By: Lindsay Stolkey, GREAT Organizer & Founder
This entry comes from parts of a grant proposal submitted to a local funder who is very intentional about their values and practices.
[paraphrased] How does your organization do its work through strategies of 1) reimagining and 2) power building?
GREAT’s foundation began with reimagining, which is intricately connected to our power-building. We considered the Community Land Trust model as an alternative to the traditional housing system. From there we expanded our thinking, gathering at potlucks to create a vision rooted in our shared desires and needs. Out of this visioning, GREAT took shape.
One of our first projects was a Learning Circle, a collaborative learning model where folks analyze existing systems and alternatives, as a form of political education. This helps us start new projects and deepen our knowledge for existing ones. It is also a tool for recruitment and relationship-building. Presently we have a Learning Circle running on “Grassroots Fundraising and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex,” which will conclude with the group developing recommendations to GREAT’s Steering Committee, and in the Fall evolving into a Fundraising Committee. We have two Summer Learning Circles on “Gentrification & Germantown,” which will lead to the groups identifying “special topics” for further study.
Several of our community gatherings have been discussion / brainstorm / visioning-oriented, where we invite folks to be creative. We acknowledge that there are problems which have brought us together, we do the political education and power analysis, but we do not focus all of our attention on the problems, because we want to create solutions. These gatherings are how most folks come to be more deeply involved, so are a source of connection and base-building. We often start there, and transition into tangible projects, of a scale which we can manage, where we have power. Our housing work is currently in this transitional stage, and at our last meeting in early June, nearly thirty people came together to jumpstart four concrete housing projects, in working groups that are continuing to meet through the Summer.
We’ve been finding support, for our housing work in particular, through local faith communities, Reclaim, and POWER, among other small groups.
We strive for deeply collective neighborhood leadership, and have been building our capacity to the extent funding allows, to provide compensation that makes participation possible for folks who otherwise may not have the privilege of committing the time and energy. We have several leaders and leadership bodies within GREAT, and are driven by Committees. Paid roles help to connect dots. We use a Community Connectors model to provide ongoing support to Block Captains and other leaders in developing their own solutions to community problems.
Beyond reimagining, we are modeling and practicing what we imagine. Our model creates tangible projects to demonstrate the change we envision, shift the local culture and values, and in doing so meet real needs for material needs and non-material needs. Swaps, seed exchanges, and the mutual aid fund are examples. Through this collective action we create real solutions and build a solid neighborhood-wide network, from which any community organizing can stem.
How does your organization's work seek justice?
We seek justice through hyperlocal collective power, collective care, economic alternatives, culture shift, collective learning, and community organizing. Rather than focusing on governmental institutions, we develop neighborhood power to create neighborhood solutions to neighborhood problems. Our movement is within Germantown, however we believe our work can inspire other communities to mobilize change in their own ways.
Through our housing work, and emergency preparedness, we are mobilizing the power of collectives. Via community-building and community organizing, we are offering tools that encourage people to look out for their neighbors, and amplify the stories of those already doing so. Our Organizer’s Guide for Emergency Preparedness includes tools for building a phone tree, identifying resources, skills, and needs of folks on the block, planning an emergency meeting place, and a system of assisting folks who could otherwise get left behind. Every neighbor is valued.
We also seek justice by practicing our values internally. When a member is going through a difficult time, folks connect and offer their support- with caregiving or financial assistance for example. We honor our needs for rest and healing. We are flexible and accommodating.
We support each other’s leadership development, to attend workshops and trainings spanning topics such as facilitation to seed-saving to community-self-reliance to coalition-building. In doing so, we build our capacity to be a strong organization of neighborhood residents working together toward shared goals of food sovereignty, housing justice, community resilience, and well-being.
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