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Community Organizing Training in Paris, Dezember 2006

Bericht von Paul Cromwell und Peter Szynka

Bericht eines Teilnehmers: Reinhard Loos

“Seek the Peace and Prosperity of the City”

Report Written By Rev. Paul Cromwell and Peter Szynka, January, 2007December, 2006 European Community Organizing Training

Held At Le Pont Meeting Center of Protestant Churches. Paris, France

Sponsored By Protestant Church of the German Rhineland , (Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland)A

I.                    Introduction and Background

II.                  December, 2006 Community Organizing Sessions

III.                The Potential for Community Organizing in Europe

IV.               Additional Resources on Community Organizing

I.                    Introduction and Background

On December 10-15, 2007, twenty-six persons from six European

countries gathered at the Le Pont Meeting Center of Protestant Churches in Paris, France for a community organizing training and theological reflection on the role of the church in the city.  The Training was sponsored by the Protestant Church of the Rhineland (Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland).  The participants represented Sleszka Diakonia from the Czech Republic; Caritas Slovakia; the Center for Peace, Non-Violence, and Human Rights in Osijek, Croatia; community organizing initiatives sponsored by the Friederick Ebert Foundation in Romania and Moldova; leaders from the Neidergirmes Protestant Parish in Wetzlar, Germany; and Diakonia in Saarbrucken, Germany.  The community organizer trainer was Rev. Paul Cromwell, a United Church of Christ minister with twenty-five years of community organizing experience in the United States and who has been studying and working in Germany and Europe for two-and-a-half years with the support of the German Protestant Church (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD)) in cooperation with the Forum on Community Organizing (FOCO).  Peter Szynka, President of FOCO and employee of Diakonia Oldenburg assisted Rev. Cromwell.  The theological reflection was facilitated by Rev. Reinhard Witschke, retired Pastor and former Director of Diakonia of the Protestant Church of the Rhineland.

            Community organizing, as presented in this training, is the systematic process of engaging large number of traditionally socially excluded persons (low-income, homeless, unemployed, minority, and migrant persons) at the local neighborhood and municipality level in order to create positive change and guided by the values of compassion and justice.  It seeks to powerfully engage diverse groups of people with their governmental and other civic leaders in the democratic process that shape the lives of individuals and broader community.  Community organizing has an eighty-year tradition in the United States, beginning in the late 1930’s with the work of Saul Alinsky.  Through community organizing, ordinary citizens have come together in hundreds of cities to solve problems and achieve their visions for education reform, neighborhood improvements, youth programs, job creation, better access to governmental and economic services, etc. 

            While not confined to religious congregations, a recent survey found that over 3,200 religious congregations and parishes are actively involved in community organizing in the United States.  These parishes have found that community organizing provides an effective method for implementing the words of the Biblical prophet Jeremiah, which served as the theme of the December, 2006 Training:  “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city, and pray to the Lord for it, because on its welfare, your welfare depends.” (Jeremiah 29:7)

            The participants of the December, 2006 Training are part of a growing movement in a number of European countries seeking to transfer good practices from the community organizing tradition to their own specific cultural and institutional settings.  The German Forum for Community Organizing began this transfer in the mid-1990’s.  During the past two-and-a-half years with the help of Rev. Cromwell, FOCO has expanded their efforts to six German cities and are providing community organizing assistance to organizations in Sweden, Bosnia, Romania, Moldova, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Croatia.  This December, 2006 Training was a further step in these efforts.

            This report is in four parts.  It begins with a brief description of community organizing and listing of the December, 2006 Training sessions.  “The Potential for Community Organizing in Europe” section is based upon problems and visions that the Training participants used from their local communities in workshop sessions, and which they believe community organizing strategies could impact.  This section of the report also includes next steps planned by the participants.  The report concludes with a short list of references and a “Further Description of Community Organizing” for the reader who would like to learn more.

            The December, 2006 participants and trainers are deeply grateful to Rev. Joern-Erik Gutheil (Landeskirchenrat) and the Protestant Church of the Rhineland for their very generous financial and moral support in making the training and this report possible.

II.                  December, 2006 Community Organizing Training Sessions

Community organizing was presented as a three-step process.  The first

step involves listening to large numbers of neighborhood residents to identify and prioritize problems and visions.  The use of one-on-one (face-to-face) visits in this first step also helps build relationships of trust and respect, and serves to help engage and mobilize large numbers of persons in the community organizing process.  The second step involves researching the problem and developing potential solutions.  During this step other individuals and organizations that share concern about the problem are invited to participate.  The third step is to implement solutions.  While self-help solutions are an option, community organizing emphasizes negotiating with governmental and other civic leaders to help create long-term institutional solutions that can impact large numbers of stakeholders.

