This progamme t ECON with five member organisations from Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary were engaged in a Partcipatory Action Research process where they documented the stories and organizing practices of campaigns with local groups and communities on different issues and learned how to use storytelling and public narrative in their organizing practice with their communities. This is part of ECON’s contribution to documenting and sharing the history and practices of community organizing in Europe, and expanding the know-how on organizing from Europe, as so far it had been mostly based on practices from the US.
Community organizing is an approach that empowers citizens to take collective action on the issues in their context. So far, most of the organizing know-how has been based on good practices from the US. In the past years, the European Community Organizing Network (ECON) has been supporting the development and documentation of organizing practices and experiences in Europe together with member organisations in Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary that use organizing in their work with groups and communities. This project is an example of documenting and developing organizing practices in Europe
Understand crisis as a danger & opportunity and recognize our agency in relation to moments of crisis.
Enhancing competences of organizers and adult educators to organize communities in times of crisis and ake actions on national and transnational leve.
Be proactive around crisis preparation and be prepared to recognize the strategic decisions we are called to make in times of crisis.
Strengthening network and know-how of partners organizing communities impacted by crisis through in person and digital community organizing
The programme contributed to (1) Conduct a participatory action research with ECON members to document organizing campaigns in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Serbia. This resulted in a publication titled “The Power of Organizing: Stories of Community Organizing Campaigns from Across Europe” available in pdf format in Polish, English, Serbian, Romanian, Hungarian and Slovak, (2) Design a simulation game “Let’s Organize! In Search of Social Justice” to practice community organizing through a game format, which can be used in organizing workshops and trainings; (3) Design and test a mobile application: “CoAct – Community Organizing” that guides users through the steps of community organizing and enables them to learn in an interactive way.
If you are interested in being part of the programme and in the process, please contact us at organizing.europe@gmail.com.
ECON is a hub for the community organizing movement in Europe. We support organizers, groups and organizations to build collective power to respond to systemic injustices and emerging crises and create a just and democratic future for all
