Community
Organizing is one of many strategies for influencing public and/or
private policies and addressing community concerns. However, Community Organizing is the only approach
that commits all of its resources and energy to building and supporting
the power of the people directly impacted by the issues being addressed
to effectively communicate and work for community change and sustainability.
Organizers believe in the ability of regular folks to guide their lives,
speak for themselves and determine the best choices for their communities.
Community Organizing can take numerous forms and speak to many different
concerns. Examples could include:
- Holding a rally and press conference to protest the eviction of residents and subsequent demolition of affordable housing.
- Organizing midnight basketball games to give youth a healthy alternative to drinking and/or drugs.
- Forming a neighborhood daycare collective.
- Petitioning to block the development of a large corporation moving into a neighborhood that would cause the closure of multiple local small businesses, bring in a high volume of traffic, and divert resources from the local economy.
- Creating a community garden.
- Participating in public hearings to voice opposition to a toxic waste hazard in the neighborhood.
SOMCAN’s
Community Organizing and Advocacy efforts have included the following:
-
SOMCAN has supported resident organizing and advocacy around issues of housing and displacement by working closely with the Trinity Plaza Tenants Association (TPTA) and the United SoMa Residents Organizers (USRO). The goal is to develop a core of leaders that can establish community goals/priorities, work for appropriate policy change, lead community organizing efforts and hold city officials accountable for implementing new policies and meeting community needs.
- SOMCAN facilitated
and convened meetings among neighborhood organizations to negotiate
and reach a common strategy for addressing concerns associated with
the Continental development hotel project on Fifth/Howard Steets
in SoMa. This work included:
- Bringing 16 community organizations together to develop a collective strategy for addressing community concerns;
- Mobilizing community turnout to EIR and Planning Commission hearings in opposition to the project;
- Pressuring the developer to drop additional condominiums from the project;
- Forming a core collaborative of 6 organizations to address negative community impact of the project;
- Effectively securing support from the Transportation and Commerce Committee of the Board of Supervisors to hold the project in Committee;
- Reaching a Community Benefits Agreement with the developer to provide $700,000 towards resident capacity building in the South of Market.