Building Community Power Cultivating Community Solutions Catalyzing Community Transformation Appendix
 

a note about Power

Power can be defined in different ways. We approach power as a multidimensional framework that touches on the individual, organizational and structural levels. The grid below offers a helpful outline to understand Power.

Source: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation

Source: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation

In a structural sense, we offer a working definition of Power from Glenn Harris of Race Forward, “that power is the ability to define reality.”

Systems of white supremacy and structural racism create disparate outcomes for Black, Indigenous and other communities of color in the United States and globally. These same systems ensure that narratives and cultural norms are also shaped, driven by, and continuously create these structural elements. Put together, these systems define reality and therefore we must continue to hold this working definition of Power as we move towards defining policy.

 
 

Why Policy?

There are many avenues for fostering community-driven participatory work, changing policy is a critical component of the author’s collective work, so this is the perspective from which to view many of these ideas and processes. This toolkit offers a particular lens around policy for three primary reasons:

  • Participatory policymaking is a direct challenge to the existing power structure. Government and institutional policies are often used to keep political, economic, and social power structures in place. Counter-hegemonic policies are critical in helping to dismantle abusive power structures.

  • We need to demystify the belief that policymaking is only for those who are highly trained, have technical skills, and access to power. Effective and just policy requires the expertise of a community to shape it.

  • A more democratic and participatory process is more likely to safeguard against corruption and inequitable influence on how policies are made and implemented, as it gives more power and ownership to the community rather than corporate and institutional interests.

This does not dismiss expertise. Quite the contrary. Participatory policymaking is about expanding the boundaries of what is considered “expertise” to include not only lawyers, academics, or policy consultants but also community leaders with experience of the challenges and solutions every day. Participatory policymaking is about reprioritizing who gives voice and has ownership of policy ideas, moving from a top-down process to one that is ground-up.

 
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Demystifying Policymaking

Many times, we shy away from policymaking because we feel that we lack legal expertise, policy language development, or access to policymakers - whether they be legislative members such as city councilors or regulatory policymakers like public utility commissioners. Ceding policymaking to those “with expertise” means that we actually cede the ability to make power. It does not need to be this way. In fact, policymaking is quite straightforward. There are two key elements to understand when entering the policy arena.

A majority of policymaking processes tend to follow the typical model as shown in the diagram below.

Status Quo Policymaking Process

 
Image description: Issue identification, policy formation policy pre evaluation, engagement and decision making, implementation, evaluation.
 

Simply, it goes like this: identify an issue and a solution, assess the policy solution, engage lawmakers, implement, and evaluate. Anyone can go through these simple steps - it’s really about changing who has access to influence the creation and design of the ideas, and creating a framework to ensure policy ideas are rooted in values of justice and liberation. As it stands, this standard method for policy creation—whether it is at a local, state, or national level of governance—limits opportunities for community decision-making and is often shaped and/or unduly influenced by those who have access to power and resources. As a designed system and process, this fails to allow for real community input and influence, where consultation and engagement of community often happen after issues and policy ideas are created.

Participatory Policymaking: A Different Model

 
Image description: Participatory Policymaking: A Different Model 1. Listen and landscape 2. Building anti racist and anti classist political education 3. Power and collective governance 4. Strategy development 5. Community assessment 6. Solutions 7.…