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The Citizens Handbook

1. Introduction

2. Introduction to Community Organizing

3. Beginning

4. Researching

5. Planning

6. Acting

7. Getting Noticed

8. Evaluating

9. Getting People

10. Keeping People

11. Leading

12. Meeting

13. Decision Making

14. Facilitating

15. Fundraising

16. Grassroots Structure

And don't miss 'How citizens' groups destroy themselves'

1. Introduction

Why we need more active citizens
The Citizens Handbook is meant to encourage the emergence of more active citizens - people motivated by an interest in public issues, and a desire to make a difference beyond their own private lives. Active citizens are a great untapped resource, and citizenship is a quality to be nurtured. Here's why.

A way of tackling large public issues
Networking of local communities who can raise awareness of potential issues which may escape notice until it's too late to do anything constructive about them. With out a networking structure, the individual has no effective means of bringing an issue to the wider publics awareness. An example of this kind of structure can be found here.

A way of solving local problems
When people become involved in their neighbourhoods they can become a potent force for dealing with local problems. Through co-ordinated planning, research and action, they can accomplish what individuals working alone could not.
When people decide they are going to be part of the solution, local problems start getting solved. When they actually begin to work with other individuals, schools, associations, businesses, and government service providers, there is no limit to what they can accomplish.

A way of improving liveability
Citizens can make cities work better because they understand their own neighbourhoods better than anyone else. Giving them some responsibility for looking after their part of town is a way of effectively addressing local preferences and priorities. Understandably, boosting citizen participation improves liveability. It is no coincidence that a city with a tradition of working in partnership with neighbourhoods - regularly receives the highest score for liveability.
Cities are sources of potential conflict, between government and citizens, between different citizens groups, and between citizens and special interests such as real estate developers. Recent studies have shown that greater citizen participation in civic affairs can reduce all of these sources of conflict. In particular it can prevent the firestorms associated with changes brought about by growth and renewal.

A bridge to strong democracy
When citizens get together at the neighbourhood level, they generate a number of remarkable side effects. One of these is strengthened democracy. In simple terms, democracy means that the people decide. Political scientists describe our system of voting every few years but otherwise leaving everything up to government as weak democracy. In weak democracy, citizens have no role, no real part in decision-making between elections. Experts assume responsibility for deciding how to deal with important public issues.
The great movement of the last decades of the twentieth century has been a drive toward stronger democracy in corporations, institutions and governments. In many cities this has resulted in the formal recognition of neighbourhood groups as a link between people and municipal government, and a venue for citizen participation in decision-making between elections.

A little recognized route to better health
In the late 1980s, the World Health Organization broadened its definition of health to account for the fact that health is much more than the absence of disease. The new definition recognizes that only 25% of our health status comes from health care, the rest comes from the effects of an adequate education and income, a clean environment, secure housing and employment, the ability to control stress, and a social support network.
Understandably, public health professionals have become some of the strongest advocates for more active citizens. 

A way of rekindling community
Active citizens can help to create a sense of community connected to place. We all live somewhere. As such we share a unique collection of problems and prospects in common with our neighbours. Participation in neighbourhood affairs builds on a recognition of here-we-are-together, and a yearning to recapture something of the tight-knit communities of the past. Neighbourhood groups can act as vehicles for making connections between people, forums for resolving local differences, and a means of looking after one another. Most important, they can create a positive social environment that can become one of the best features of a place.

2. Introduction to Community Organizing

Do-It-Yourself Organizing
This section is a do-it-yourself guide to grassroots organizing. It focuses on bringing together people who share a common place such as an apartment building, city block, or neighbourhood. The focus on people acting together does not diminish the importance of citizens acting alone. Nor does the focus on organizing around a place diminish the importance of organizing around an issue.

Learn-it-yourself organizing
Before you can do-it-yourself you will have to learn-it-yourself. In most countries, our faith in government has placed decisions about our communities in the hands of politicians and professionals.

When you can't do it all yourself
Getting another person involved has the effect of doubling the result or halving the input for a given result, magnifying that by a factor of ten can achieve undreamed of results.

The Active Ingredients of Organizing
Community organizing is often presented as a step-by-step process. The ingredients of a process often make sense, but the step-by-step sequence usually fails to fit actual circumstances.
What we've done is look at community organizing from the point of view of its ingredients. Which of these you turn to at any given time will depend on your circumstances. Except for the first, ingredients are added and readded regularly as part of community organizing. All, as well, are interwoven. For example, planning requires research, which depends on getting and keeping people, which is affected by decision making, which requires evaluating, and so on.

3. Beginning

Where do you begin if you want to become more involved in your neighbourhood? Here are some options.

Begin with research
Although professionals often start with research, you don't have to start here. On the other hand, you might be wise to begin with research if you intend to tackle an issue you do not fully understand.