            The Bible and church history provides a rich resource of guidance and inspiration for those who “seek the peace and prosperity of the city.”  Theological reflection helped the Training participants think about and share with each other around such themes as the role of religion in their cities, how this role has changed in the recent past amidst trends of secularization and governmental changes, and how the church can be an agent for positive change.  Participants were inspired by a guest presentation from a pastor working in one of Paris’ most impoverished neighborhoods.

            The following is a list of workshop training and reflection sessions.  Session formats included lectures, small group discussions, role-plays, and large group work.

A.     Community Organizing Sessions

1.      Introduction to Community Organizing

2.      Why People Get Involved and One-On-One Visits

3.      Moving from Unmanageable Community Problems to Solvable Issues

4.      Negotiating

5.      Community Organizing Structures and First Steps in Building a Community Organization

6.      Fundraising

B.    Theological Reflection Sessions

1.      Daily Readings from Scripture and Prayer

2.      The City in the Bible and Describing My City

3.      The Role of Religion and Religious Institutions in My City

4.      Vision for the New Jerusalem

5.      Guest Lecture by Rev. Agnes Von Kirchbach:  The Role of the Church in Paris

III.                The Potential for Community Organizing in Europe

Twice during the December Training, workshop participants were asked to

work in small group with others from their own country for the following two purposes:  1.  To strategically reflect upon solving a local community problem faced in their city, and 2.  To make plans for how they want to use community-organizing practices in the future.

A.     Community Problems and Visions

The Czech participants focussed on the problem of gambling machines in

the city of Cesky Tesin.  Such machines have proliferated in bars and other locations throughout the city, contributing to significant social problems such as indebtedness and family conflicts.  Drawing upon their knowledge and experiences, their “research” indicated that in a nearby village such gambling machines were prohibited by passage of a municipal ordinance, a solution that could also work in Cesky Tesin.  Participants wrote out on flip chart paper a graphic “power analysis” of the various governmental leaders and structures, along with the process needed to pass such an ordinance in their city.  This example was then used in a negotiating role play in front of all the Training participants where the Czech participants met with their reluctant mayor seeking his support for the ordinance and inviting him to a three hundred-person public meeting where he would be asked to declare and explain his position on this issue.

            The Romanian and Moldova participants combined in seeking to get land adjacent to a housing complex in the city of Chisinau transformed into a “green space”, complete with a children’s playground, benches, lighting, trees, and grass.  They envisioned area residents building alliances with local shop owners, parents in nearby areas, and local NGO’s who share a similar vision before negotiating with the mayor and city council for this neighborhood improvement.

            The Slovak participants discussed the problem of homelessness in the city of Kosice.  Their action plan began with creating a broad alliance of groups that have an interest in solving this problem and which could provide needed resources.  Prior to negotiating with the city to donate a building that could be renovated into a homeless shelter, they planned to use their existing relationships with area TV stations and newspapers in order to do extensive reporting on the homeless problem, as a means of raising public awareness and  creating political pressure for change.

            The Croatian participants described a local hospital in Osijek that lacks adequate parking, creating hardship for visiting patients and serious traffic problems for area residents and the parents with children in the nearby kindergarten.  They outlined a four-month action plan that included negotiating with city officials and a parking company that would transform land adjacent to the hospital and previously used by the army into a parking lot.

            Participants from Wetzlar and Saarbrucken shared many problems that afflict their low-income and migrant neighborhoods, such as high unemployment, youth challenges, and need for better services.  But they focussed their attention during the Training sessions on how they would create the networks among local neighborhood stakeholders for the purposes of identifying and solving community problems. 

B.    Next Steps and Future Cooperation

The Romanian participants reported that with the support of the Friederick

Ebert Foundation, a two-day community organizing orientation and five-day training in 2006 have lead to the potential development of six community organizing initiatives in Romania.  They also outlined detailed plans and a two-year timeline for their work in one of these initiatives, taking place in Harghita County in central Romania.  This will involve recruiting and training local residents in four villages to conduct a “listening process”, followed by research and action on priority community problems.  They will create an organization structure, which allows for both local and regional work.

            The Friederick Ebert Foundation is also promoting community organizing in two cities in Moldova.  Fundraising is currently underway to conduct initial community organizing orientations and trainings.

