The authors emphasize the importance of integrating individual experiences with community involvement, both as a means of moving beyond the individual perspective, and of acting as an outlet for the intellectual and emotional stimulation resulting from empowerment. The rest of the article explores these ideas in more detail. The authors describe the process by which participation in an organization leads the individual to an awareness that individual well-being is tied to community involvement and access to power. They encourage interaction with other organizations at the stages of research and action in order to mobilize mass power, observing that through this means, PICO has amassed as many as 5000 individuals in an action. Most important is maintaining activity over time.
Actions are a type of meeting held by community organizations.
Actions have an agenda, time is kept, and information is presented. Most important, there is dialogue between the community organization and the individual, organizational, or institutional target about specific policy changes or resources allocations. The authors also offer an example of the ability to define the agenda. In one case, PICO shifted the focus of concern from how to allocate public resources to expand a convention center to the need to coordinate the many agencies involved in substance abuse in the neighborhood. Posted by Dick Schoech I am looking for a good article on community power to introduce masters level social work students to the concept of community power and how it influences practice.