Begin with a community building activity
The "Community Building Activities" section of the Handbook lists seventeen informal opportunities for neighbours to meet one another. The bulk of community building comes from these activities. The most common are Organizing Around an Issue, and Neighbourhood Watch.

Begin by joining an existing group
Most neighbourhoods have many different kinds of active organizations. Linking up with one of these can be an easy way to get involved. Begin by checking out the community groups listed by city hall.

Begin by starting a new group
If working with an existing group looks difficult, you might have to start a new group. New neighbourhood organizations usually form around a core of three to five committed people. Putting together a core of first-rate people is worth the effort. Once you have done so consider these questions:

• What are we trying to do?
• What size of area are we going to organize?
  (The smaller the area, the easier.)
• Who will support our efforts?
• What is a good idea for our first action? (It should be simple, focus on a local concern, and increase the group's visibility.)
• How are we going to reach out to others?
  Should we organize a general meeting and invite the community?

Make a special effort to remain friendly with other local groups that have similar goals. Friendliness can replace the common tendency toward competition with the potential of cooperation. Inter-group cooperation is the engine of real progress at the grassroots.

4. Researching

Cities behave in tricky ways. What may seem an obvious problem, or an obvious solution often seems less so after a little research. Acting before researching can waste time and energy. It can also reinforce the stereotype of active citizens as highly vocal, but largely uninformed. The stereotype is the most often-cited excuse for dismissing calls for greater citizen participation in local decision-making.

Gather existing information on your neighbourhood
Information on your part of town already exists. The municipal planning department has community profiles, traffic studies, zoning and other maps, aerial photos, and possibly an official community plan. Local health authorities or service agencies may have a needs assessment or more focused studies of your area. Back copies of community newsletters and local newspapers will contain the recent history of many local issues. Your branch of the public library will have copies of many local reports, studies and newsletters.

Find out what people want
In the absence of a single over-riding concern, your group will have to identify neighbourhood issues. In many cases you will try to answer the following questions:

• What do residents like about the neighbourhood, and what do they want to change?
• What are the opportunities for making the neighbourhood more interesting, identifiable, understandable, helpful, friendly.
• What is the highest priority problem? Who is affected?
• Where is it located? What has been done? What can be done? Who can help?

Give this research some time. A question such as, "What do you like about the neighbourhood, and what do you want to change?", can take a group a couple of evenings to itemize, condense and prioritize.

Consider a survey of residents
Any survey requiring face-to-face interaction not only provides information but helps build community. For details on conducting a listening survey see "The Downtown Eastside Listening Project" in the chapter ," Local Projects".

Go to those in the know
Interview those who know what is going on in the community, and those who know how to deal with an issue. Often they are people with first-hand experience. A small focus-group discussion with six teens can reveal more about teens in the community than a survey of 500 adults. Other sources of information are community activists, and people listed as contact persons for community organizations.

Discover your human resources
To really understand your neighbourhood, you need to research its capacity to act. Start by answering these questions:

• Who can help?
• What resources does our community have: public institutions, business groups, religious organizations, citizen associations, clubs, ethnic groups, sports and recreational groups, cultural associations, service groups, major property owners, businesses, individuals? 
• How, why and where do people get together?
• How do people find out what is going on?
• Who most influences local decisions, local funding, and local investment? 
• Who has a big stake in the neighbourhood?
  

Research solutions from other places
A problem in your neighbourhood probably exists in other neighbourhoods in Thanet and other towns and cities. Find out how citizens in other places are solving the problem. In Thanet, connect with residents groups in other parts of the district. Check out the books and periodicals in "The Citizen's Library". Ask citizens in other cities for help; if you have a computer and Internet access, post requests on the freenets of other cities.

5. Planning

Planning is necessary if you want to avoid wasted activity, and make your collective efforts count. It should move from the general to the specific, from the big picture to the small, from the long term to the short, from "what" to "how". Planning entails:

• Setting a goal
• Devising objectives (or strategies) to achieve the goal
• Devising actions to achieve the objectives.

Look beyond the obvious to find good objectives
In trying to deal with a problem like growing juvenile crime your group might decide on the obvious objective of getting more police. If you looked beyond symptoms, at causes, you might decide to try to open local schools during evenings. Research can help you look beyond the obvious.

How do your objectives score?
Generate ideas for objectives that will lead to your goal, and then decide which to pursue. Test alternative objectives by asking:

• Does it have strong group support?
• Is it specific enough? ("Reduce crime" is too general. "Eliminate street prostitution on Angus Drive" is specific.)
• Is it easily attainable?
• Will it have an immediate visible impact?
• How will we know when we've reached our objective? 
• How do we measure progress?