            The Niedergirmes Protestant Parish in Wetzlar and Diakonia in Saarbrucken are beginning community organizing along with four other German locations that will receive consulting and training assistance for the coming two years funded by a German foundation.  In Wetzlar, parish members will conduct a listening process within their parish, followed by a similar process in the surrounding neighborhood in order to select and solve community problems.  In Saarbrucken, three adjoining neighborhood areas have been selected for a listening process to begin in early 2007.

            Five cities and villages were identified for community organizing by the Croatian participants where post-civil war reconciliation work has already occurred in recent years.  The first six months of 2007 will be used to identify interested groups, followed by a Summer five-day training, Autumn listening process, with research and problem solving occurring in 2008.  They also have plans to continue cooperation with a community organizing initiative in Tuzla, Bosnia that was initiated in June and November, 2006.

            The Czech participants spoke of adding community organizing to an already existing effort, and to explore other possibilities when they meet with their Sleszka Diakonia colleagues in early 2007.

            Participants from Caritas Slovakia spoke of adding community organizing to their existing work in five cities, using 2007 as a time for building local support, trainings, and listening processes, followed by research and action in late 2007 and early 2008. 

            The participants divided into two groups on the final day of the Training to discuss fundraising for community organizing.  One group developed a long-list of local fundraising possibilities.  The second group focussed upon joint cooperation in submitting grant proposals to the European Union and others for the purposes of future networking.  Such networking would include trainings, site visits, and conferences for the purposes of sharing experiences and best practices.

IV.               Additional Resources on Community Organizing

The written literature on community organizing is extensive.  The reader

will find the following four references a good starting point in further exploring community organizing.

·         http://www.fo-co.info:  The website of the German Forum on Community Organizing (FOCO).  [German]

·         http://comm-org.wisc.edu:  An American-based website with lists of community organizations, trainings, and numerous articles about community organizing, including a paper by Rev. Paul Cromwell entitled “The American Community Organizing Tradition and Its Potential Application to The German Protestant Church and European Context” (http://comm-org.wisc.edu/papers2005/cromwell.htm).  [English]

·         Transforming Power:  Biblical Strategies for Making a Difference in Your Community, Robert Linthicum, InterVarsity Press, 2003.  A description of community organizing strategies and techniques, along with use of scriptural and theological reflections. [English]

·         Theoretische und Empirische Grundlagen des Community Organizing bei Saul D. Alinsky (1909-1972), Peter Szynka, Zentraldruckerei der Universitaet Bremen, 2006.  A description of Saul Alinsky, the founder of community organizing, with extensive bibliography.  [German]

Anregungen für die Arbeit vor Ort

Bericht über die Teilnahme am Community Organizing Training, 10.-15.12.2006, Foyer le Pont, Paris,

von Pfr. Reinhard Loos ,

Ev. Kirchengemeinde Malstatt, Hochwaldstr. 31,  66113 Saarbücken, Tel. 0681-71160, reinhard_loos@web.de

Anstoß zur Beschäftigung mit dem Community Organizing war ein Treffen zwischen Mitarbeitenden des Stadtteilbüros Malstatt und den Pfarrerinnen und Pfarrern der Kirchengemeinde Malstatt, in deren Gemeindegebiet zwei community organizing Projekte geplant sind.

Nachdem Paul Cromwell mich zu diesem Training eingeladen und Kirchenrat Jörn-Eric Gutheil eine Saarbrücker Beteiligung wichtig gemacht hatte, habe ich kurzfristig meine Teilnahme zugesagt. Dem Diakonischen Werk an der Saar danke ich herzlich für die Unterstützung!

Bemerkenswert an dem Training in Paris war sicherlich die internationale Zusammensetzung. Die Teilnehmenden kamen aus fünf südosteuropäischen Ländern. Aus Deutschland waren neben mir lediglich Teilnehmer aus Wetzlar (Kirchengemeinde Niedergirmes) vertreten.  

Ergänzt wurde das Training mit einer theologischen Reflexion über "die Stadt in der Bibel".

Über die soziale Situation am Tagungsort Paris und die Arbeit der eglise reformee vor Ort informierte deren Pfarrerin Agnes von Kirchbach.

Ausgangspunkt für mein Interesse am Community Organizing ist meine Arbeit als Gemeindepfarrer in Malstatt. Meine leitende Frage ist, wie es gelingen kann, stärker als bisher Zugänge und Kontakte zu Menschen in den problembeladenen Malstatter Quartieren zu finden. Wie kann die Kirchengemeinde den sozialen Gegebenheiten am Ort stärker Rechnung tragen? Die Berüh-rungspunkte sind bisher – vielleicht milieubedingt – gering und gelingen nur dort, wo ein konkretes Interesse der Bewohner sich mit dem Engagement der Gemeinde trifft (zB Kindergarten, Amtshandlungen, soziale Hilfen, offene Jugendarbeit). Ansonsten scheint die gemeindliche Arbeit, was Themen und Formen der Arbeit angeht, oft an den Interessen der Bewohner vorbeizugehen.

