Progressive org web directory launched | Community-Wealth.org: C-W Blog

Although not formally launching until October, the START website already includes a wide range of resources for people interested in social change organizing. Developed by two activists from Cleveland and Philadelphia, the site includes a 24-session study course that small groups (say, of 8-10 people) can use to gather together, study and discuss environmental, domestic, and world issues using the on-line readings, read and think about the world they want and how to get there, and then act.

The website also includes a very extensive directory of progressive groups, sorted into 12 primary categories and 80 sub-categories.

Probably of most interest to the readers of this blog is the site’s Economic Justice category, which is divided include 12 sub-categories and includes a listing of over 70 national groups, including our very own Community-Wealth.org.

In the words of site founders Randy Schutt and Pamela Haines, START aims to provide a process to “enable a small group of people to better understand what is wrong with our world, develop a vision of a better society, and figure out effective strategies for moving from here to there.”

I’ve been browsing around the Community Wealth.org web site and see lots of useful resources. The directory of progressive groups is also useful.

I maintain a web directory of Chicago based tutoring and/or mentoring organizations, along with links to numerous resources like this, which people visiting my site can use to innovate solutions to their issues.

I’ve found two tools useful in this process, which are Geographic Information Systems and Concept Maps. A GIS can help us see all of the places in a city where a service is needed.It can also help us understand who the other orgs are who focus on the same geography and who could be working together.

The concept maps enable us to create blueprints of our strategies, eg. how do we go from calling a meeting to solving the problem. If more organizations map their visions we can more easily understand where we overlap and where we might help each other.

Do you have examples of this in the resources you’re collecting and sharing?

Posted by Dan Bassill on 09/23/2007 at 07:02 AM