SWOPblogger

SWOP's Executive Director Robby Rodriguez was highlighted in a Community Organizers Book called "We make Change." In it Robby talks about his organizing experience with SWOP and how he came into consciousness. Congratulations Robby!

It also highlights many of our allies in our movement for justice and their personal stories.

Here's more from their site:

With two major presidential candidates — Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — offering their experience in community organizing as evidence of their ability to lead the country, many Americans are beginning to wonder just what a community organizer is.

A timely new book by veteran organizer Joe Szakos and writer/editor Kristin Layng Szakos helps to demystify this little-known profession and offer a glimpse into the daily lives of the people who make changing the world their life’s work. We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do — and Why is a lively, readable collection of stories and observations by organizers across the United States. The reader will come away with an insight into this fascinating profession and the people who have chosen it.

Community organizers are the people who work, often behind the scenes, to help people come together to effect meaningful change in their communities by building effective community organizations. They are there with the neighborhood group working to bring bank loans to low-income homeowners. They are there with immigrant women organizing to get medical insurance for their families, with small-town environmentalists keeping a toxic waste plant out of their community, with parents trying to get schools to respond to the needs of children with dyslexia, with gay and lesbian students striving to create a safe space in their schools, with groups working to reduce the ravages of racism in their towns and institutions. Wherever there is a well-organized group agitating for progressive social change, chances are there is a community organizer nearby.

Community organizers work at their jobs because they are passionate, because they believe that change is possible, and because they enjoy working with people. Although it’s not an occupation that leads to great wealth, community organizers can make a living at it. Community organizers receive salaries, pensions and health insurance. They raise families and send their children to college. They do well by doing good.

Labels: Organizing, Robby Rodriguez, SWOP, We make change