|
|
About the Book :
Reactions
About the Book
■
Contents ■
Reactions
Sample Chapter ■
Introduction
|
Building Powerful Community Organizations
By Michael Jacoby Brown
Reactions
to the book
More Reactions & Reviews
To Activate, just open and read
Michael Jacoby Brown distills more than 30 years of
organizing into his book, which every aspiring and
veteran activist should own. “Building Powerful
Community Organizations” can be read straight through as
a primer on how to become an activist. Or, it can be a
reference for specific problems—the detailed table of
contents, chapter overviews, examples, self-study
exercises, and index make information easy to find.
Jacoby Brown defines community organizing, the way to
build a community with homegrown leaders, run meetings,
raise money, and get results. He tells activists to work
with their membership to build lasting relationships
rather than dictate to them. Top-down groups have little
staying power and the leaders burn out. This book is
strongly recommended for public and academic libraries,
especially those with social service and management
collections.
Duncan Stewart, Univ. of Iowa
Libraries, Iowa City
Library Journal |
|
|
 "Finally,
Mike Brown has done what no one else has. Simply
put, this is the best book on community organizing that
I have ever read. Chock full of stories, and practical
instruction in the practice of organizing written in
a way that everyone can understand. Get it! Read it!!
Use it!!"
Horace Small
Union of Minority Neighborhoods |
|
|
“It’s certainly the best
organizing guidebook I can remember seeing. It’s
engaging, practical and concise and will be useful for
anyone learning classic community organizing”
Andrew Mott, Director
Community Learning Project |
|
To call this a "nuts and
bolts" book on organizing would much understate what
this book contains. Instead, it is the whole "tool box"
of the principles, practices, exercises, and case study
stories of what community organizing is and can be. It
is written in a way that it can be used by volunteer
leaders, newer organizers, and experienced organizers
and leaders. Michael Brown has the experience to have
written this from a life time as an organizer and one
who continues today in training and mentoring the new
organizers we much need for social change. This book
will help many people understand organizing better and
has chapters and exercises to copy or adapt for their
own organizing and training work. It's a much needed
addition to understanding and developing grass roots
democracy.
Lew Finfer, Director
Massachusetts Communities Action Network |
|
|
 Michael Brown is a
superb guide. His book is full of thoughtful, practical
advice for community organizers, and indeed for anyone
who wants to participate at the grass roots in making
ours a more just society.
Howard Zinn, Author,
A
People’s History of the United States
|
|
 "Michael Brown is an experienced and savvy organizer.
His humanity and skill both shine through in this useful
and important new book. Michael tells us not just how
ordinary people can organize to change the balance of
power in our world, but why we must do so, if we are to
build the just and caring society of which we dream."
Si Kahn, Executive
Director
Grassroots Leadership
& co-author
(with Elizabeth Minnich),
The Fox in the Henhouse:
How Privatization Threatens Democracy |
|
 “This
book would be applicable for Love Canal, for fighting a
proposed facility or something as simple as a stop
sign.”
Lois Marie Gibbs, Founder
Love Canal Homeowners’ Association
and Executive Director,
Center for Health, Environment and Justice |
|
|
"Michael Brown has written a vital textbook for social
activists, entrepreneurs and just about anyone who wants
to get things done. This is a nuts-and-bolts,
step-by-step guide to accomplishing social change,
including invaluable self-interview forms and
questionnaires that enable the reader to define specific
motives and personal goals. Many of the writer’s primary
concepts and perceptions are illustrated with insightful
anecdotes from his personal life. This book will also be
of great interest to those confronting the problem of
ineffectual institutions, particularly in local
government and in the inner city and minority
communities. I highly recommend Mr. Brown’s book to
anyone involved in political and social activism and the
leadership process."
Ron Bell, Executive Director
Dunk the Vote |
|
 “Michael
Brown has given us a gift. .Bravo! and Amen! Through
stories and analysis from his years of training
organizers, he explains the strategy, the theory, the
techniques and the most important lesson--ORGANIZE!”
Heather Booth, Founder
Midwest Academy |
|
 "This
is an unusual and valuable “how to” book, giving
guidance to organizers on how to change the world.
Treats the tasks of building an organization seriously,
breaks out different steps and asks the serious reader
to use the work book, answer critical questions, and
examine her or his performance. The book’s style is
straightforward, it provides the reader with organizing
theories and with powerful skill training on how to get
out there and make a difference. Michael Brown has
provided people doing organizing with a vital tool."
Ruth Messinger, Former
Manhattan Borough President
& Executive Director,
American Jewish World Service |
|
 "This
book inspired me to imagine a course I was about to
teach on community organization as a project in
community organization - self-government. It worked.
Michael Brown knows how to take from the Big Picture a
snapshot of life - the way organizers really see it."
Robert Ross, Sociology Professor, Clark University
& author,
Slaves to Fashion
|
|
|
