Building Community

The other day I spent two days learning how to build a community. Now that might seem grandiose but the first step is always to build a one-to-one relationship. This is not a new idea by the way. A fellow called Saul Alinsky was writing, thinking and doing this back in the 1930s right up to his death in 1972. His idea was to bring together local faith and community organisations to solve immediate local problems. He founded the Industrial Areas Foundation and used his ideas to develop the links and commonalities between unions, faith and community groups.

It has taken sometime for this idea to be embraced in Australia. Currently, there is a vibrant Sydney Alliance and now the beginnings of the Qld Community Alliance. This is where my two days of training come in. The training days provide leaders and potential leaders the opportunity to learn and develop the skills necessary to work with the diverse groups of people who ordinarily may never cross paths!

The first concept was building relationships through stories. Dave Copeman and I met a week before the training. Ostensibly to discuss how I might be able to assist in the preparation for the Assembly scheduled for 10 October. Unbeknownst to me, he was building our relationship. He demonstrated to me quite clearly his ability to listen to my answers to his probing (not prying) questions. I felt comfortable and happy to divulge, in part, what made me tick. It wasn't all one sided though, he shared a little of how he has arrived to this job.

During this discussion, Dave suggested I attend the two day training scheduled the following Monday and Tuesday. He also asked if I would be comfortable leading one of the groups at the training. Cor! nothing like jumping in boots and all while still not being sure what this alliance thing was about. That night I did a little research on the internet and remembered Saul Alinsky. After reading a few websites and checking out the Qld Community Alliance website I felt I understood a little of what Dave was asking.

It was very interesting to learn that stories are remembered and therefore are powerful. Well I say learn but perhaps it's better to say I was reminded. I know stories are powerful and stick. I know stories provide bridges to understanding another. I know without stories it is enormously difficult to have compassion or empathy for others, for example, asylum seekers and the Government's recent attempts to "stop the boats". How many of us know an asylum seeker's story?

The three areas of public life are the market, the state and the society. At various stages of white settlement one of these has been bigger than the other. Now it's the market. Society has become weaker, is declining in participation and is primarily services based community organisations.

I have been searching for community. I'm a mexican (moved from Adelaide to Brisbane nearly 2 years ago and before that moved from Hobart to Adelaide in 2009). At present I don't feel I belong anywhere, I haven't found my community.

During this discussion on public life I realised that often and often a private issue is frequently a direct consequence of public actions. For example, recently the Qld State Government conducted a review of the Brisbane public transport system. It came up with major cuts and/or changes to bus routes. As a consequence there were stories of people who would have to catch two or three buses to get to their destination. This would mean bus drivers would lose their jobs. With so many complaints sent to the Government and a strong sense from the people of the importance of public transport, the Government handed the review to the Brisbane City Council who after a review moderated the changes dramatically.

This was the first time that something that had hung nebulously in the back of my mind had become so clear, that while we carry out our lives in private there is always an impact to our lives (good or bad) of public policy or market forces.

It was also the first time I learned that Prime Minister means First Servant. A very interesting fact!

What is a strong organisation? How do we as individuals strengthen unions, faith and community organisations? I was a bit flummoxed by this question as I had never thought about it before. In the Union movement, for example, the 'Your Rights at Work' campaign demonstrated the strength of the Unions and their ability to organise their members to join the campaign.

An activity we did 'Your Family Story' asked us to look at our parents and grandparents to try and see how our families shaped who we are.

I was surprised how much moving and changes in work I have experienced when compared to my parents and grandparents. How has this shaped me? I like moving and living in other places and I also like looking for challenges in my work.

Next we looked at power. Power over, power with and the tendency for power to corrupt and absolute power to corrupt absolutely. Power means the ability to do something or act in a particular way. The impact of power over is seen in the way women are treated by their husbands; in the way multi-national organisations treat Governments of various countries; in the way a media mogul supports one political party over another. Power with empowers people to work together to achieve stated goals or outcomes; empowers political parties to form a coalition; empowers community to work together. For a more in depth definition of power go to wikipedia.

Learning the difference and understanding our own power (yes, we have power) and how it operates within ourselves and around others is empowering in itself, even liberating. The interesting thing about this session was how in building a broad based coalition (like the Qld Community Alliance) is powerful and empowering for the individuals involved.

In realising through building relationships and learning the stories of others my private grievances are shared by others (public) which empowers me and them to come together to discuss, research and act on our shared grievance. Wow, so simple. Not so easy! Building relationships takes time. Discovering common wants/needs takes time. Research takes time. I am seeing that this is NOT a short-term commitment. This is long-term.

Thus ends day one. Tired and full of the concepts and ideas put in front of me I went home.

Day two was spent developing skills in one-to-one relationship building. The skills were not new to me such as active listening (open questions (probing not prying), minimal encourages, paraphrasing what has been heard, eye contact, etc) because I have taught these very skills to adults and learned them while studying.

Also, we explored self-interest. That is, what drives them? What drives me? My strong sense of social justice and fairness. We had to look at where this came from. Over the years I've spent a bit of time thinking and exploring this aspect of myself (actually I could say this forms the very core of my sense of self). I learned, as a sole parent, that prejudice and stereotypes colour very much people's attitude to this state. This was painful to bear, especially from family members. It caused me to be defensive and brittle when others discussed sole parents. I saw the injustice, when before becoming a sole parent I hadn't.

There is so much to learn and absorb. Never ever do for others what they can do for themselves. The iron rule.

Over to you ...