Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 10:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Cultural Diversity in Social Work Practice

African American Models of Community Organizing: A Theoretical Framework

Purpose: This study of African American community organizing addresses the absence of contemporary organizing models in the social work knowledge base that are centered in the world views and experiences of African Americans. The lack of such models calls into question the cultural competency of existing organizing models and hinders the development of culturally relevant community practice strategies for work in African American communities.

Methods: A grounded theory methodology along with snowball and theoretical sampling methods were used to draw a sample of 20 African American community organizers (10 women and 10 men ranging in age from 27 to 80 years old) who were affiliated with the Institute for the Black World (IBW), a national network of African American organizers. Data collection consisted of 30 minute to 1 hour long telephone interviews with African American community organizers who worked in a variety of urban African American communities across the United States. Interviews were tape recorded, transcribed and then entered into Atlas.ti for data coding and analysis.

Results: Five core theoretical concepts describing African American approaches to community organizing emerged; these included a) cultural dynamics, b) locus of community power, c) organizing goals, d) mobilization methods and e) change strategies. Two propositions were developed to link these concepts into a theoretical model which described African American approcahes to community organizing and three organizing sub-models including: 1) political action, 2) resource and capacity development and 3) cultural empowerment. The political action organizing model incorporates drives to draw power and resources into the community by using existing political machinery. The resource and capacity development model employs institution building as a means of increasing community members’ capacity to address self defined issues. The cultural empowerment model describes organizing efforts aimed at changing the denigrated and powerless self-perceptions held by some African American community members.

Implications for practice: The findings provide clear examples of how culture plays an in depth role in organizing from the conceptualization of the source of community problems through to strategies for problem resolution. One of the dynamics discussed by organizers was the critical need to understand the impact of oppression on the psyche and the social reality of African Americans and the ways that community members continue relate to each other and mainstream society. Also illustrated was the need for community social workers to actively seek to improve community members’ access to political and economic resources and capacity building efforts that lead to increased community capacity for self help. The findings also suggest the need for social workers to be involved in community work beyond a professional interest and to meet clients where they are in a literal sense, which includes being open to developing linkages with community members that extend beyond business hours.

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