Fieldwork+with+the+Lakeview+Action+Coalition+-+Homelessness

Fieldwork for the Lakeview Action Coalition

We had a spectacular, and spectacularly cold, morning! We started in the Coalition office with a training that is really a model for how to get a group engaged - with each other and with the activity. And strokes to Mary Tarullo - our group is, with a few marvelous exceptions, quite a study in truculence. Andy worked with Mary last year, when the group was so good, all you really had to do was point and they'd take over. This year's group responded well to the icebreaker activity: give your name, how long you've lived in Chicago, and tell a story about what makes you feel powerless. The students responded for the most part with generalities, but a few evoked a particular person they've seen or a particular story they knew. The result was energizing - the group was now in focus. Mary then pointed out that the work of community organizing is the work of empowerment, mindful of just how powerless each of us might be, organizing is an effort to focus on