Challenges and Opportunities of Community Organizing in Suburban Congregations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Geraty
Keyword(s):  
Workforce Development ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Fair Housing ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Suburban Environment

Kristin Geraty’s chapter focuses on a faith-based community organizing coalition that mobilizes congregations for progressive action around issues of fair housing, education, and workforce development, but in which many participants are registered Republicans and consider themselves theological conservatives. The chapter shows how the coalition struggles to construct a call to action that resonates with members, and to negotiate how their religious identity is communicated and interpreted in an affluent, suburban environment where the intersection of religion and politics is almost always conservative.

What Is Black Organizing?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent W. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Theological Critique ◽  
Scholarly Attention

There has been much scholarly attention paid to faith-based community organizing. Such organizing efforts often understand themselves as “broad-based,” drawing support from a range of religious communities, racial groups, and neighborhoods. In doing so, these organizing efforts often elide the specificity of racial and religious difference. This chapter draws on feminist critiques of community organizing traditions to develop a black theological critique—and the beginnings of an alternative approach to community organizing that draws on the longstanding organizing traditions already present in black communities. By bringing together secular and religious traditions of black organizing, and by coupling black organizing with black theological reflection, this chapter shows how black community organizing can move beyond pragmatic appeals that sideline racial and religious identity.

scholarly journals Making Structural Change with Relational Power: A Gender Analysis of Faith-Based Community Organizing

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
Sarah B. Garlington ◽  
Margaret R. Durham Bossaller ◽  
Jennifer A. Shadik ◽  
Kerri A. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Community Change ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Relational Power ◽  
Power Differentials ◽  
The Us ◽  
Congregation Members ◽  
Change Efforts

This article presents research on faith-based community organizing in the US to examine how congregation members engage in structural change efforts related to marginalized populations. Examining the case of one organizing model, justice ministry, congregations focus on power defined through relationships, cultivated in informal spaces, and communicated through personal narrative (traditionally private, feminine spheres), and change is enacted by creating tension in public (traditionally masculine) spaces with decision-makers. A growing body of literature presents nuanced gender analyses of policy advocacy, social movements, and community change efforts both in terms of strategic models of action and revisiting our understanding of historical movements. We ask questions about how the expectations and work are constrained or facilitated by cultural expectations of gender roles and power dynamics. Examining the organizing model of justice ministry through a gender lens helps to understand how an emphasis on relational power (traditionally gendered as feminine) facilitates and strengthens the use of a range of tools, including publicly challenging authority (more frequently gendered as masculine). While the private/public, feminine/masculine dichotomy has severe limitations and risks oversimplification, the utility remains in helping name and challenge real power differentials based on gender.

Prophetic Redemption

2018 ◽  
pp. 43-67
Author(s):  
Edward Orozco Flores
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Gang Members ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Social

This chapter builds upon a gap in the field of criminology by investigating how CRS and LA Voice, as umbrella faith-based community organizing groups, shaped the social integration of former gang members and the formerly incarcerated. CRS and LA Voice’s contrasting religious traditions shaped how they facilitated members’ participation in community organizing. LA Voice leaders drew from Catholic theologies and practices and a relationship-based model of community organizing to foster members’ civic participation. This approach is termed pastoral prophetic redemption. By contrast, CRS leaders drew from the historical Black Protestant church’s theologies and practices and an issue-based model of community organizing to foster members’ civic participation. This approach is termed insurgent prophetic redemption.

The Transformation of Monastic Habits

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 604-640
Author(s):  
Kyunghee Pyun
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Civic Identity ◽  
School Uniforms ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Religious Orders ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Christian Missionary

Abstract In this paper, I posit that the transformation of monastic habits is observed and maintained in East Asian school uniforms. School uniforms at the schools founded by religious orders, mainly by Protestant and Catholic missionaries, could have manifested faith and religious identity. These religious authorities, who acted as managers of civic education, coincided with other public and private schools founded in secular contexts, unlike the religious emblems of those groups in their home countries. Many schools founded by Christian missionaries in East Asia in the early twentieth century eliminated a “sacred versus profane” dichotomy in their school uniforms and school symbols. In the formulation of a nation state in East Asia, homogeneity among inhabitants was more important than a faith-based religious identity by each Christian missionary group. Wearers of school uniforms in East Asia were taught to nurture civic identity along with the faith.

