page_title: Community organizing
section_title: 1880 to 1900
hierarchical_section_title: Community organizing / History in the United States / 1880 to 1900
caption_attribution_description: English: 3 A.M. Sunday, February 23rd, 1908. Newsboys selling on Brooklyn Bridge. Harry Ahrenpreiss, 30 Willet Street. (Said was 13 years old). Abe Gramus. 37 Division Street. Witness Fred McMurray. Location: New York, New York (State) / Photo by Lewis W. Hine.
context_page_description: Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest.
  Unlike those who promote more-consensual community building, community organizers generally assume that social change necessarily involves conflict and social struggle in order to generate collective power for the powerless. Community organizing has as a core goal the generation of durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence key decision-makers on a range of issues over time. In the ideal, for example, this can get community-organizing groups a place at the table before important decisions are made. Community organizers work with and develop new local leaders, facilitating coalitions and assisting in the development of campaigns. A central goal of organizing is the development of a robust, organized, local democracy bringing community members together across differences to fight together for the interests of the community.
context_section_description: People sought to meet the pressures of rapid immigration and industrialization by organizing immigrant neighborhoods in urban centers. Since the emphasis of the reformers was mostly on building community through settlement houses and other service mechanisms, the dominant approach was what Fisher calls social work. During this period the Newsboys Strike of 1899 provided an early model of youth-led organizing.
caption: 23 February 1908 Boys Selling Newspapers on Brooklyn Bridge
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