14 Selecting Community Change Strategies
“When we only name the problem, when we only state complaint without a constructive focus on resolution, we take away hope. In this way critique can become merely an expression of profound cynicism, which then works to sustain dominator culture.”
bell hooks, p. xiv, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope
In the above quote, bell hooks challenges us to consider the impact of only stating a problem and not moving forward with identifying a strategy to address it. This should give us pause if we were to select the status quo as a viable option, which is typically done because selecting the preferable future means that there is a lot of work ahead. It is hard. It sometimes includes risks. There are costs. But, by selecting the status quo, we are agreeing to allow the issue to exist and essentially “sustain dominator culture” as she so effectively states.
Selecting Community Change Strategies
Assuming that the probable future is not desired and that you and your collaborators are willing to engage in additional work, then the next steps involve identifying ways to achieve the preferred future and selecting community change strategies. Here is a set of questions to consider as you and your core team of collaborators decide the best way to proceed.
Community organizing
- Is this an issue that directly impacts a group of people that form a community (geographically or through shared interest)?
- Is there likely a group impacted by the issue that could be mobilized?
- Are there short-term successes that could be achieved and may have an impact on the issue such as improving access, fixing something, expanding assets, or temporarily improving a condition?
- Does the issue involve an unfair power dynamic that needs to be analyzed in order to have an impact on the issue?
- Do these successes need formal structure, or could informal structure be successful and more nimble?
Social action
- Does the preferred future require systemic change?
- Are the solutions likely policy-related?
- Are there laws or decisions which, if changed or made, would have a positive impact on the issue or problem?
- Can you identify the target for the policy change (city, school district, county, or state levels)?
Community planning and development
- Does the preferred future likely require structure, like a service, program, or organization?
- Does this structure likely need significant resources (funding, staff, location, equipment, etc.)?
If you answer YES to any of these questions, then you should focus on that strategy for your community change effort. Oftentimes, community change work involves a combination of strategies; in this case, community organizing is the beginning step of the community change strategies.
The next parts of the text will provide a guide for how to implement the strategies, focusing on Community Organizing and Community Planning and Development. As noted earlier, Social Action is critically important, but is a focus of policy coursework, so it is not reviewed in depth in this text.