Rural Mental Health Workforce Development in Hawai'i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands

2019 ◽  
pp. 928-958
Author(s):  
Christopher W. S. Hill ◽  
Kelley Withy
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Workforce Development ◽  
Health Workforce ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Career Pathway ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Youth And Young Adults ◽  
Health Workforce Development ◽  
Mental Health Workforce

Working in Hawai'i and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands presents unique challenges and opportunities for mental health workforce development. This chapter presents previous, current, and future efforts aimed at not only increasing the size of the workforce but also developing a better trained workforce for existing professionals. The authors draw from their experiences at the Hawaii/Pacific Basin Area Health Education Centers (AHEC), one of the only organizations performing medical, public health, and mental health workforce development across the Pacific Region, to explore culturally appropriate initiatives and interventions. Programs targeting a range of audiences from youth to adults, students to professionals, and patients/clients to caregivers are discussed. The chapter emphasizes health career pathway programs for youth and young adults wishing to enter the health workforce and a variety of educational development and continuing education opportunities for professionals. Specific mental health workforce initiatives are described.

Rural Mental Health Workforce Development in Hawai'i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands

2016 ◽  
pp. 60-89
Author(s):  
Christopher W. S. Hill ◽  
Kelley Withy
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Workforce Development ◽  
Health Workforce ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Career Pathway ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Youth And Young Adults ◽  
Health Workforce Development ◽  
Mental Health Workforce

Working in Hawai'i and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands presents unique challenges and opportunities for mental health workforce development. This chapter presents previous, current, and future efforts aimed at not only increasing the size of the workforce but also developing a better trained workforce for existing professionals. The authors draw from their experiences at the Hawaii/Pacific Basin Area Health Education Centers (AHEC), one of the only organizations performing medical, public health, and mental health workforce development across the Pacific Region, to explore culturally appropriate initiatives and interventions. Programs targeting a range of audiences from youth to adults, students to professionals, and patients/clients to caregivers are discussed. The chapter emphasizes health career pathway programs for youth and young adults wishing to enter the health workforce and a variety of educational development and continuing education opportunities for professionals. Specific mental health workforce initiatives are described.

Rise Up and Build the Cities: Faith-Based Community Organizing

2012 ◽  
pp. 372-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ram Cnaan ◽  
Stephanie Boddie ◽  
Gaynor Yancey
Keyword(s):  
Community Organizing ◽  
Faith Based

"Jesus Saved an Ex-Con"

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Orozco Flores
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Community Renewal ◽  
National Network ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Social ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated Persons

This book presents two cases of faith-based community organizing for and among the formerly incarcerated. It examines how the Community Renewal Society, a protestant-founded group, and LA Voice, an affiliate of the Catholic-Jesuit-founded PICO National Network, foster faith-based community organizing for the formerly incarcerated. It conceptualizes the expanding boundaries of democratic inclusion—in order to facilitate the social integration of the formerly incarcerated—as prophetic redemption. It draws from participant observation and semistructured interviews to examine how the Community Renewal Society offered support for the Fighting to Overcome Records and Create Equality (FORCE) project, while LA Voice offered support for the Homeboy Industries–affiliated Homeboys Local Organizing Committee (LOC), both as forms of prophetic redemption. Both FORCE and the Homeboys LOC were led by formerly incarcerated persons, and drew from their parent organizations’ respective religious traditions and community organizing strategies. At the same time, FORCE and Homeboys LOC members drew from displays learned in recovery to participate in community organizing. The result was that prophetic redemption led to an empowering form of social integration, “returning citizenship.”

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