Running Head: REFLECTION ON SHUKSAN

Reflection on Shuksan Valerie Griffith Western Washington University

REFLECTION ON SHUKSAN Community begins with a group of people. All of the members of the community are individuals with their own needs, values and injustices. Within that community, there is overlapping of those needs, values and injustices between the individuals. These common attributes are what bring the people within communities together, while their differences add perspective and resources to enhance and sustain the community. When individuals feel a sense of community, they feel connected with one another and feel safe enough to speak up to injustices. When change is desired in the community, community organizing takes place. According to Orr (2007), community organizing refers to the process that engages people,

organizations, and communities toward the goals of increased individual and community control, political efficacy, improved quality of life and social justice (p. 2). During the course of history, there have been many important community organizers. The following community organizers had their own way of improving their communities, but each of them took the time to listen to those who were being oppressed. To begin with, there was Jane Addams. Jane Addams founded the Hull House in 1889, which was a social settlement for immigrants and the poor in Chicago. According to Elshtain (2002), the mission of the Hull House was to enhance the life of the immigrants and poor by offering art, drama and music as well as public baths, baby care, job training, and classes in English and in citizenship (p. 15). Jane Addams work paved the way for night school and continued education courses, the juvenile court system, and The Boys and Girls Clubs across America. In 1931, Jane Addams won the Nobel Peace Prize. Another important community organizer was Saul Alinsky, who started community organizing in the 1930s. According to Seal (2008), He earned a doctorate in archaeology from the University of Chicago in 1930. However, it was spending a summer helping dissident miners

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in their revolt against John L. Lewis's United Mine Workers that influenced his future direction (Saul Alinskys life and work section, para. 2). That direction was to educate people of the power that can manifest when communities come together to speak up against the injustices that are oppressing them. Alinsky (1946) stated: A People's Organization is a conflict group, and this must be openly and fully recognized. Its sole reason in coming into being is to wage war against all evils which cause suffering and unhappiness. A Peoples Organization is the banding together of large numbers of men and women to fight for those rights which insure a decent way of life (p. 133). Alinsky dedicated the rest of his life to bringing communities together to fight for issues such as: racial inequality, low- income housing, better living conditions, fair wages, better education and safer communities. He founded the Industrials Areas Foundation (IAF), which is still in existence today and continues to help communities organize for social change. The last community organizer, that I am going to discuss, is Myles Horton. Myles Horton founded the Highlander Folk School in 1932. Horton (1990) wrote: The school will be for young men and women of the mountains and workers from the factories. Negroes would be among the students who will live in close personal contact with teachers. Out of their experiential learning through living, working, and studying together could come an understanding of how to take their place intelligently in the changing world (p. 54). Horton wanted to bridge the divide of racial segregation. His school provided a safe place for African Americans to come and learn about their culture and the importance of working together to one day see a more accepting world. The school continues to be a promoter for social change.

REFLECTION ON SHUKSAN In Bellingham, Shuksan Middle School created a community family night, where my fellow peers and I go to participate in the organizing of and the actual occasion. The Shuksan

event was held to bring the people within the Bellingham community together. During the night, the community members got to enjoy dinner together, get a family picture taken, learn about some of the organizations within our community, and participate in workshops that raised awareness on pressing issues. My roles in the Shuksan event were to distribute posters, assemble folders, hand out dinner and present during the cyber bullying workshop. The idea of the Shuksan event sounded like a great idea for community organizing, and it did bring the community together, however, the event did not make a huge impact in changing our community, which is the purpose of community organizing. The first step to community organizing is getting people together. In todays technological world, there seems to be more isolation instead of community involvement. Diers (2004) states: the solution, I believe, is to strive for more participation, not less (p. 32). When people get out into their community, they build relationships, they learn new things and they can see the injustices that call for change. Shuksan allowed for the community to come together and try and build stronger relationships amongst each other. Shuksan did not have a specific issue in mind that was bringing people together to fight against. An important theory of community change is the grassroots approach to community organizing. People at the grassroots are anxious to do something. They are especially anxious to do something meaningful at least to them. They are politically-minded people who when they find a cause worthy of their time, energy, and means are willing to let go of

REFLECTION ON SHUKSAN inhibitions, fears, and preconceptions and jump into the cause with unusual passion (Grassroots Behavior, n.d.).

