Over the last 50 years, charity has failed to to make a positive impact on low-income communities and have contribute to more harm than help. This conversation will cover the basics for community organizing and present techniques to move people towards positive change in their communities. It will work through the Tupelo Model of Community Development, Saul Alinsky Community Organizing Model, and the Women-Centered model for community development.

1. F o r
Leadership

2. Matt W. Cummings
Assistant Director for Spirituality,
Service, and Social Justice
DePauw University
matthewcummings@depauw.edu
@mattwcummings

3. “Come see the world
not as a static reality,
but as a reality in
process, in
transformation” –
Paulo Freire

4. What is coming:
1. The Reason
2. The Content
3. The Story

5. If we want social change
We need social theory1

6. Charity

7. Has

8. Failed

9. Us

10. The Reason
1 Poverty rates over 40 years and no change

11. The Reason
2 Charity fosters dependence on the ruling class
False charity constrains the fearful and
subdued…to extend their trembling hands. True
generosity lies in striving so that these
hands….extend less in supplication…and more
become human hands which work, and
working transform the world. – Paulo Freire

12. The Reason
3 Noble intentions are not always effective outcomes
Next to money and
guns, the third largest
North American
export is the U.S.
idealist - Ivan Illich

13. The Reason(s)
1
2
3
Poverty rates over 40 years and no change
Charity fosters dependence on the ruling class
Noble intentions are not always effective outcomes

14. “Charity is false, futile, and poisonous
when offered as a substitute for justice.”
–Henry George

15. The Content: Want Change? Do
This.2

16. Idea #1
Community Change Starts on the Block
Not the (town)‘Square

17. Local
People
Local
Issues
Address

18. The role of community
development is not
economic development

19. It is ownership and
empowerment to
control one’s future

20. Idea #2
Creating Anti-Oppressive Leadership

21. Create a culture of constant dialogue
and feedback

22. Develop a shared vision that is
co-authored by stakeholders

23. Start with where people are at
Not where you expect them to be

24. Idea #3
Mobilize, Organize, Never Stop
Moving

25. Alinsky-Based Model
1 The power of change comes through social
capital

26. Alinsky-Based Model
1
2
The power of change comes through social
capital
Strengthen the unity within an already existing
organization

27. Alinsky-Based Model
1
2
3
The power of change comes through social
capital
Strengthen the unity within an already existing
organization
Identify the common enemy, seize it, polarize it.

28. Alinsky-Based Model
1
2
3
The power of change comes through social
capital
Strengthen the unity within an already existing
organization
Identify the common enemy, seize it, polarize it.
4 Mobilize and energize the poor and then turn over
leadership to them.

29. Change means movement.
Movement means friction.
Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world
can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of
conflict. – Saul Alinsky

30. Feminist-Based Model
1 Birthed originally under constrains of
patriarchal relationships

31. Feminist-Based Model
1
2
Birthed originally under constrains of
patriarchal relationships
Focuses on the responsibility connected
through relationships and collective orientation

32. Feminist-Based Model
1
2
3
Birthed originally under constrains of
patriarchal relationships
Focuses on the responsibility connected
through relationships and collective orientation
Implements small team approach that builds
relationships with power holders

33. Tupelo Model
Economic
Development
Community
Development
Organization
Development
Leadership Development
Human Development

34. The Story: This is who we are3

35. What are your stories and how will you
create new movements of justice?

36. Let’s Recap
1. Charity models are too old-
school.
2. Change comes through locality.
3. Always be mobilizing and
networking.

37. THANK YOU!

38. Matt W. Cummings
Assistant Director for Spirituality,
Service, and Social Justice
DePauw University
matthewcummings@depauw.edu
@mattwcummings