To be effective, your group should pursue no more than one or two objectives at any given time. New groups should begin with small projects having a high probability of success over the short term.

Plan the action
Generate ideas that will lead to your objective, then decide which to carry forward. Once your group agrees on an action, create an action plan. It should include a time-frame; an ordered list of tasks to complete; persons responsible for each task; a list of resources required including materials; facilities and funds. Keep action plans flexible so you can respond to the unexpected. One good way to identify a group's priorities is to ask people to write their views with thick markers on large post-it notes. Each person sticks their notes to a board or large sheet of paper where everyone can see them. A facilitator then helps the group arrange the notes into clusters with similar characteristics.

6. Acting

Once you've completed the necessary groundwork, you need to act. Surprisingly, many groups never get around to acting. Many talk about action but are essentially organized for study, discussion or education. Still others keep members busy with organizational housekeeping, committee chores, internal politics and passing of resolutions, another sector never do the groundwork and wonder why nothing happens.
While many interest groups get together just for discussion, community groups tend to work best when acting accompanies talking. Otherwise, they tend to shrink to a few diehards for whom meeting attendance has become a way of life.

7. Getting Noticed

If you want to expand the number of people who know what you are doing, you need to get noticed. This usually means working with the media. Besides informing a larger public, the media can empower residents, nudge politicians, and add momentum to a grassroots initiative. Empowerment comes from simple exposure. "Group members say, 'Did you see we were in the news again. Isn't it great? We are really starting to get places now'". If you have done the basic voting procedure, you will have identified most of the contentious items relating to the issue, make sure you address them when you make the initial public statement, failing to do this will confine you to reacting to others raising them. 
When you understand the media, you can also raise public issues that are being ignored, and reframe issues from a citizen's perspective. Be careful, however, if you are not used to dealing with the media. Many journalists look for stories rooted in conflict, error and injustice. They may impose a confrontational agenda that can actually make it more difficult for you to resolve your issue.

Assemble a list of sympathetic journalists
If you have a positive news story, you may find no one is interested. One way around this is to cultivate a list of journalists who care about community building. Note their deadlines, so you can call after a deadline.

Find the media professionals in your community
Seek help from the people in your community who work for newspapers, radio and television stations. They can provide advice on what is newsworthy, how to get attention, and who to call. Most will not want to appear in the foreground, but in the background they will be invaluable.

Define your objective, then your messages
Don't rush off to the media without a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. Use this to create a set of clear messages you wish to project. If you intend to air a problem, one of your messages should suggest a reasonable solution.

Make actions newsworthy
To get media attention you need to tell a good story with a human focus that is happening now. The more creative, colourful, and humorous, the better coverage will be. Getting noticed is largely a matter of dramatizing issues.

Link actions to other news events
Your actions will stand a better chance of getting covered if they tie into other events in the news: government announcements, holidays, local conferences, world events, hot issues. The media like a good feeding frenzy.

Issue news releases
Send out a news release if you have fresh information you wish to publicize. Issue the release on your group's letterhead. At the top put "For immediate release" and the date. Next, create a strong newspaper style headline that will interest an editor who has to shuffle through hundreds of news releases every day. The first sentence of the copy should contain the most important fact in your story. The rest of the release should cover the essentials of who, what, where, when and why. At the bottom put "For more information" and contact name and phone number.
Keep the whole thing short, one to two pages double spaced. For big events send out a news release seven days prior, then telephone a reminder one to two days before the event. Faxing a release without any personal contact is usually a waste of time.

Aim at TV
Some of the most effective citizens groups get TV coverage by staging events that provide action and good pictures. Greenpeace, for instance, gets attention by sending little rubber boats buzzing around huge aircraft carriers. Some groups also shoot their own broadcast quality video or create video news releases to help control what is broadcast.
Try to schedule actions on dull news days, allowing enough time to process material for the 6 o'clock news. Choose a spokesperson who comes across well on TV. On television a great deal is communicated non-verbally through tone of voice, facial expression, and body gestures.

Practice your blurb
For regular TV and radio news you will have 15-30 seconds to make a statement. Practice what you want to say before the event. Your statement or a minor variation can be used in response to any question asked. No one will know the difference.

Reframe stories on live radio
If you can get on a live radio show you can actually shape the news, because you won't be edited as you would on TV or in the newspaper. Just make sure you know what you want to say.

Write a Letter to the Editor
Writing a letter to the editor of a community newspaper is an easy way to get publicity. Small papers will publish any reasonable letter that does not require a lot of fact checking. Common Cause, the largest citizens group in the US, did a study which showed that a letter to the editor was one of the most effective ways of influencing politicians.

Don't rely on the media to educate
The mass media prefer to entertain. If you want to get out detailed information, you will probably have to do it yourself through newsletters, bulletins and other methods listed in the Handbook.

