REQUIRED TO
Radicals
VOLUNTEER AT LEAST ONCE
AT THE MARION SENIOR
CENTER.
DATES ARE: JAN. 27-30 AND
FEB. 3-6. SIGN UP WITH
CARTER BAUMAN

(bbauman13@ehc.edu)
-REFLECTION 1 DUE-ePortfolio submission 1
dueFrom Holston to Liffey: Learning and
Working Abroad in Ireland
Tuesday, January 27, 7:30 p.m.
Van Dyke Center, Board of Visitors Lounge

T 1/27

Th 1/29

T 2/3

Th 2/5

T 2/10

M 2/9
or
T 2/10

Szakos
vi11-27;
Ryan Why
Organize?
Organize! 221; Stout
Foreword
p.11; Loeb
21-63

Stout 12-27;
Sociological
Imagination;
Organize!
22-46
Stout 28-45;
Organize!
48-69, 110126

Organizing fundamentals.
Learning from anothers
story

Problems vs. Issues;

Growing up poor.

Teams will begin

coordinating their organizing
activities in Marion.
Identifying neighborhoods,
civic organizations,
churches, community
partners, etc
Teams will begin
coordinating logistics to
carry out organizing
activities in Marion.

Becoming an Activist; A
Guide to Tactics.

Required Film: Pride

Monday & Tuesday, Feb. 9-10: 4 & 7:30 p.m.
The Cinemall: Abingdon, Virginia
Based on a true story, a London-based group of
gay and lesbian activists raise money to support the
families of striking mine workers. The two groups
struggle, mightily, to learn to stand together.

Th 2/12

T 2/17

Th 2/19

T 2/24

Stout 46-68;
Creating a model for social
-REFLECTION 2 DUEOrganize!
change; Designing Actions
-ePortfolio submission 2
70-79, 128due139
Stout 69-85;
Planning session;
Teams will begin conducting
Ryan
Relationship Building
organizing activities in
Building
Marion. Neighborhood
Public
canvassing, focus groups,
Relationships
etc

Organizer in Action! GUEST LECTURE: Marta Cogburn

Interim Director, Jubilee Project, Sneedville, TN
www.jubileeproject.holston.org
Stout 86-116 Why arent we winning?

Th 2/26
T 3/3

Stout 117140
Stout 141155

Th 3/5

Midterm
Exam

T 3/10

SPRING
BREAK
SPRING
BREAK
Stout 156170

Th 3/12
T 3/17

Th 3/19
T 3/24

Th 3/26
T 3/31

Th 4/2

T 4/7

Th 4/9

T 4/14

Th 4/16

M 4/20

-REFLECTION 3 DUE
-ePortfolio submission 3
dueAll initial organizing
activities in Marion must be
completed before spring
break.

What happens when we

begin to win?

Teams will begin analyzing

information, conducting
additional research, and
begin the stages of planning
for the Marion Town Council
presentation.

Stout 171190
Hinsdale,
Case Study : Ivanhoe, VA
Waller, Lewis introduction
pp.1-41
FOUNDERS
DAY
Organizer in Action! GUEST LECTURE: Brian Johns
Southwest Virginia Organizer/Organizing Director, Virginia Organizing
Project, Abingdon, VA
www.virginia-organizing.org
Hinsdale,
Organizing and Mobilizing
-REFLECTION 4 DUEWaller, Lewis the Community
-ePortfolio submission 4
pp.42-64
dueHinsdale,
Getting Educated for
Continued preparation for
Waller, Lewis Change
Marion Town Council
pp.79-101
presentation.
Hinsdale,
Utilizing Culture in
Waller, Lewis Community Development
pp.102-126
Hinsdale,
Participatory Research
Waller, Lewis
pp. 153172
Hinsdale,
Confronting and Using
Dress Rehearsal of Marion
Waller, Lewis Power; Leadership
Town Council presentation.
pp. 65-78,
Development
127-152
MARION
FINAL PRODUCT OF
TOWN
ORGANIZING PROJECT!
COUNCIL

T 4/21

Th 4/23

Hinsdale,
Waller, Lewis
pp 329-336
LAST DAY OF
CLASS

GRADE DISTRIBUTION:
Class Participation
Quizzes
120
Written Reflections
Midterm Exam
80
Organizing Project
Final Exam
TOTAL 55

Lessons Learned

-REFLECTION 5 DUE-

-FINAL ePortfolio
unveiling-

75
80
100
100

GRADING SCALE:
A: 555-516
A-: 515-499
B+: 498-482
B: 481-455
B-: 454-444
C+: 443-427
C: 426-410
C-: 409-388
D+: 387-371
D: 370-355
D-: 354-333
F: 332
Quizzes
There will be 14 unannounced 10-point quizzes on the reading material. The lowest
two grades will be dropped. If the student misses class and hence a quiz because of
a college-sponsored and announced event (sports team travel) or if the student is ill
and misses class and hence a quiz, the student may make that quiz up. However,
the student must do this within three days of the absence and on the students own
initiative; the instructor will not take responsibility for asking the student to take the
make-up quiz. Moreover, should a student arrive late to class, hence missing a quiz,
and it is a tardiness not related to either of the outlined reasons, the student may
not make up that quiz.

