GSLL 1517 - Community-Based Organizing

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition among scholars and international development institutions of the necessity for approaches to community-development that not only increase capacity for self-help but also fundamentally increase the rights of poor and marginalized people within national and international governing structures. At a practical level, community organizing can be thought of as the process or a set of tools with which communities can accomplish this goal and strategically build the power necessary to influence local, national, or international policy and discourse.

Taking a practical "hands-on" perspective, this course will explore the theories, tools, styles and challenges of community-based organizing. It will discuss practical strategies for developing community leadership and working with marginalized communities, exploring the ideas and examples from Evo Morales, Paulo Freire, Saul Alinsky, Sup-Comandante Marcos, the Bridge Immigrant Rights experiment and Martin Heidegger. By diving into the depths of organizing with intentionality, we will discover the impact that ordinary individuals can and have had on the world.

Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:

• Understand the history and basic principles of community organizing
• Apply basic organizing techniques, such as popular education and direct action
• Support current organizing efforts in the student’s field or situation
• Understand the role of privilege, race, gender and class in struggles for change

This course can be applied towards:

• Community-Based Development Certificate

Noncredit courses do not produce academic credit nor appear on a Colorado State University academic transcript.

Important Information

Due to the condensed time frame for this course, students cannot withdraw and receive a refund once the course begins.

Instructors

Raul O. Paz Pastrana
zhokka@gmail.com

Raul Paz Pastrana has been an organizer for over eight years and has given many workshops around the country and Latin America. These workshops have focused on diverse topics such as theater of the oppressed, popular education, participatory filmmaking, strategic organizing and base building.

He is currently the Organizing Director for Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores, a non-profit that works to empower immigrant workers in the Denver, Colorado area. He is a consultant for Village Earth who facilitates vision and storyboard/film workshops at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and the North Amazon strip in Peru and Eduador.