Consider other kinds of announcements
Community bulletin boards run by radio and some cable stations can announce your event. So can ethnic newspapers, TV and radio stations. Public service announcements on radio and TV offer another opportunity. For radio, send in public service announcements of 30 seconds or about 75 words. Include a start and stop date, plus information on your organization.

Consider alternative media
Consider printed t-shirts; buttons; window signs; posters; bumper stickers; cartop signs; public projections, bridge banners, notices in apartment building laundries, church orders of service, web sites, email networks, and the newsletters of other groups. For more methods see "Getting People" and "Information Sharing".

Try the direct approach
Consider phoning or writing those who have the power to put things right. If you have a city-related problem that you cannot solve, even with the help of city staff, call or email a city councillor.

8. Evaluating

Your group will need to evaluate both projects and processes if you wish to improve your effectiveness and stay on track. Unfortunately, many grassroots groups rarely evaluate either.

Don't evaluate when trying to create
Avoid evaluating and criticizing when trying to generate ideas. If you are facilitating a meeting, prohibit criticism when the group is brainstorming.

Make honest evaluation part of your group's culture
Make a habit of asking what worked and what could be better for both actions, and projects. Consider a round to evaluate group process at the end of meetings.
If you don't ask for honest feedback, you won't get it. Unhappy people will simply drop out. To get the most honest feedback, make responses anonymous, and obtain responses from people outside your immediate group.

Check on benefits to members
At the end of actions ask participants about benefits. Did you learn anything? Did you have too little or too much to do? Did you have any fun? Did you feel part of the group?

Compare results with objectives
Is there a gap between what is happening and what you want to happen? If there is a persistent gap, you might consider getting help from a professional organizer. Another way of dealing with a persistent gap is to revise your objectives.

9. Getting People

One of the main on-going activities of any grassroots organization is getting more people involved. This is not easy; most people don't like the idea of being "roped into" doing community work in their spare time. The heavy emphasis on the individual by modern commercial culture has driven participation rates below 5% for most community activities. If that sounds low, remember a few people committed to a single course of action can achieve amazing results.

Ask members to invite others
Eighty per cent of volunteers doing community work said they began because they were asked by a friend, a family member, or a neighbour.

Go to where people are
Instead of trying to get people to come to you, try going to them. Go to the meetings of other groups, and to places and events where people gather. This is particularly important for involving ethnic groups, youth groups, seniors, and others who may not come to you.

Never miss a chance to collect names, addresses, phone numbers
Have sign-in sheets at your meetings and events. At events organized by others, ask people to add their name, address, and phone number to petitions and requests-for-information. In return, hand out a sheet explaining the nature of your group. Maintain a numbered register of members, and give the each person a membership card to present at each meeting etc. it will save everyone a lot of work filling in names and addresses, an added benefit is to issue label badges with their name, group and number on it (numbering done alphabetically on the original members to dispel any hint of ranking, after that, numbers added when joining).

Try to include those who are under-represented
Minority language groups, low-income residents, the disabled, the elderly and youth all tend to be under-represented in neighbourhood groups. In some cases not participating is a matter of choice - most transient youth choose not to take part. In other cases, English language competence poses a formidable barrier to participation. In still other cases, people get overlooked. This can happen to the disabled and the elderly, even though they have proven invaluable as active citizens. Here are some ways to include the under-represented:

• Go to people in the group you are trying to reach and ask how they would like to be approached.            Address their issues.
• Think about who you know who knows someone in the group you are trying to reach.             Use your connections.
• Identify a group as people you want to work with, not as a target group you want to bring "on side".            Treat people as people first.
• Organize projects that focus on kids.            Parents of different ethnic backgrounds, and income levels will meet one another while accompanying their children.

Do surveys
Surveys are a good way to stay in touch, increase participation, and bring in new members. They show your group is willing to respond to a broad base of others, not just those who tend to participate in community activities.

Door-knock
Door-knocking is the oldest and best outreach method. For a how-to description see "Information Sharing ".

Create detailed membership lists
Create membership lists with places for entering name, address, day and evening phone and fax numbers, priorities for local improvement, occupation, personal interests, special skills, times available, what the person would be willing to do, and what the person would not be willing to do. Consider using a computer to update lists and sort people by address, priority, and interests. With such a computer database you can easily bring together people who belong together. Membership lists can also form the basis of a telephone tree, a system for getting messages out to large numbers of people. For suggestions on setting up a telephone tree see "Information Sharing".

Generate newsletters and leaflets
Newsletters keep group members in touch. Because most neighbourhood groups deliver to all residents whether members or not, a newsletter helps attract new people. For tips on newsletters see "Information Sharing " in Community Building Activities.

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