About DART
The Direct Action and Research Training (DART) Center is committed to building powerful, diverse, congregation-based, and democratically run organizations capable of winning justice on issues facing the community. Since 1982, DART has built and strengthened over twenty local affiliated organizations in six states and trained over 10,000 community leaders and 150 professional community organizers.
Using DART's approach of congregation-based community organizing, local DART affiliates have won victories on a broad set of issues including reading instruction and fair school suspension policies in public schools, new pre-school programming for children from at-risk families, clean-up of drugs and crime, multi-million dollar investments in an affordable housing, reinvestment by banks in previously redlined communities, expansion of effective community-oriented policing, massive multi-million dollar expansions of public transportation, accessible health care reform in several major metropolitan cities, investment in job training for those coming off public assistance, fair immigration policies, and dozens of other issues important to low-income communities.
Whether you are a recent college graduate exploring a career in organizing or a clergy person considering your congregation's call to do justice, we invite you to learn more about DART and congregation-based community organizing through the resources provided below. We also invite you to contact us directly at any time to discuss how we may work together in our shared pursuit of justice.
What is Congregation Based Community Organizing (CBCO)?
Congregation-based community organizing is a deliberate process of bringing religious congregations together around shared concerns and values to challenge the economic, political and social systems to act justly.
The organizing process includes:
- Establishing relationship between organizer and clergy/leaders
- Trained leaders conducting a series of one-on-one or small community meetings to surface problems and build internal networks of relationships
- Voting to select 1-3 community problems on which the organization will focus
- Researching problems and determining long-term solutions
- Mobilizing networks for large public meetings to challenge appropriate officials around common issue(s)
- Winning issue(s) and repeating the process with even greater power and skill
| Congregation-based Community Organizations will: |
Congregation-based Community Organizations will not: |
| Seek justice by holding systems accountable. Examples include holding city and transit authorities accountable to improve public bus service and increase accessibility to higher paying jobs; holding public school officials accountable to train teachers to use improved reading curricula in low-performing public schools and increase literacy; holding housing authority officials accountable to establish a publicly financed trust fund where returns on investment may be used to build low-income housing |
Provide direct service to meet immediate needs like the Red Cross, that provides food and supplies in the aftermath of hurricane; Teach for America, that sends teachers into low-performing public schools for a limited time to provide supplemental support; Habitat for Humanity, that builds several affordable homes using volunteer labor and donations |
| Cross barriers by bringing together people from diverse ethnic, economic, religious, and racial backgrounds |
Define membership by one particular ethnic, religious, or racial constituency |
| Provide a vehicle for religious congregations to do justice |
Actively recruit secular organizations & individuals for membership |
| Improve communities by pressing for whatever best practices are proven most effective, no matter which political or economic leaders may be held accountable |
Align itself with a partisan agenda or political party |
| Take Direct Action – conduct large public face-to-face meetings with public officials to press for commitments |
Rely on Energy Actions or protests such as marches, picketing, lobbying, or letter writing to gain support |
| Pursue multiple issues simultaneously and retire old issues when there is a clear cut victory |
Define their mission around one issue like the Sierra Club (environment) or National Rifle Association (right to bear arms) |
| Build financial sustainability and independence |
Accept government funding or become dependent on 1 or 2 primary supporters |
| Select issues locally by having leaders vote to determine the problems they wish to resolve |
Engage the community around a pre-determined set of issues defined by outside experts or a few people |
| Collect dues from member congregations such as churches, synagogues, mosques |
Canvass door-to-door to recruit individual members |
| Deliberately seek to build a powerful organization for the long haul, not simply win issues |
Develop around a temporary crises and then dissolve when the issue is resolved or lost |
| Rely on broad-based, collective and accountable leadership among many people (culture of accountability) |
Build organizations centered around 1 or 2 high-profile, charismatic people /spokespeople |
| Develop leaders to speak and act on behalf of the organization in the public |
Function as an advocacy organization where staff speak and act in the public on behalf of the organization |
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