In dem Training ist mir deutlich geworden, wie sehr der gemeindliche Arbeit davon geprägt ist, in welcher Rolle sich die Gemeinde im gesellschaftlichen Kontext versteht. Wichtig war hierbei die Unterscheidung: Church in / to / with the community.

Community Organizing setzt bei dem Eigeninteresse der Bewohner an und hat zum Ziel, die Be-wohner selber initiativ werden zu lassen – eine für die Gemeindearbeit ungewohnte Sichtweise, die das Selbstbild und das Rollenverständnis der Kirchengemeinde infragestellt.

Wichtig war für mich der Austausch und die Auseinandersetzung über das diakonische Profil der kirchlichen Arbeit. Die meisten Teilnehmenden waren Mitarbeitende von diakonischen Einrichtungen, die Wetzlarer Mitglieder einer Kirchengemeinde, die ihren Schwerpunkt bewusst auf eine diakonische Konzeption ihrer Gemeindearbeit gelegt und erfolgreich verschiedene Projekte initiiert haben. 

Dabei stellt sich für mich die Frage nach der kirchlichen Zusammenarbeit in Malstatt zwischen Kirchengemeinde und den Projekten des diakonischen Werks. Ich würde gerne miteinander darüber ins Gespräch kommen, ob und bei welchen Aufgaben und Projekten eine verstärkte Kooperation sinnvoll sein kann.

Vielleicht kann das Community Organizing Projekt dabei ein Übungsfeld für eine Kooperation sein – ob Kirchengemeinde dabei als Teil einer "Interessengemeinschaft der 'Aktiven' in Malstatt" mit im Boot ist oder in anderer Form.

Eine Mitarbeit am Community Organizing von Seiten der Kirchengemeinde könnte auch der Prüfung dienen, ob diese Methode geeignet sein könnte, innerhalb der Kirchengemeinde selbst die Eigeninteressen der Gemeindeglieder zu ermitteln, Gemeindearbeit aufzubauen und zu organisieren.

Bei dem Training selbst waren für mich die Übungen zur Gesprächstechnik (One-On-One Visits) am eindrücklichsten.

Erfolgreich ist diese Form von Gesprächen dann, wenn zugleich eine Beziehung zum Gesprächs-partner aufgebaut wird. In praktischen Interviewübungen habe ich dies nachvollziehen können: Es war für mich erstaunlich, wieviel man in einem kurzen Gespräch übereinander erfährt; und es wurde deutlich: Echtes Interesse öffnet Türen.

Für mich offen gebliebene Fragen:

• Was geschieht mit den bei den Gesprächen sich entwickelnden Beziehungen? Bleibt es bei einem punktuellen Kontakt lediglich mit dem Ziel, zu einem Treffen einzuladen? Sind sie also "nur" Mittel zum Zweck, oder besitzen sie einen Wert an sich?

• Wie soll sich der weitere Kontakt praktisch gestalten? (Informationen über Aktionen, Erfolg/Miß-erfolg).

• Können geweckte Erwartungen nicht auch enttäuscht werden? Wie geht man mit Mißerfolg um?

• Ist eine einmalige Aktion zu wenigen konkreten Problemen das Ziel oder soll eine Art selbstorganisierter Bürgerorganisation auf Dauer etabliert werden?

Empfehlung für weitere Schulungen:

Die Teilnahme von jeweils mehreren Personen eines Projekts erwies sich als sehr effektiv, weil die eigene Arbeit oder das eigene Projekt während des Trainings immer wieder bearbeitet und hinterfragt werden konnte. Ein Training bittet also nicht nur eine gute Möglichkeit zur persönlichen Schulung, sondern bietet eine gute Möglichkeit, die eigene Arbeit vor Ort miteinander zu reflektieren. 

Persönliche Weiterarbeit:

Zunächst werde ich mich bei den Mitarbeitenden des Stadtteilbüros über den konkreten Stand des Projekts in Malstatt informieren und am 3.2.2007 an der Schulung mit Paul Cromwell teilnehmen. Dabei möchte ich die Art und den Umfang meiner weiteren Mitarbeit an dem Projekt klären. Ich hoffe, bei der praktischen Beteiligung am Projekt Antworten auf die aufgeworfenen Fragen zu erhalten.