What Are Civic Leadership Networks?
A natural progression to our main program, the Civic Leadership
INSTITUTES, has been the kind of network development among our partner
sites that focuses on shared best-practices, relationship building and
cross-trainings.
Building Partnerships is committed to fostering direct exchanges between
sites as well as strategic support of peer-to-peer work when more
focused resources are required.
There have been four key types of network-building activities that our
CLI partners have shared and developed as peer-to-peer activities:
Learning Tours
The best way to know the 'California experience' is to see it, feel it
(and taste the LA and Bay Area air). Therefore, we coordinate three-day
tours to San Jose and Los Angeles for the staff and partners from new
sites. Day-long meetings with the staff and partners of Working
Partnerships and SCOPE offer in-depth access and insights to how such
strategic partnerships have transformed the metropolitan landscape,
generating movement-building in the process. And, the years it has
taken to get to their current state.
Cross-Trainings
Due to finite capacity -- people, money and time -- work is left undone
because of other everyday demands of place-based organizing. Yet,
certain skills and information are critical to advance the long-term
visions that we hold. Thus, we consider it as part of our work, our
responsibility to uplift those soft-skills or less urgent discussions.
Oftentimes, this work is a priority, but not urgent. We conduct two
styles of 'network-riding' collaboration between our partners:
- topic-focused: skills development (such as
organizing fundamentals, meeting facilitation, mobilizing) supporting
and partnering with new immigrant or enviro formations, and how the
leadership institutes advance other programs/campaigns, and
- constituency-focused:
to bring organizers, academics and electeds from multiple sites
together to cater discussions to the common challenges and
opportunities that are specific to their unique role in metro
coalitions compose of community, labor, interfaith, academia, public
officials.
Convenings
April 2006 Convening
Organizing and Political Action
Building Partnerships believes that models of social change that do not deliberately build towards electoral action are obsolete. To effect
real change, organizing and policy development must be integrated with
political action. The ideas developed at institutes may provide
compelling political platforms that can re-frame the public debate.
Multi-issue agendas offer alternative visions for society that
progressive candidates can run on ... and win.
Unlike organizations that address only the mechanics of campaigns,
Building Partnerships focuses on the ideas and agendas essential to
building viable campaigns.
We do so by tapping into the knowledge and experience amongst our
network partners. We promote political action programs that reflect the
culture and unique needs of working communities are essential to
winning. Rather than focus on electing "good people" to office, Building
Partnerships works towards supporting candidates who are committed to
good public policy.
