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Community Organizing and Our Precious Sense of Hope

Those working on the ground help us listen deeply and dream big, says the founder of the Democracy Frontlines Fund

By  Crystal Hayling
April 1, 2024

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It’s hard to ignore the rising and bitter tide of anger and division. This is not a matter of mere incivility in the body politic — the wounds go far, far deeper. Renewed attacks on voting rights. Black leaders and organizations under fire. The scourge of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate. Communities torn apart by intolerance and hateful violence.

Trauma, as criminal-justice activist Mariame Kaba notes

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It’s hard to ignore the rising and bitter tide of anger and division. This is not a matter of mere incivility in the body politic — the wounds go far, far deeper. Renewed attacks on voting rights. Black leaders and organizations under fire. The scourge of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate. Communities torn apart by intolerance and hateful violence.

Trauma, as criminal-justice activist Mariame Kaba notes, doesn’t just sit there. It creates future vulnerability.

Top Lines

Crystal Hayling.jpg
  • History teaches that fear, isolation, and hopelessness play a big part in our divisions.
  • Organizing is where we do two things essential to democracy: We listen deeply and dream big.
  • Organizers know how to bridge gaps created by income inequality, racism, and sexism.

Our democracy, our sense of “we-ness,” is increasingly vulnerable right now. Rights we cherish are under siege. As I’ve written before, this is not a moment to plaster over our differences in the name of pluralism. These divides are important, but they are a symptom of our broken democracy, not the cause of it. This is a moment to fund the hard work of coming together with purpose at the neighborhood level. In other words, this is a moment for community organizing.

Organizing is where we do two things essential to democracy: We listen deeply and dream big. Yes, listen and dream. Extremism feeds on despair — the belief that no one cares and nothing can be done. We need to turn away from doomscrolling about the presidential election and turn toward our hopes for our kids, families, and communities. Organizing at its best can stoke our precious sense of hope and help us imagine our lives together, lived whole and well, while giving us insights about how we can get there from here.

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As nationalistic, antidemocratic forces proudly assert their intentions, it’s natural to ask what makes Americans susceptible to the drumbeat of division. History teaches that fear, isolation, and hopelessness play a big part. Much of the strife in our communities stems from racial prejudice and gender-role stereotypes spread by well-funded hate groups and think tanks. Conspiracy theories bloom in the waters of indifference and despair.

Organizing helps people feel connected to their neighbors and part of a network that resists the urge to blame some “other.” Instead, community members experience how collective power creates change for the better. Organizers are the opposite of dividers — they build bridges. Those bridges endure because they are built around issues of material and ethical importance.

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Explore ideas, conversations, and solutions for a fractured country.

People’s Action, a powerhouse organization working throughout the Midwest, recently launched an “Organizing Revival” to move beyond the transactional, one-and-done spurts of organizing typical of election years. It’s addressing the housing crisis, growing green jobs, and bringing federal infrastructure money to communities that need it. As executive director Sulma Arias writes: “This organizing is an end and a means — it builds community and democracy and makes people feel powerful and whole.” Isn’t that what pluralism advocates say they want?

There are many other resourceful, dynamic groups working on this broad agenda. The visionary Gina Clayton-Johnson, who started the Essie Justice Group to bring together women whose loved ones are incarcerated, sees the unique power in building community bonds among women whom society has made feel isolated and ashamed. Essie sisters proudly and joyfully canvass neighborhoods asking community members how they define safety and inviting them to demand more than abusive police and empty promises from elected officials. The sisters then take policy proposals to the state capital and the city council and back them at the ballot box.

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New Mexico-based OLÉ Education Fund, which promotes universal access to early-childhood education and preschool, organizes everyday working folks to speak out for — and win for — kids, drawing its strength from the experiences of people of color, early-childhood educators, parents, workers, and immigrants.

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The battle to defend reproductive rights in Ohio last fall offers an example of the power of broad-based organizing. Often viewed as a divisive issue, reproductive rights was transformed into a unifying banner, especially among young voters. URGE, a group of young activists, was among the leading organizations that pulled together support across lines of party, income, race to win a vital — and surprising to many — victory in a conservative state.

We know only too well what hour it is — zero hour for our democracy. Funders who recognize the urgency of the moment are doubling down and speeding up their giving. I strongly urge that funders display a bias toward action and make donations to organizing — now.

If you truly want to heal the country’s divides, fund organizers. They are the leaders and wise ones who know how to bridge gaps created by income inequality, racism, and sexism. They are the catalysts who give people hope, a common purpose, and a connection to something bigger than themselves. They are the ones who teach us how to practice democracy daily. And that, after all, will be the only way we save it.

The Commons is financed in part with philanthropic support from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Einhorn Collaborative, and JPB Foundation. None of our supporters have any control over or input into story selection, reporting, or editing, and they do not review articles before publication. See more about the Chronicle, the grants, how our foundation-supported journalism works, and our gift-acceptance policy.

A version of this article appeared in the April 2, 2024, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
The Commons
Crystal Hayling
Crystal Hayling is the executive director of the Libra Foundation and founder of the Democracy Frontlines Fund.
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