leadership development

Philadelphia Student Union is turning 15 this year. Celebrate with us on Tuesday.  Here's a look back at some of our victories over the years.

1995 A group of Philadelphia high school students who are concerned with the state of public education in the city realizes that if meaningful school reform is going to happen it will have to be led by the most-affected: students. The Philadelphia Student Union is formed.

I recently attended the Poverty Initiative’s Poverty Scholars Strategic Dialog series in NYC.  This most recent gathering was the fifth in a series that included 3 other weekend conferences and a week-long Leadership School.  Representatives from poor people’s organizations from around the country attend these gatherings, and there we share experiences, strategies, and methodologies from our organizing to build a movement to end poverty, led by poor people.

Organizing Upgrade, a website devoted to "open strategic dialogue between left leaders from the field of community organizing," has an essay from long time Philadelphia organizer Willie Baptist. 

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Any approach to social change, organizing and leadership development has to be based on your assessment of the situation and of the problem.  If you have one assessment or one diagnosis, you’re going to have a particular prescription and a particular approach to the solution. Either we’re dealing with a teddy bear or we’re dealing with a grizzly bear, and either estimate will determine your set of tactics, your organizing approach.  If you think you’re dealing with a teddy bear and in reality it’s a grizzly bear coming at you, you’re going to be in trouble. So this estimate of the situation is absolutely crucial to the process.