I met Andrew Friedman Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York yesterday. Make the Road is the largest community organising group in New York and consists of over 9,000 members (who pay a membership fee). The organisation started in the late 90's. As recent law school graduates Andrew and a colleague felt that they wanted to support disadvantaged communities to become their own advocates rather than profiting out of advocating on their behalf. Their initial time working in the communities of New York identified that there was an overwhelming need to bring communities together to instigate change and the discrimination they were experiencing and so their organising mission began which has grown considerably over the past 14 years.
Walking into the Make the Road office reminded me very much of walking into one of our neighbourhood bases in Great Yarmouth. It acted very much as an outreach point for services; credit union, youth programmes, food bank etc, but also a focal point for community organising and a base for staff working throughout Brooklyn. Its focus population is the Latino and immigrant population of New York, making up about 40% of the cities population. The office appeared to be a hive of activity, with meetings and drop-ins happening as I was there. Andrew was only able to afford me a 45 min slot in his car as we drove through downtown Brooklyn to a meeting in Manhattan. During that time I learnt a bit more of their model of community organising. Unlike the purist model of organising in the United States, Make the Road also offers the direct delivery of services and gets some government funding to do so. Andrew explained that this often provides a hook to get people involved in organising and recognises that for some people in crisis, their fundamental needs have to be met before even contemplating collective action to challenge the unequal distribution of power. As their membership grows on a monthly basis so too does their ability to outreach and develop further campaigns and programmes. They have a number of campaigns at present, including equality in the work place, young people and GLBT programmes, each of these have organising committees. The meeting structure of Make the Road is very frequent with committees meeting weekly. This is to ensure greater community ownership and capacity to lead campaigns. All of these programmes are facilitated by a community organiser. Interestingly the funding for Make the Road comes from a combination of government funding (for service delivery) and private foundations (for organising activities). I had read that faith bodies are key sponsors of community organising in the United States, although Andrew explained that this wasn't the case for Make the Road as they activiely support campaigns for GLBT communities and reproductive rights programmes - which isn't compatible with some of the views of faith sponsors.
For people who know Great Yarmouth I had heard that its American twin could be found a few miles out of New York City, so where better than to spend Friday afternoon with my New York host Ginny than on the Coney Island promenade eating "fish and chips" (well the American equivalent). Coney Island is a popular summer destination for New Yorkers, complete with it's funfairs, kiss me quick image and miles of sandy beaches. In its heyday it was one of the most popular seaside destinations on the east coast, but in recent years has waned in popularity and suffers a range of associated problems - particularly given the seasonal nature of the local economy. I felt the need to visit Coney Island if only to cure my homesickness and yes it was very similar to Great Yarmouth. Interestingly a grassroots organisation "Save Coney Island" has emerged as an organising group to protect and preserve the community of Coney Island. There has been considerable investment in the redevelopment of the area leading to what locals feel is likely to be the gentrification of the neighbourhood. The group have been running a number of campaigns to influence the process and have won a number of concessions to date.
Both the Make the Road and Coney Island examples of community organising provide immediate examples of community organising in the USA, both appear to be about challenging power bases, a sense of social justice and a tangible cause. Andrew was very clear about the organising model which has a distinct role about "challenging power bases". In a sense it seems far more political than community development in the UK but has equal emphasis on community empowerment.
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