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Community Organizing
The particular style of organizing we follow is based on Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation model. This means that we build power before program. Specific issues bubble up from the intentional conversations (Relational Meetings) we have with one another. We spend time in discernment about the issues that come up, then research them thoroughly and plan a specific winnable actions. We bring the power of our culture of relationships to the table when meeting representatives in the market and government sectors.
Community organizing is by nature a movement. We take all of our actions through a cycle that begins with leadership training, moves to relational meetings and story, discernment, research, power analysis, action and identifying new leaders. This perpetual movement gives power to our culture of relationships.
PHOENIX’s overall goals with community organizing actions are to reduce stigma against those in prison or who have been to prison and to continue to strengthen our relational culture. But organizing doesn’t happen by one small nonprofit. We are therefore a member institution of Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good (MACG) – a Portland affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation. MACG is an aggregate of 20+ institutions representing labor unions, faith groups and the community.
Here is a sample of several organizing efforts by PHOENIX.
1) Multnomah County Department of Community Justice – 2007
Who we were we trying to move Multnomah County Post Prison Supervision
What we wanted: To maintain relationships with PHOENIX graduates through our Mentor Project once they were on parole.
Why we wanted it: Because our graduates were getting siphoned off to other programs and we were losing the relational culture piece of our work. Additionally, parolees had to start new relationships with people that they hadn’t developed trust with yet, and this was not providing the best ground for the transformational work they had begun in prison.
What we did (the Action): We invited Don Trapp, High-Risk Drug Unit, to MACG’s Fifth Anniversary Assembly. Eight PHOENIX graduates told their stories on stage. We asked Mr. Trapp for his commitment to work with PHOENIX and open doors for us with other parole officers.
Immediate Outcome: Mr. Trapp agreed on state in front of over 400 people from nearly all MACG institutions. He vouched for us with other parole officers in the county.
Long-Term Results:
2) Healthy Kids – February and March 2010
Who we were we trying to move Parents to sign up their kids for health insurance that is available to all kids in Oregon under age 19.
What we wanted: An opportunity for our graduates to “give back” to the community – something they had been requesting for a long time. This particular event was important because many of our graduates are both parents and students at Portland Community College (PCC).
Why we wanted it: We saw these as small actions that we could easily organize and support MACG’s efforts to sign kids up for health care that they had played a key role in getting through the Oregon legislature.
What we did (the Action): We planned an event with MACG Healthy Kids “Assisters,” advertised them at PCC and staffed tables. We were able to educate the college community about the Healthy Kids program and actually sign up the families that were ready to go through the process.
Immediate Outcome: MACG handed out a lot of information to people who were interested, and signed up a few on the spot. We also received a request to come back again for a second sign-up event and an invitation to do an event at Mt. Hood Community College – both of which we did.
Long-Term Results: This strengthened PHOENIX’s relationship with the Health Care Action Team in MACG and with the colleges.
3) Speaking at Local Colleges (ongoing)
Who we were we trying to move Students that would be working in fields that would interact with prisoners or ex-cons. These include nursing, social sciences and justice fields.
What we wanted: We wanted the opportunity to tell our stories to and interact with members of the public in a safe environment.
Why we wanted it: We want the voice of the prisoner/ex-con to be heard so that we’re not all painted with the same brush. It is for the purpose of humanizing ex-cons . . . that is, reducing stigma . . . and to find the commonalities we share with the rest of the community.
What we did (the Action): Individual PHOENIX members told their stories of incarceration and return to the community. We focused on issues of particular interest to specific classes (like prison health care at the nursing class), had one-on-one Relational Meetings with students and discussed these conversations and stories in the large group.
Immediate Outcome: Students were able to meet ex-cons and speak with them directly about their experiences.
Long-Term Results: We have gained standing invitations to speak to these classes each semester.
4) Reentry Organizations and Resources (ROAR) – 2008-2009
Who we were we trying to move We were trying to move ROAR’s 40+ organizations and agencies working on various aspects of prisoners returning to the community after release.
What we wanted: Inclusion of ex-cons at the table where decisions are made that impact them.
Why we wanted it: People working in these fields often exclude ex-cons from decision-making. We wanted to raise awareness of the fact that their input is almost never sought and that they often have little say in decisions that impact them. It’s also an opportunity for our people to lead and to interact with community members.
What we did (the Action): PHOENIX ex-con mentees attended nearly every ROAR meeting – especially the group that designed the Reentry Transition Center – and intentionally spoke up with their perspective at each meeting.
