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Equitable Development Initiative (EDI)
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NEW ONE DC Initiative!!
We proudly announce another new Initiative to support the growth and development of progressive organizing & popular education in DC.
ONE DC is seeking talented individuals with a recognized commitment to strategic community organizing, policy change and a justice based education process for a 1-year skills building and technical assistance project.
ONE DC’s Community Organizing & Popular Education Initiative seeks to build the capacity of individuals and/or organizations working District-wide around resident-led progressive organizing, campaign development and action planning.
The application process for Year 1 of the Initiative is now closed. Please send a us a letter of inquiry if you'd like to receive more information about Year 2 (beginning on June 2007).
On this page:
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ONE DC Trains 15 Progressive Organizers ONE DC's efforts to support the growth of community organizing capacity in the District and region have culminated in its newest project, the Community Organizing & Popular Education Initiative. Year 1 (2006-2007) participating organizations and individuals were identified and include:
From June 5th to June 9th, ONE DC provided participants with a 40+ hour weeklong intensive training, and is finishing the development of the year long technical assistance curriculum.
We sincerely thank supporting foundations, organizations and leaders for making this exciting project a reality, especially presenters and "mentors" that supported participants in their learning and with strategic planning during the Institute.
They include:
This is one of several training and technical assistance projects that we are undertaking in 2006.
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Progressive community organizing and popular education are at nascent stages in the District of Columbia. Given the city’s long history of colonialism, direct federal control, and racial and class segregation, generations of residents have learned to live under a system that debilitated the natural process of building a true grassroots-led voice. Furthermore, class chasms in communities of color, the establishment of a “charismatic leader” advocacy model, and the focus on service provision over systemic change, have created a city with few skilled, progressive organizers that move beyond advocacy to build the capacity of low-income residents to speak for themselves for sustainable policy change. Moreover, the culture of the city does not promote nor encourage an organizing approach that deals with the structural roots of community issues. The successful establishment of community organizing in the District has to start with a framework that fits its local culture and history. Attempts to institutionalize models successful to other regions continue to provide limited outcomes. Projects must begin with strategies to change a local culture rooted in:
Today, the District finds itself at a point of convergence, with residents, local community based organizations, and funders identifying the critical need for the establishment of a progressive community organizing tradition to counter the forces that are further segregating the city. ONE DC’s Community Organizing & Popular Education Initiative proposes to seed the District with trained, skilled, indigenous organizers, and to work with local organizations and institutions to insure that these seeds have fertile ground in which to grow. The development of this type of movement, which would ensure that the needs of the most overlooked are at the center of present and future policy decisions, is especially needed at this stage in the District’s history.
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About ONE DC (formerly Manna CDC) The mission of ONE DC is to exercise political strength to create and preserve racial and economic equity in Shaw and the District. Using a progressive framework of grassroots-led policy change and consciousness raising for systemic transformation, ONE DC seeks to strengthen movement building at the local, regional and national level. In its short history, Manna CDC/ONE DC has distinguished itself as one of a few organizations in Washington, DC that moves beyond service provision to build sustainable community capacity and leadership so that low-income people of color can speak and take action for themselves. From early on, ONE DC's approach to community development addressed structural causes of poverty and injustice, an orientation that stemmed from deep analysis of race, power, and the economic, political, and social forces at work in Shaw and the District. As a result, ONE DC’s equitable development work centers on popular education, community organizing, and alternative economic development projects. ONE DC promotes leadership that helps people take charge to build their abilities and skills based on their own experience, not to be told what is best for them; it is not about being the leader, but about building more shared leadership in the community to increase capacity for the long term. Finally, ONE DC recognizes that leadership cannot exist without the support and power of the whole community. Central to ONE DC’s leadership style is the identification and dismantling of systemic influences such as racism, classism and sexism that manifest both individually and institutionally.
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ONE DC Community Organizing & Pop Ed Initiative Local dialogue among advocacy and service provision agencies has repeatedly identified the absence of DC-based, skilled, progressive organizers with the ability to build policy campaigns and capacity in neighborhood and citywide projects. Limited budgets, staff time and technical assistance, organizational confusion as to the process and outcomes of community organizing, and the fear of alternatives to service-provision have hindered such organizations from changing their scope and approach to work. At the same time, the District of Columbia has many talented young and adult individuals with the potential to become successful professional organizers. A recurring theme of discussion, particularly among younger folk of color, is the lack of available support, mentorship, and technical information on community organizing. Consequently, many move towards advocacy or community building programs, others move away from the City to pursue their work in more sustainable environments, and others simply stop working in this field. In the last several years, a few local foundations began expressing an interest in the community organizing field, developing smaller scale initiatives to support and assess the potential of such work. ONE DC’s Initiative is well timed, building on the lessons learned from these initiatives and complementing the current efforts to leverage the knowledge and experience of regional organizing groups to support fledgling groups that are beginning to work in the organizing field. By focusing our efforts on indigenous DC organizers and organizations, we are poised to implement the best of these other efforts in a way that will respond directly to the culture and needs of the District. This Initiative proposes a 3-pronged approach to developing community organizing capacity in the District:
The Initiative is designed to support organizing around a variety of structural issues that deal with human rights and equitable development. It is not intended to build organizing capacity around specific issues, but rather to insure that there is effective, outcome-oriented popular education and progressive organizing practice applied to the interlocking issues that underlie structural poverty in the United States.
