Community Organizing Write-up_Ava Co.pdf

Ava Co

Who is the author of Walking with Communities?

Unexpectedly

How was the organizer's entry into development work described?

School requirements and exposures

What originally introduced the organizer to the realities of different communities?

Short visits, small-scale immersions, and volunteer work

What three types of activities characterized the organizer's early encounters?

Occasional participation

What level of participation did the organizer have in community projects at first?

Deep impression

What did each community encounter leave on the organizer?

Classrooms

Where did the organizer stand during her early experiences?

Narrow alleyways

Where did the organizer walk during her exposures?

Families

With whom did the organizer speak about daily struggles?

Daily struggles

What was the topic of conversation during early talks with families?

Books alone

What source of knowledge is insufficient to fully understand the dimensions of life in communities?

What now?

What recurring question took root in the organizer's mind after listening to people's stories?

Occasional volunteer work

What did the organizer realize was not enough to help communities achieve development?

Structured processes

What did her reflections lead her to explore to empower people?

Empower people to lead their own change

What is the purpose of the structured processes mentioned?

Community organizing

What process is described as being about awareness, unity, and building capacity?

Assisting

Community organizing is not simply about doing what for people?

Awareness of their own realities

Organizing helps people gain what kind of awareness?

Unity

What does organizing foster among community members?

Capacity to act collectively

What does organizing build within a community?

Collective action

Unity and capacity building lead to what kind of action?

Identify issues and design solutions together

How do communities design their path through organizing?

Self-reliance

What is the ultimate goal toward which communities move through organizing?

Participatory and inclusive

What are the two essential characteristics of the organizing process?

All voices

Whose input must be ensured to shape the community's direction?

Unheard voices

Which specific voices are highlighted as needing inclusion?

First community work and engagement

When did the organizer realize the organizing process actually began?

Being with people rather than working above them

What is the core definition of community engagement given?

Starting from where they are

Where should community engagement begin in relation to the people?

Participatory planning

What activity is mentioned taking place under a shaded tarp?

Shaded tarp

Where is participatory planning sometimes conducted?

Borrowed spaces

Where are community education sessions often held?

Post-activity reflections

What happens after a community activity to process the experience?

Coffee

What is often shared in someone's home during reflections?

Someone's home

Where are coffee and reflections often shared?

Pakikipamuhay

What is the Filipino term for immersion?

Immersion

What is the English term for pakikipamuhay?

Inseparable

How are engagement and immersion described in relation to each other?

Living alongside the community

What does pakikipamuhay or immersion involve?

Setting aside differences

What must an organizer do regarding their own background during immersion?

Daily life

What is shared during immersion to gain understanding?

Empathy and solidarity

What does immersion transform surface observation into?

Surface observation

Immersion allows understanding to go beyond what?

Details that numbers cannot capture

What does immersion reveal about community life?

Numbers

What is specifically mentioned as being unable to capture certain community details?

Delayed meetings and priority shifts

What are two examples of details revealed by immersion?

Local rhythms, culture, and resources

What three things must solutions reflect?

Transport Group

Which specific group provided one of the organizer's most formative experiences?

House-to-house visits and informal terminal conversations

How did the engagement with the Transport Group begin?

Terminal

Where were informal conversations with transport workers held?

Sama sa biyahe

What is the Filipino phrase for joining drivers on their routes?

Join drivers on their routes

What does sama sa biyahe entail?

To listen

What was the primary goal of the organizer when joining drivers?

Participatory mapping and planning sessions

What did the informal connections with the Transport Group grow into?

Priorities and proposed solutions

What did members identify and propose during mapping sessions?

The Administration

Who did the Transport Group engage in dialogue with?

Oplan Balik Pasada

What specific proposal was discussed with the Administration?

Pook Arboretum

What is the name of the community facing housing and resettlement issues?

Housing and resettlement

What two issues were the focus in Pook Arboretum?

Support and strengthen an existing organization

What was the organizer's role in Pook Arboretum?

Existing organization

What was already present in Pook Arboretum that the organizer supported?

Align with priorities

The organizer worked to do this with the community's own goals.

Amplify initiatives

The organizer worked to do this with what the community started.

Pace and needs

Engagement must be responsive to the community's what?

Guiding principles

Immersion and Cultural Sensitivity are examples of what?

Living the community's reality

How is the principle of immersion defined?

Understand it fully

What is the purpose of living the community's reality?

Cultural Sensitivity

Which principle involves centering the community's values?

Values and ways of life

What two things does cultural sensitivity center?

Participatory and Inclusive

Which principle enables all sectors to participate meaningfully?

All sectors

Who should be enabled to participate meaningfully?

Barriers to involvement

The participatory approach seeks to address these.

Meaningfully

How should sectors participate according to the principles?

Partnerships

Which principle involves working with external stakeholders?

External stakeholders

Who does the organizer work with in partnerships?

Strengthen, not overshadow

Partnerships should do this to community leadership.

Trust

What does the ongoing process of engagement build?

Sustainable

Solutions should be community-driven and what?

Community-driven

Solutions should be sustainable and what?

Mutual Transformation

What is the term for the change that affects both the community and the organizer?

Sustained engagement

What brings about transformation for both parties?

Resources, networks, and opportunities

What three things do communities gain from engagement?

Self-reliant

Communities become more of this through transformation.

Skills

Communities expand these through sustained engagement.

Resilience and ingenuity

What two qualities does the organizer learn from the community?

Co-creating solutions

What is the preferred method over imposing solutions?

Imposing

Co-creating is the opposite of doing what?

Lessons from the field

What enriches the theories learned in formal education?

Theories

What is challenged by field experiences?

Formal education

Where were the original theories learned?

Empathy

What sense is deepened through the work?

Personal

How are the struggles of the community felt by the organizer?

Victories

What is shared between the organizer and community, whether small or large?

Love a community

What is linked to being moved to act out of solidarity?

Solidarity

To love a community is to act out of this.

Charity

Solidarity is contrasted with acting out of what?

Humbling and empowering

What two words describe community engagement?

Trust, relationships, and shared vision

What three things build change over time?

Everyday moments

Where is development seen?

Fear of eviction

What fear is removed from a child when development occurs?