Immediate Outcome: Ex-cons were heard and part of the decision-making process. This included the need for linking mentoring and services with people with whom they already had relationships. Specifically, an A&D counselor and PHOENIX volunteer, Kelly Fitzpatrick, linked her alcohol and drug treatment company with us so that mentees would get A&D services from someone with whom they had already developed a relationship of trust and that again aided our building a culture of relational power.
Long-Term Results: PHOENIX is a founding partner organization of the Reentry Transition Center.
5) Hands Across the Bridge – 2008-2011
Who we were we trying to move We wanted to move participants at Hands Across the Bridge – an annual event celebrating recovery from addiction by linking hands between Washington and Oregon across the I-5 bridge.
What we wanted: Joining forces with Hands Across the Bridge organizers, we wanted to include prison-to-community transition issues in the event.
Why we wanted it: There is a high degree of overlap between the ex-con community and the recovery community. Roughly 2/3 of people in prison have addiction issues, and nearly 2/3 of those in recovery have spent some time in prison or jail.
What we did (the Action): Over the past four years, PHOENIX members have served on the planning team, led the Safety Team with AIM (American Indian Movement), emceed and told their stories at the event.
Immediate Outcome: Strong identification amongst participants of the experiences they’ve shared of both prison and addiction.
Long-Term Results: We gained increased awareness of the link between these issues for national recovery group SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), and the importance of working with both communities because of the significant overlap of these populations.
6) Superintendents in the Oregon Department of Corrections - 2011
Who we were we trying to move We wanted to move the superintendents at prisons throughout the state.
What we wanted: To bring our leadership training into new prisons in Oregon – including bringing PHOENIX ex-con graduates in to help lead the training.
Why we wanted it: People from all over the state parole to the three counties of the Portland metro area (Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas Counties). More parolees are concentrated in these three counties than anywhere else in the state – and it’s where we do our in-the-community mentor work and community organizing planning. We wanted to reach people – especially those at releasing prisons – so that they could become part of the mentoring community (our PHOENIX “Village”) and our culture of relationships before they got out. It is also an opportunity for our graduates to lead pieces of the training and to inspire – or blaze the trail – for those coming behind them.
What we did (the Action): We asked Assistant Director of Transitions Services, Ginger Martin, to broker a meeting with the superintendents to share our work. With her help, we made a presentation to all the superintendents. The former superintendent we worked with at Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI), Paula Myers, described the protocols she and PHOENIX had agreed upon for graduates to return to the prison to teach. She also said that she had enjoyed working with PHOENIX and that the protocols worked well.
Immediate Outcome: The new superintendent, Christine Popoff, met with PHOENIX members soon after her arrival at CRCI. Paula Myers moved to Santiam Correctional Institution, where we had made a presentation earlier in the year. We are following up her and Sheri Wheeler, transition coordinator, to produce the training there in the near future.
Long-Term Results: We hope that this will expand our base of trained ex-con graduates in the Portland area, increase membership in our Mentor Project, and raise visibility amongst staff and prisoners of the projects PHOENIX offers. We also hope this will offer increased leadership opportunities for those who wish to go back into the prison to teach and tell their stories. And finally, that the protocols we develop for working with ex-cons here will be transferrable to other joint projects we wish to undertake – like speaking at high schools.
7) MACG Prison/Community Transition Work Group - 2011
Who we were we trying to move Member institutions of Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good
What we wanted: An action team focused on transition – reflecting the ex-con and community member voices in issues of transition and criminal justice.
Why we wanted it: PHOENIX needs the power of MACG’s 20+ institutions to make headway in larger issues facing ex-cons. It will also strengthen our own work and it will create new opportunities for trained PHOENIX leaders to take leadership roles in MACG.
What we did (the Action): Toby Green of Laborers 483 brought this idea to PHOENIX and MACG Director, Mary Nemmers because prison work release programs were taking union jobs. Instead of creating an “us against them” situation between the unions and prisoners, he wanted us to work together to educate and to develop a creative solution. MACG has experience working with other issues that impact parolees – like affordable housing and employment.
Immediate Outcome: We have held several exploratory meetings – work group meetings – that will make a proposal for an action team if there is sufficient interest. MACG’s entire Executive Team came to the most recent meeting, leading Relational Meetings and plenary in which we shared what our interests and concerns were around these issues of prison, crime, transition and community safety.
Long-Term Results: That we will form a Prison/Community Transition Action Team that will be able to tackle issues together with both ex-con and community member voices.
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