Community Projects As Social Activism

Community Projects as Social Activism: From Direct Action to Direct Services by Benjamin Shepard is an engaging and accessible work that will get today's students excited about the very real prospect of achieving lasting, positive change within their communities. It outlines a distinct approach to community practice born out of the intersection among social movements, day-to-day organizing, and the lessons of five decades of community change practices. This invaluable resource is a must-have for anyone involved in community organization, community health, and community activism practice research and policy.

Community Projects as Social Activism: From Direct Action to Direct Services by Benjamin Shepard is an engaging and accessible work that will get today's students excited about the very real prospect of achieving lasting, positive change within their communities. It outlines a distinct approach to community practice born out of the intersection among social movements, day-to-day organizing, and the lessons of five decades of community change practices. This invaluable resource is a must-have for anyone involved in community organization, community health, and community activism practice research and policy.

How do educators engage students in community action projects without telling them what to think, how to think, or what to do? Is it possible to integrate social justice organizing into the curriculum without imposing one’s political views on students? In Actions Speak Louder than Words, longtime activist and teacher educator Celia Oyler delves into such questions through firsthand accounts of social action projects. By moving beyond charity work or volunteerism, she shows how community activism projects offer fertile ground for practicing democratic engagement as part of classroom work. Actions Speak Louder than Words is a systematic, qualitative study offering in-depth and detailed portraits of teachers who design social action projects as part of the regular classroom curriculum. Each case forms a chapter organized as a narrative that includes excerpts from classroom dialogues, and interviews with students, teachers, and parents describing their social action projects with sufficient detail to give educators guidance for designing such projects for their own classrooms. The final chapter examines power, pedagogy, and learning outcomes across the cases, providing specific guidance to educators wishing to take up such projects and offering instructional and procedural advice as well as cautions. A fresh new example of taking up the challenge to teach toward equity and social justice, Actions Speak Louder than Words is an invaluable resource for educators who are passionate about the possibility of integrating activism and advocacy into curriculum as a means to engage in strong democracy.

Cover -- Copyright page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Classroom Action - Human Rights, Critical Activism, and Community-Based Education -- 1 Access Interventions: Experiments in Critical Community Engagement -- 2 The Guelph Speaks! Anthology: Storytelling as Praxis in Community-Facing Pedagogy -- 3 In Action / Inaction: Political Theatre, Social Change, and Challenging Privilege -- 4 Is This Project "Skin Deep"? Looking Back at a Community-Facing Photo-Art Initiative -- 5 Reflections on Dialogic Theatre for Social Change: Co-creation of The Other End of the Line -- Coda: Sign Up Here -- Webography: Human Rights Education: Resources for Research and Teaching -- Works Cited -- Contributors -- Index

Experienced community organizer and professor Patricia Spindel provides a practical guide for producing change through community action and social activism in the updated second edition of Changing Communities. Spindel explores who has power in society and how communities can mobilize to create positive change by building capacity, developing community structures, and taking direct action to shift power relations. Outlining a practical approach to asset mapping, creating community economic development strategies, and critiquing some current approaches to community development, the chapters cover topics including the impact of corruption and the influence of powerful interests, community strengths and needs assessment, community-based research, various community development strategies, and the principles and some of the tactics used in community organization. Equipped with case studies and practical examples, this fundamental guide is an essential resource for students in community development, social service work, gerontology, and other human services and helping professions. FEATURES - Includes a community strengths-based assessment framework developed by the author, referred to as the Strengths, Assets, Challenges, and Opportunities Assessment (SACO) - Offers case studies and practical examples from Canada and the United States - Provides students with practical knowledge on how to build powerful coalitions, raise funds for grassroots projects, and deal with the press and social media, including how to write a press release

This is the long-awaited revision of a well-known and widely used text in community organizing. The text provides a comprehensive introduction to the wide variety of approaches that guide social change, social activism, and community building work. Community Organizing and Development links various theories of organizing to the techniques and tactics of practice. It is vividly illustrated by dozens of real-life practice examples. It balances descriptions of protest actions and visible projects with the behind-the-scenes routines that make such work possible. The text describes and illustrates the skills and organizational techniques needed to undertake successful community projects, such as converting a former crack house into safe, clean, affordable housing.

Drawing on over 30 years of experience in community development practice, Shragge offers students and professionals an historical look at community organizing and local activism from its development in 1960 to the contemporary practices of today's young activists, adding his personal reflections along the way. In the process, he makes links between a variety of forms of local organizing and the broader goal of fundamental social change. The book begins with the author's reflection on several of his experiences in community organizing practice over the past 30 years as an introduction to his basic themes. The second chapter explores various theoretical models as well as historical traditions of community organizing with practice examples drawn from Quebec. The third chapter presents a survey of contributions to social action organizing from Saul Alinsky to the New Left, feminist, and other social movements, highlighting lines of continuity among and between them. The fourth chapter examines contemporary trends in, and problems associated with, community development practice, including a critical discussion of the community economic development model. Drawing on in-depth interviews, the fifth chapter analyses the future of local activism by integrating the voices and visions of young activists with theory and practice. The final chapter offers a way to understand the history, theory, and practice of local activism and community organizing within the context of the broader fight for social change. All royalties from this book will be contributed to the Immigrant Workers Centre, Montreal.

This collection of articles and artwork examines inclusive community development education, which engages members of diverse, often marginalised groups in research and education for social change. Community development education is the democratic and scholarly practice of involving everyday people, from all backgrounds, in the research-based process of designing, starting, and evaluating programs that meet people's needs. The book's varied contributions serve as personalised invitations to: work with others as equals, join democratic social projects, talk to people "you wouldn't have talked to before", value self-education, recognise contributions made by unpaid workers, invent ways to be non-violent, challenge passivity, and use democracy as a way to improve communities and the world. Addressing culture to science, chapters contain work carried out by younger and older scholarly activists in: Women's Studies, anti-racist and anti-colonial studies, history, the social sciences, global studies, community studies, media studies, horticulture, philosophy, education, co-operatives and community service, social-movement organising, project development, political art, and popular music. Each chapter contains diverse themes, comes from multidisciplinary research, and speaks to the subject of education for social change in individual ways. Contributions focus on popular education, self-education, self-defined group education, group-defined university projects, and scholarly activism in local to global movements.