Milwaukee Amani United, like a butterfly trying to emerge from a cocoon, is an embryonic organization attempting to emerge from its status as a project of a larger organization into a membership, resident-led organization that can spread its own wings and fly. On this point everyone agrees, including the leadership core of Amani United and …
Category: Community Organizing
Negotiations Skills are Learned not Natural
New Orleans After days of work on campaigns and the principles of negotiations, the leaders of Amani United in Milwaukee were ready to practice what they had learned. The leaders divided into two groups, one representing the officials of the city’s transportation system and the other representing Amani United. The issue at hand was …
No Matter the Context, Listening is Always Central in Organizing
New Orleans When community organizing makes it into the mainstream, most often it’s duck-and-cover because trouble and confusion is coming as the critical content and context of organizing gets diluted and dumbed down for mass consumption. With some trepidation I read a guest column in the Washington Post by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove who directs the …