May 15, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do — and Why
by Kristin Layng Szakos and Joe Szakos
The term “community organizing” can be confusing, since the work, participants, and missions often vary widely from place to place. In this book, 81 local leaders from all over the United States discuss their efforts “to help people come together to effect meaningful change in their communities by building effective community organizations,” write Kristin Layng Szakos, a former journal editor, and Joe Szakos, executive director of the Virginia Organizing Project.
In the first chapter, the authors collect quotations from these local leaders to explain what community-organizing projects have in common: the goals of gathering people to work together, developing leadership, and empowering members of a democracy.
Other chapters examine the backgrounds of organizers, their introductions to the work of community organizing, their motivations, their failures and achievements, and advice for aspiring organizers.
Fourteen organizers describe in detail their previous jobs and their current work. The groups they lead include the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, in California; Greater Birmingham Ministries, in Alabama; and the Needmor Fund, in Ohio. They also respond to the question “What makes a good organizer?”
One of the final sections includes a list of books and movies that interviewees have recommended, including works about civil rights, the environment, personal development, power and politics, and other topics.
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press, Box 1813, Station B, Nashville, Tenn. 37235; (615) 322-3585; fax (615) 343-8823; vupress@vanderbilt.edu; http://www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com; 263 pages; $27.95; ISBN 978-0-8265-1555-1.
