The Change Engine
Community Organizing
Want to change something in your community? This path shows you how. Learn to bring people together, plan campaigns, run meetings, and build power — the way real organizers do it.
Intermediate 350 min 6 modules
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Modules
6 modules1
Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.
— Dolores Huerta
What Is Community Organizing?
An introduction to the roots and philosophy of community organizing, from Chicago origins through the Civil Rights Movement and the United Farm Workers. Explores how ordinary people have built collective power to win change.
Marshall Ganz on Making Social Movements Matter (Bill Moyers) PBS VOCES — Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers Marshall Ganz — Organizing: People Power ChangeSolidarity Forever — Pete Seeger
60 min introductory
Objectives: Define community organizing and distinguish it from advocacy and charity, Trace the historical arc from labor movements through civil rights, Identify core principles: self-interest power relationships collective action, Recognize contributions of Chavez Huerta and Baker
2
Voting rights is the pinnacle power in our country. Our ability to participate in government is contingent upon our ability to access the ballot.
— Stacey Abrams
Power Mapping
Learn to analyze power dynamics in your community — who holds decision-making power, who influences them, and where your leverage points are. This module teaches you to create power maps to design winning campaign strategies.
Marshall Ganz — Community Organizing and Collective Impact 350.org — Power Mapping Activity & WorksheetEl Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido — Quilapayun
55 min interactive
Objectives: Distinguish between power over and power with and power to, Create a power map identifying targets allies and opponents, Analyze institutional power structures, Identify leverage points and pathways to influence
3
Strong people don't need strong leaders. What is needed is the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership among other people.
— Ella Baker
Building a Team
The one-on-one relational meeting is the cornerstone of organizing. This module covers how to recruit, build trust, identify shared interests, and develop leaders from within the community.
Resistance School — How to Build Capacity for Action How to Do Relational Organizing (video + worksheet) Power Shift — Base Building 101: RecruitmentA Change Is Gonna Come — Sam Cooke
55 min practical
Objectives: Conduct an effective one-on-one relational meeting, Identify and develop potential leaders, Build distributed leadership structure, Practice recruitment conversations grounded in shared values
4
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.
— Fannie Lou Hamer
Running Effective Meetings
Meetings are where organizing happens — or falls apart. This module teaches practical facilitation skills: setting agendas, managing group dynamics, making decisions collectively, and keeping people engaged.
Resistance School — How to Sustain the Resistance Resistance School — How to Launch a Canvass Training for Change — Facilitation ToolsWhich Side Are You On? — Florence Reece / Pete Seeger
50 min practical
Objectives: Design a meeting agenda with clear purpose and outcomes, Facilitate inclusive discussions, Handle conflict and dominant voices constructively, Close meetings with clear next steps and commitments
5
Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride.
— Cesar Chavez
Campaign Strategy
Learn the strategic framework for designing a winning campaign: how to choose an issue that builds power, set achievable goals, identify targets, and select escalating tactics. Draws on the Midwest Academy strategy chart and Beautiful Trouble's creative tactics.
NPR — Obama's Evolution From Organizer to Politician Beautiful Trouble — Choose Tactics That Support Your StrategyAlright — Kendrick Lamar
65 min strategic
Objectives: Apply issue selection criteria: widely felt deeply felt winnable builds power, Use the Midwest Academy strategy chart, Distinguish between strategies tactics and actions, Design an escalation plan that builds momentum
6
By the time I left the farmworkers, I had learned that to try organizing without a story is to try organizing without a heart.
— Marshall Ganz
Storytelling for Change
Marshall Ganz's Public Narrative framework teaches organizers to move people to action through three interlocking stories: Story of Self (why you care), Story of Us (our shared values), and Story of Now (the urgent call to action).
Marshall Ganz — Public Narrative Online Course (15 videos) Marshall Ganz — Story of Self Demo Ganz — What Is Public Narrative (Harvard working paper)Freedom — Beyonce ft. Kendrick Lamar
65 min workshop
Objectives: Craft a Story of Self connecting personal experience to values, Build a Story of Us articulating shared community identity, Deliver a Story of Now with urgency hope and a call to action, Coach others in developing their own public narratives
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