THE COMMUNITY LEARNING PARTNERSHIP

There is broad recognition among people who work on issues of poverty, race and community-building that we face a massive talent shortage. Our communities have great difficulty finding staff and leaders with the full range of knowledge, skills and experience which are needed to tackle the immense challenges facing low-income neighborhoods. The shortage of grassroots organizers and executive directors is particularly crippling for community groups. It also constitutes a barrier for public and private agencies which have learned from experience that they cannot successfully address the most serious issues our cities and rural communities face without widespread community involvement and strong local leaders and organizations.

The Community Learning Partnership was created in 2002 to focus solely on this crisis. It was founded by the former Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, which is nationally known for its expertise in providing capacity-building, organizational development, and grassroots public policy assistance to low-income community groups throughout the country. The Partnership operates as a special project of Community Catalyst, a national nonprofit headquartered in Boston and dedicated to helping people bring about policy changes through research, organizing, and advocacy. CLP also works in partnership with Antioch University.

The Community Learning Partnership concentrates most heavily on creating new educational pathways into youth and community organizing. These pathways are designed specifically for people of color who have directly experienced poverty and lack of opportunity, and who collectively represent a largely untapped pool of talent. As we develop training and educational programs for new organizers, we are also addressing the needs which current staff organizers and executive directors have for continuing learning and skill development.

Our goal is to create the broad, intensive educational programs which only institutions of higher education can provide, tailoring them to the particular challenges of organizing and revitalizing low-income communities, enlisting youth and community leaders fully in that effort.

The Community Learning Partnership is funded for its work in the United States by the Charles Stewart Mott, HRC, and Hill-Snowdon Foundations. Currently the Partnership is working to develop pilot programs in four cities on the East Coast – Hartford, Baltimore, New York City, and Providence. The work in Hartford is leading to the launching of a new training and educational initiative in April, 2008, which involves a partnership with local community groups, Capitol Community College and Charter Oak State College. Its funders will be the City of Hartford, Americorps VISTA and private foundations.

While each program will differ substantially based on local needs, lead groups, and institutional support, the Connecticut Pipeline Initiative illustrates the creative approaches CLP is pioneering. The program is targeted to reach young people and community leaders from low income and working class backgrounds, especially people of color who may not yet be college-bound. The Initiative will enable enrollees to move along an educational pathway which starts with initial community organizing training for which they will receive college credit, and then leads in steps to a college diploma, a two year Associates degree, and a BA. The Connecticut Pipeline Initiative also provides stipends, student aid and job placement help at every stage.

This program will be unique in the country. Youth and community leaders participating in the training program would earn college credit and take the first step along a new educational pathway. Based at a State college, the program would be accessible and affordable for the African-American and Latino young people who are most needed in organizing. Offering college diplomas as well as two-year and four-year degrees from the State University system, it will open a pathway to postgraduate studies for those who want to continue with their education. Combining experiential and classroom instruction, and involving experienced organizers along with academics, it will offer a rich mix of practice and theory.

The entire curriculum is being designed from scratch to provide youth and community organizers with the skills, knowledge, and experience in reflective practice they need. This promises to boost the quality and sophistication of the next generation of organizers as well as people now in key positions -- a great step forward in increasing the scale, scope, and impact of organizing efforts in Hartford. CLP plans to expand the program to reach other parts of Connecticut and become an increasingly significant new source of the talent which is so sorely needed by community groups and by the private and public agencies which depend upon community involvement for success.

In addition to Hartford, the Learning Partnership is working with nonprofit leaders, local groups and academic institutions to create university educational programs in community change studies in New York, Baltimore, and Providence. We are currently exploring work in several other cities.

The Partnership is also working on the other key element in the pipeline crisis – the hemorrhaging of talent which hits grassroots groups when organizers and directors move on to other careers. In particular, we are helping two citywide coalitions in New York City with the design of a midcareer learning program which we hope will be a pilot for a midcareer Masters in Community Change, and are exploring the possibility of collaborating with a national university in creating a nationally available midcareer Masters program. Our goals are to encourage people with 3, 5, 10 or more years of experience to continue their careers in community change and to hone their skills and broaden their knowledge. We plan to do this by providing them with exciting opportunities to learn, reflect, gain new ideas and perspectives, and develop new skills and knowledge. The goal is to increase their effectiveness, impact and sense of accomplishment.

Our planning for both the introductory and midcareer programs is being greatly enriched by what we are learning from our work convening and staffing the Ford Foundation-funded International Working Group on University Education on Community Change. The International Working Group brings together educators and trainers from different countries who are pioneering new approaches to preparing people for village development, organizing and social change work. We are working together as both a learning group and an action group. While we explore and learn from the different approaches each of us is developing to meet local needs, we are also collaborating in developing a 10-20 year plan for growing this field of studies. That plan will include: launching a growing international network; sharing and developing curricula, case studies and other materials; creating an interactive web-site which facilitates joint development of curricula and collaboration; and pursuing an active strategy for enriching existing programs and creating new ones.

Both in the US and internationally. our goal is to build the body of knowledge, visibility and credibility, growing collaboration, and financial base which are needed if these programs are to flourish and to provide low-income communities with growing access to the skills and training they need in order to prevail on critical issues of poverty, race, gender, human rights, and opportunity.