Community organizing: An honorable profession

Community organization is a profession with a rich history and is taught at universities around the country. Boston College, Ohio State University, and Catholic University in Washington, D.C., were the first to add community organizing to their curricula; since then, institutions including the University of Southern California and the University of Maryland have added it to their social work studies.

The practice of community organizing is rooted in the values traditionally associated with social work. One of these values states that society should provide opportunities for mutual assistance and common action through which individuals may achieve their own self-fulfillment and support the common welfare of all. As Giuliani and Palin demeaned community organizing, they really showed their lack of values regarding the needs of the wide range of social communities. Organizations, both nonprofit and for-profit, employ consultants, brokers, fundraisers and others whose job it is to work toward that self-fulfillment. It is a common mistake to think community organizing only takes place at the grassroots and advocacy level. Most executives of the United Way have studied community organizing at Boston College and Ohio State University. Surely nobody would quickly dismiss the work of the United Way and the people it has helped. Giuliani and Palin did just that at the RNC.

Community organizing has evolved into a professional practice employed by social workers to alter society’s institutional behavior. Community organizers work with all classes of people. The method sets no limits on the population groups to be served, and is practical in a variety of settings. Aside from business, organizers are in schools, communities, welfare agencies, and a range of social-service agencies. Community organizing is partly advocacy work that is needed everywhere, even in Palin’s home state of Alaska. She should have realized this before comparing being a community organizer to being a mayor of a small city or town, “except that you have actual responsibilities” as mayor.

Organizers act as “enablers” who bring about change within different communities by establishing goals and setting priorities. They intervene in the community process with a problem-solving approach, taking into consideration values, sanctions, knowledge, method and techniques. Social planning agencies, federated financing funds, government agencies, and others all need and apply community organizing principles to improve their respective communities.

Giuliani and Palin could have done their research to learn about the history of community organizing. In 1912, it was referred to by Roger Baldwin in his paper titled “Community Organizing for Children.” By 1939, community organizing was so popular that Robert Lane argued for it to be integrated in the social work profession. The professionalization of community organizing occurred in 1962 when the National Association of Social Workers adopted a working definition of it. This formally established it as a professional method alongside casework and group work in social work.

This profession employs thousands of people who help so many more improve the conditions or their lives. Giuliani and Palin at the RNC showed just how out of touch they and their supporters are with the people who need and practice community organizing. They missed out on why Obama went back and did work in his community in the first place. It is not a “problem on the resume,” as Giuliani stated, it is admirable. But Obama’s work in Chicago was only a small part of a much larger profession that is community organization and needs to be recognized and celebrated. 

Dale Masi, Ph.D., is professor emeritus at University of Maryland School of Social Work. She can be reached at [email protected].