Syllabus out for new online Strategic Power Building course @MandelSchool.

On Friday, we put the final, final touches on the syllabus for the new online course to be offered at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at CWRU. As some of you know, I’ve been working with Mark Chupp and the developers at 2U on this course since April 2020. The course uses challenging readings and real world examples to help prepare students to work with communities to build power from the ground up. The course provides several frameworks for understanding power and strategy, three models for building power, and six components of a successful power building campaign. We also look at power building efforts in a variety of contexts, including organizing for social supports and basic rights, public health and the environment, and social practice art and urban planning systems. There is a six part case study following the “Parents United” group as they plan a power building campaign in their community. The centerpieces of the course are eighteen interviews with dynamic power builders from across the country and world that are woven through each week. Here’s the full list of speakers and topics:

  • “Power and Our Communities” with Professor John Gaventa, Institute of Development Studies and Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) research program

  • “Building Powerful Organizations” with Amy Vruno, Lead Organizer, Metro Industrial Areas Foundation

  • “Organizing for a New Economy” with Kristen Barker, President and co-founder of the Cincinnati Union Co-Op Initiative (CUCI)

  • “Lessons from the Immigration Movement” with Angelica Salas, Executive Director, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)

  • “Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety: Organizing on Multiple Levels” with Elizabeth Bowes (Organizing Manager, Everytown for Gun Safety in America) and Kristine Woodworth (Volunteer Ohio Chapter Lead, Moms Demand Action)

  • “Working Towards a Governing Agenda and Electoral Power” with Chirag Mehta (Policy and Ideas Director, Community Change)

  • “Vision and Community Change: Why, What, and How?” with Quinton Sankofa (Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project)

  • “Narratives and the Flint Water Crisis” with Melissa Mays (Founder of Water You Fighting For, Organizer at Flint Rising) and Ben Pauli (Assistant Professor of Social Science at Kettering University)

  • “Power Analysis in Community Organizing” with Elsa Barboza (Senior Organizer, Community Change)

  • “Considering Structural and Ethical Power in a Campaign” with Katy Heins (Senior Organizer, Community Change) and Andreanecia Morris (Executive Director, HousingNOLA)

  • “Strategizing on Multiple Levels” with Elizabeth Hopkins (Organizing Director, ACLU Ohio) and Greer Aeschbury (Organizing Strategist, ACLU Ohio)

  • “Leadership: Changing Culture, Creating Pathways” with Trish Adobea Tchume (Network Organizer, Sterling Network)

  • “Reflective practice and social change: Learning from the Occupy Movement” with Heather McKee Hurwitz (Lecturer of Sociology, Case Western Reserve University)

  • “Reflecting and learning within an ongoing crisis” with Melissa Mays and Ben Pauli

  • “Affordable Housing Organizing: Involving Residents, Organizations and Policy Advocates” with Reyna Gillet (Organizer, Neighborhood Partnerships) and Daniel Valliere (Chief Executive Officer, REACH Community Development)

  • “Fighting for a Healthy Environment: Parents for Healthy Homes” with Abigail Bartlett, Tasha Garrett, Shantal Ferrell, and Tabitha Williams (Parents for Healthy Homes)

  • “CareForce: Social Practice Art in Action” with artist Marisa Morán Jahn (CareForce)

  • “Call to Action: Strategic Power Building With Communities” with Diana Colin (Director of Civic Engagement, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)) and Larry E. Davis (Director, Center on Race and Social Problems and Donald M. Henderson Chair, University of Pittsburgh)

Thanks to everyone who helped put this course together, especially during such challenging times. The SASS 567 syllabus including the readings and assignments is linked here. We expect this course to launch in the Summer of 2021.

Syllabus for SASS 567: Strategic Power Building With Communities

Image: Screen shot of “Parents United” Case Study group from SASS 567 Online.

Pat Clifford