New: Journal of Community Power Building

Posted by on June 4, 2004

[posted from Comm-Org]
From: “Nancy Marks”

Hello Comm-list friends:

I invite you to order a copy of RHICO’s (the Ricanne Hadrian Initiative for Community Organizing) premier edition of the Journal of Community Power Building: Reflections from Community Development Leaders and Practitioners.

Those of us who work and live in distressed or changing communities know that the process of building power – especially community power and collective power – is not only complicated, but personally challenging as well. Our perspectives about power are shaped by circumstance, culture, tradition, perception, and real world conditions, as well as by human emotion, communication and behavior. For
community development practitioners, our view of power is further influenced by the place-based nature of our work, the broad set of community-change agendas that we represent, and our commitment to building forms of collective, rather than unilateral power.

The Power Journal was established in recognition of this to promote an honest exploration of how real people in real situations grapple with both strategic and tactical complexities, as well as the deep emotional contradictions of understanding, building and using power.

RHICO is an initiative of the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) and the Massachusetts Association for Community Development Corporations (MACDC) to provide resources, technical assistance and peer learning opportunities for CDCs engaged in community organizing and power building. Over the past seven years, RHICO has helped to shape a new generation of CDC staff and resident leaders who believe that all community change paths start with our abilities, capacities and
willingness to build and exercise power.

If you would like to receive a copy, please email me with your complete mailing address. Additional copies are $5 a piece.

RHICO welcomes your comments and questions. If you would like additional information about RHICO, please contact me or visit MACDC’s website at http://www.macdc.org.