Just a Community Organizer: Community/Campus Connections through Organizing

Abstract

The 2008 presidential election catapulted "community organizers" into the media fray and raised awareness about community organizing. At the University of San Diego ( USD ), a course teaching consensus organizing techniques to address community issues was instituted in 2004. The course incorporates traditional undergraduate students and "Community Fellows," who are residents of the community surrounding USD. The impetus behind the course was to model the effective analytical, planning, facilitation, and relationship-building skills of consensus organizing as a means to produce meaningfal civic engagement and to promote positive social change.