Jane Addams, Saul Alinsky and Myles Horton were all grassroot activists. They lead people with common desires for change to come forth and promote that change in their community. Grassroot activists are the community members who engage in protesting, lobbying, petitioning and many other ways to get the word out about their issue they are fighting for and to recruit followers. The overall goal of the Shuksan event was not to promote community change on a specific issue, but to encourage the members of our community to participate and become active in their community. Shuksan inspired organizing for change by raising awareness on issues present in Bellingham. Another theory of community change is the praxiology theory. According to Homan (2010), the central theme of praxiology is that people act purposefully to satisfy their needs and to improve their future (p. 56). A prime example of a purposeful act would be voting. Diers (2004) states, 25% fewer Americans vote today than did so in the mid-sixties (p. 4). In my opinion, voting has reduced due to a lack of community involvement. Alinsky spent a lot of time going in to the neighborhoods of Chicago to pinpoint exactly what his neighbors wanted to change within their communities, while inspiring them to act upon what they believe in. Today, I have never been asked what changes I want to see. This is the point in time, where we need to reevaluate our communities and start asking the right questions to start addressing these injustices. The Shuksan event surveyed the students to see what they wanted to learn from the workshops. There were also surveys asking what the students and parents thought about the workshops and the overall night. Im glad that Shuksan involved the members of the community and asked for feedback. It is important to know what the members of the community thought was

REFLECTION ON SHUKSAN important, what they were interested in, how to keep them involved and advice on how to improve for the future. Although, the Shuksan event did not allow for involving the community members to act up against issues that they believe need to change, the Shuksan event raised awareness of issues through the workshops and helped network people. Shuksan gave the community members the tools to organize for social change. My experience with the Shuksan event was fairly decent. I had a lot of different tasks to do and successfully completed them. Half of my tasks were in preparation for the event, while the other half were during the event. My first task that I did was distribute posters. This was frustrating because the posters werent even ready to be distributed until the weekend right before the event, which was on a Tuesday. I distributed the posters on Saturday, but it would have been more beneficial to the event if the posters had been distributed at least a week before the event. Although, the fact that the posters werent distributed at a reasonable time before the event, I do not feel that it effected the amount of people who came, which was a good amount.

Next, I went to Shuksan to assemble folders. The ladies that were in charge of getting everything ready had not done so, so we had to continue to go back through the folders to add stuff as it was being printed off. Assembling the folders took a lot longer than they should have because the leaders of this project were not prepared beforehand. After these two experiences, I was petrified that the actual event was going to be a nightmare. During the event, my tasks were to hand out food and participate in a cyber-bullying workshop. The cyber bullying workshop was important to me because I had wrote my research methods essay on cyber bullying, which is something I am passionate about. However, the kids didnt seem to take it seriously and expressed that they didnt think cyber bullying was an issue at their school. We tried our best to get the message across, even though the kids werent really

REFLECTION ON SHUKSAN feeling it, and I hope that they received some information from our presentation that will assist

them in the future. All in all, I was surprised how many people attended the event, and I felt as if it had gone better than I expected. There was enough food for everyone, the families seemed to be enjoying themselves and everything went on without any issues. When it comes to community organizing as a career, its not something that I really feel passionate about or see myself doing. However, through the few events that I have participated in, or put on myself, I have this burning urge to do event planning in the future. I am pretty good at time management, inspiring people, Im organized and work well under pressure. I have set a goal out for myself to become more active in my community when I move to Arizona in August. Who knows, maybe what will start as event planning will lead to community organizing. I dont know what the cards will unfold, but I do see myself in some sort of organizing and planning in my future. In conclusion, this quarter has taught me the significance of being involved in your community. It has inspired me to make sure that I do get out into my community one way or another and make sure that my kids will one day as well. Its amazing, the things community organizers have done for their fellow neighbors to create social change and help our country function better by starting out on that micro level. The Shuksan event was a great time and it really set the stage for possible continued community organization to fight against injustices that are present within our community.

REFLECTION ON SHUKSAN References Alinsky, Saul D. (1946). Reveille for radicals. (1969 Ed.). New York: Random House. Diers, J. (2004). Neighbor power: Building community the Seattle way. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Elshtain, Jean B. (2002). The Jane Addams reader. New York: Basic Books. Grassroots Behavior. (n.d.). In Renew America. Retrieved from http://www.renewamerica.com/grassroots.htm Horton, Myles. 1990. The Long Haul: An Autobiography, with Judith Kohl and Herbert Kohl. New York: Doubleday Press.

Orr, M. (2007). Transforming the City: Community Organizing. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. Seal, Mike. (2008). Saul Alinsky, community organizing and rules for radicals', the encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from www.infed.org/thinkers/alinsky.htm.