Exams
There will be two major exams in this course. The midterm exam will consist of
both a significant paper (5-7 pages in length) and an in-class oral exam portion.
The final exam will ask students to apply their cumulative knowledge and

experience in community organizing for a significant written project (8-10 pages in

length.) Specific formats for these exams will be discussed in class.
Class Participation
Students are expected to come prepared to discuss the assigned reading and their
organizing projects each day. You will be graded on (a) the seriousness of your
effort (i.e., whether or not you come to class prepared, and whether or not you are
physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually present); (b) the nature of your
interaction with other class members (i.e., whether you listen carefully and
respectfully to what others say, your willingness to challenge others and defend
your points of view, and whether you provide opportunity and encouragement for
others to participate); (c) your contributions to any small group discussions; (d) your
willingness to interact thoughtfully with guest speakers; (e) your willingness to
share experiences related to your organizing project; (f) your participation in any
formal oral presentations related to your project and\or various assigned topics; and
(g) the quality of your overall effort. Part of effective class participation also means
that all phones, texting devices, i-pods, and other electronics will be turned off. This
will also include all laptops and i-pads. Students who are observed using cell
phones, texting, utilizing other social networking programs or devices, or employing
laptops and i-pads during class will find their class participation grade significantly
and adversely affected.
Attendance
Students are expected to attend all classes and will be penalized for more than one
absence. Five points will be deducted from the final grade for each absence over
one.

Project
Organizing opportunities, logs, requirements, and deadlines will be discussed during
the first two weeks of class. Individual project grades will be based on (a)
successful completion and the quality of the project; (b) the quality of the reflection
writing throughout the semester; (c) quality of the final project essay; (d)
willingness to carry your load in your organizing group and to participate in and
encourage honest and empowering group dynamics; (e) willingness to maintain an
open and honest dialogue with all parties associated with the project; (f) thoughtful
and honest assessment of your own work and the work of your co-organizers; and
(g) your faithfulness in meeting all deadlines and attending all meetings associated
with your project. Five points will be deducted from the final course grade each time
a reflection assignment is not complete and handed in when required.
Responsibility for Guest Presentations and Film Showings
There are a number of guest presentations and film showings planned for class
sessions. Readings have been designed to supplement, complement, and expand
upon these presentations and showings. The student is responsible for coming to
class prepared to discuss critically and thoughtfully the issues of the day. The
student is responsible for coming to class prepared to interact with guest
presenters, raising relevant questions and issues. The quality of interaction with
presenters will weigh mightily in students class participation grades. In the case of
film showings, students will need to take notes, identifying major themes and issues
of the course as they are represented in the film/s.
Rituals, Opening Questions
Nearly every class session will begin with a class ritual. Each student will be given
opportunity to select a quote, bring song lyrics, poem, a work of art, or some other
expression that corresponds or relates to the readings and topics for discussion on
that day. This ritual should not be more than a minute or two in length. Following
the opening ritual, the student will then be responsible for posing a question to the
class that directly relates to the readings assigned for that day. These questions will
be the basis for the start of the conversation. By this means, students will have
opportunity both to share of themselves and to shape the direction of conversation
on the day they have the ritual. The question the student brings must refer back to
the readings for the day and/or the general direction and content of class
discussions over the immediately previous sessions. The student who has the ritual
at a class session will then hand off the quote book to another student, who will
then have the responsibility for the ritual and opening question at the next class
session. Sound preparation, thoughtfulness, and insightfulness of questions will
count positively toward the class participation grade. Lack of preparation will also
reflect in the class participation grade.
Academic Support

Your academic advisor may help you to navigate any obstacles to success. In
addition, please contact the Powell Resource Center for help with special challenges
to learning. If you have a documented disability that will present a difficulty in this
course or experience problems that will interfere with success in this course, please
discuss this with your instructor immediately. If you have an accommodation plan,
you will know to arrange a meeting with me to discuss your needs. Sometimes
personal stress affects the academic experience. The Powell Center is a good place
to start if you are having issues that affect learning. Call 6144, or stop by Wiley
220.

Creative practice isof many kinds. It can be the long and difficult
struggle at the roots of the mindnot casting off an ideology or learning
phrases about it, but confronting a hegemony in the fibers of the self and
in the hard practical substance of relationships.
Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature