Here's how you can embody the key characteristics of a confident community organizer.

I would like to share my work experience with rural entrepreneurs, especially women who have developed business vision with the help of incubation and largely with community case examples. If we approach a community, we will be able to feel there are different needs of them but, we need to have the skill to channelise them to a common goal and that will help to develop clusters as a whole. There lies the power of vision crafting to impact larger communities.

A lot of organizers go wrong when they come to community too late. If you've already defined the problem, come up with possible solutions, and you are simply asking community for "feedback," you are not community-led. I saw this over and over again in community work that was initiated by government or by large institutions that had development projects in mind. Ask the community what they need. Ask the community to define their own problems/opportunities. Ask the community what they see as their strengths and resources and the approaches that will inspire them to action! Value their time and input and follow their lead. Your job is to aggregate and synthesize, execute and THEN get community feedback on how well you executed THEIR vision.

I agree with this. During my studies and work I was engaged in different community organising activities and I always felt empathy is the key to connect with the community. One needs to invest their time in primary and secondary research to deal with a community agenda. Before one starts to indulge in community organising activities and also wants better results then s/he has to go and extra mile away from comfort zone. You want to make connections with the community and also you want to restrict your communication time / schedule will not help.

Creating containers that support people working within well defined spaces empowers them to contribute in meaningful ways. I remember a time when we invited community members to a gathering where they chose which work groups they were interested in being part of: education, neighborhood watch, clean up, anti-displacement, health. Once folks chose the group they wanted to be part of, the groups came up with strategies to support the outcomes they were hoping to achieve together. As organizers, it was our job to FOLLOW UP with folks to see those strategies through. We continued to gather folks. We called and asked if the tasks they volunteered to do were going alright. Supporting community in their power to make change grows leaders.

It helps a lot if you spend time in community with the people you intend to work alongside. People know you are with them when you ARE WITH THEM. There have been moments when I was just sitting at the park having a conversation with a neighbor, talking about some community work that is going on, when they tell me, "Yeah, but that didn't help us because there was no childcare that day!" or "I went to that event and I couldn't hear anything. They didn't use microphones." Or, "I signed up for that program, but I couldn't get to any of the classes because they weren't on the bus line that comes to our neighborhood." People often think of effective communications as intentional outreach or listening sessions, but relationships are everything.