David Elcott

Community Organizing is for those who could imagine running national or local advocacy organizations that make change happen or anyone who wants to understand the art of community organizing. It will provide an overview of and training in contemporary community organizing practice in the United States. This includes defining what community organizing is and identifying its value base; exploring the strategies, tactics and activities of organizing; and thinking about marketing, language and evaluation. We also will examine the transformations of civic engagement and voluntary associations in the United States and the impact of these transformations on the ways Americans organize and advocate for change.

But there is a larger lesson here: The skills of community organizing – listening, finding areas of consensus and building on that consensus, finding ways to make change happen – are skills that can be applied to all professional and life settings. Through readings, class activities, cases studies, speakers and reflection, students will examine skills and techniques for effective organizing, including building a membership base, developing ordinary people as community leaders and running member-led issue campaigns. Students will also have the opportunity to reflect on and strengthen their own skills as community organizers and advocates.

This two-semester course will explore the role of issue advocacy as a theory and a method of social change. In the fall semester, students will learn how advocacy campaigns, legislative lobbying, issue branding, coalition building, and community organizing affects public policy through changes in political power, regulations, and/or legislation. Experts and practitioners will explain scenarios and review case studies. The course will also examine how campaign workers, organizers, community leaders, and think-tank experts can influence research and policy analysis, lobbying, and public relations via interactions with thought leaders and legislative offices or other government officials. In addition, students will learn about the varied skills of public advocacy – from finding and building consensus, making change happen, to fundraising.

In the spring semester course, taught by Daniel Altschuler, director of civic engagement and research at Make the Road NY, students will gain training in a Make The Road advocacy campaign in the area of immigration and access to health. This portion of the course will explore the intersection of immigration issues—especially immigrants’ rights and efforts to organize to protect and advance them— and health care. Students will have the opportunity to get directly involved in an active campaign to expand health care access for immigrants in New York and learn the ins and outs of developing campaign strategy, identifying and activating supporters, conducting campaign-specific research, and lobbying legislators.

Note: The course is a two-semester course spanning the fall and spring (students earn 1.5 credits each semester). The fall semester course (PADM-GP 4407) is a prerequisite for the spring semester course  (PADM-GP 4408). As an elective, students can choose to complete the fall semester course only. 

The position of those who collectively identify as a distinct group, generally seen as of minority status in the United States, an immigrant nation since its inception whose indigenous population was perceived as non-American, remains a volatile topic of debate that touches the core of American identity.  In this course, we will focus on the status of a number of groups that have been identified as “minority” (leaving the term minority itself in question) within America’s cultural and political framework, examining how the debate over rights informs policy decisions and shapes identity and institutions. We will apply a range of theoretical constructs, seeking to define what “minority” status entails by studying how ethnicity, race, gender, sexual identity, national origin and religious identities, and their cultural expressions, play out in the public sphere.  Attention will also be paid to community building - how public policies and leaders nurture or undermine collective identity and the communities they seek to build.

Advocacy Lab is for those who could imagine working in national or local advocacy organizations that make change happen or anyone who wants to understand the art of issue advocacy as a theory and method of social change. An advocacy campaign attempts to impact public policy, most often through changes in regulations and/or legislation. There are a wide range of roles advocacy campaign workers, organizers, community leaders or think-tank experts can play from research and policy analysis to education, lobbying, public relations and organizing constituencies to reaching out to a wide range of influentials, legislative offices and other government officials. At the same time, the skills of public advocacy– listening, fund raising, finding areas of consensus and building on that consensus, finding ways to make change happen – are skills that can be applied to all professional and life settings.  

The course will provide an overview of and training in how to affect public policy through advocacy campaigns, legislative lobbying, issue branding, coalition building and community organizing in the United States with experts and practioners providing us real life scenarios and case studies.

Advocacy Lab is for those who could imagine working in national or local advocacy organizations that make change happen or anyone who wants to understand the art of issue advocacy as a theory and method of social change. An advocacy campaign attempts to impact public policy, most often through changes in regulations and/or legislation. There are a wide range of roles advocacy campaign workers, organizers, community leaders or think-tank experts can play from research and policy analysis to education, lobbying, public relations and organizing constituencies to reaching out to a wide range of influentials, legislative offices and other government officials. At the same time, the skills of public advocacy– listening, fund raising, finding areas of consensus and building on that consensus, finding ways to make change happen – are skills that can be applied to all professional and life settings.  

The course will provide an overview of and training in how to affect public policy through advocacy campaigns, legislative lobbying, issue branding, coalition building and community organizing in the United States with experts and practioners providing us real life scenarios and case studies.

The position of those who collectively identify as a distinct group, generally seen as of minority status in the United States, an immigrant nation since its inception whose indigenous population was perceived as non-American, remains a volatile topic of debate that touches the core of American identity.  In this course, we will focus on the status of a number of groups that have been identified as “minority” (leaving the term minority itself in question) within America’s cultural and political framework, examining how the debate over rights informs policy decisions and shapes identity and institutions. We will apply a range of theoretical constructs, seeking to define what “minority” status entails by studying how ethnicity, race, gender, sexual identity, national origin and religious identities, and their cultural expressions, play out in the public sphere.  Attention will also be paid to community building - how public policies and leaders nurture or undermine collective identity and the communities they seek to build.