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ONE DC proposes to develop a three year pilot initiative that will train local organizers through an intensive institute and year-round technical support. Additionally, in years 2-3, ONE DC will develop more intensive technical assistance relationships with local organizations to increase their capacity to integrate organizers and organizing into their organizational culture and workplan. Simultaneously, ONE DC will develop relationships in the funding and evaluation community to demonstrate the impact of this work on the District’s neighborhoods, and to create more sustainable funding streams for organizing in the District. A cornerstone of each year of the Initiative will be an annual 5-day, 40-hour intensive institute for 8-10 local residents who have an interest in pursuing professional community organizing. The institute will focus on the use of progressive and strategic community organizing, policy change, and popular education. The training will be based on the “know-why” and “know-how” approach concentrating on:
MOSAICA & the Highlander Research & Education Center will be active partners in the development and implementation of Technical Assistance to participants.
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Using a learning circle and popular education approach the Institute will cover the following themes: Conceptual/Theoretical:
Practical:
Institute agenda synopsis: Day 1: Understanding & Building Relationships with the Community: Cultivating Leadership Day 2: Identifying Issues, Analyzing Structures & Teaching Others What You Know Day 3: Strategic Action Planning Day 4: Sustaining & Assessing the Work Day 5: Individual Strategic Action Planning & Institute Evaluation
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Continued Technical Assistance & Support To ensure the success and achievement of graduates in their projects and organizations of choice, ONE DC will provide the following:
MOSAICA & the Highlander Research & Education Center will be active partners in the development and implementation of Technical Assistance to participants as well as in the evaluation of the Initiative.
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Participant Recruitment & Selection Recruitment and selection will be conducted by a special team made up of ONE DC staff, as well as Initiative partners and supporters. Local organizations, resident groups and community leaders with an interest in developing capacity around community organizing and popular education will be contacted and given full details of the Initiative. ONE DC will seek to identify an equal number of participants from each DC quadrant, leaving 1-2 possible seats for representatives from outside of the District in an attempt to build a movement for regional equity. Participant Pre-requisites include:
The application packet will request the following:
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Evaluation will be two-pronged, focusing on the Initiative as a whole and the skills and understanding gained by participants. We will also evaluate the impact of the Initiative as a whole on the capacity of the District to support community organizing, popular education and grassroots led policy change. 1. Evaluation of Initiative Quantitative and qualitative assessment will center on Initiative development, funding, curriculum, organization, delivered TA, support from local, regional, national groups, etc. 2. Evaluation of Participants Quantitative and qualitative assessment will focus on leadership development, sophisticated understanding of systemic racism, classism, sexism, etc., analysis and understanding of campaign development and strategic planning, popular education skills and facilitation skills and the overall outcomes of using garnered knowledge in community organizing initiatives in the coming year.
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The Community Organizing and Popular Education Institute will be conducted for 5-days, 8 hrs/day, Monday, June 5 - Friday June 9, 2006. The Institute will culminate in the yearly ONE DC Shaw Freedom School on Saturday, June 10. This one-day, community conference consisting of bilingual/trilingual workshops, learning circles, community tours and panel discussions, is targeted to low-income residents of color in Shaw and the District.
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It has been documented throughout history that lasting policy change begins with a strong and sustainable grassroots leadership and movement. Raising the capacity of the most disenfranchised and poor in the District means a real transformation of a local culture that currently does not believe or understand the power of progressive community organizing for systemic change. Leaving behind a tradition of service provision and advocacy has proven a difficult road for local neighborhoods and organizations. This Initiative seeks to develop a true community-led platform by training community organizers and popular educators who will help put forward the voices of those left behind by a system that disregards human rights and justice.
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For More Information or To Apply... The application cycle is now closed. We thank you for your interest. Please contact us If you'd like to inquire about the 2007-2008 application process. If you have any other questions, please contact Dominic Moulden at dmoulden@onedconline.org or 202.232.2915
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