Why/How We Organize
ACTS & Congregation-Centered Community Organizing
ACTS is an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation, an international community organizing network. Congregation-centered community organizing (also known as institutional community organizing) is how we organize. In our work, relationships are essential.
ACTS is a powerful and effective vehicle for leaders to enter the public arena. ACTS is comprised of 38 dues-paying member institutions (as of January 28, 2010), mostly congregations. These congregations are Christian (ranging from African-American Pentecostal to white, suburban Catholic and Protestant churches), Jewish, and Muslim.
They have formed this new relationship, transcending religious and denominational barriers as well as racial and urban/suburban barriers, around a common purpose: to organize the power to influence the decision-making that affects us all. They share a common faith that we are all children of God and created equal, and therefore we all deserve the opportunity to achieve our greatest potential. Recognizing that we must build a broad-based coalition if we are to be effective, ACTS has also welcomed the membership of Catholic Charities (Diocese of Syracuse) and the Service Employees International Union 1199. Only through a broad base of relationships, we can act collectively and powerfully.
On Election Day November 3, 2009, the Post-Standard wrote of our November 1st, 2009, 1,200-people Public Action Meeting: “the positive, collaborative tone of Sunday’s meeting provided a reason to vote today: to commit with public officials and community advocates to achieving worthy goals together.”
ACTS’ greatest strength is its ability to mobilize its members for action. ACTS’ philosophy is rooted in the best traditions of faith and democracy. ACTS believes in the right and responsibility of citizens in a democracy to participate. The First Amendment declares that “the government shall make no law that prohibits the right of the people to organize themselves to redress their grievances against the government.” Alexis De Tocqueville in his classic Democracy in America reminds us of the secret to democracy in the US: civic participation - the ability of people to form associations to address issues.
Social capital and the practice of such beliefs, however, have been in sharp decline for decades. In his book Bowling Alone, Professor Robert Putnam defines social capital as the specific benefits that flow from the trust, reciprocity, information and cooperation associated with social networks. According to Putnam, generational succession, television, urban sprawl and the increasing pressures of time and money have all contributed to the contraction of social capital.
Despite this adverse environment, faith communities play a crucial role in society and in communities throughout the US and remain bastions of social capital. Worship services, for example, are the only public places many families frequent nowadays. Moreover, faith and the values derived from faith give many deep purpose and motivation, and these can be transformed to powerful use for the cause of social justice.
ACTS’ work is to take faith communities to the next level: to go beyond the walls of one’s own congregation and bridge the myriad faith communities in creating genuine solidarity, building community, and in shaping a new reality for our communities, so that we can truly transform our greater Syracuse region.
