Industrial Areas Foundation

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The Industrial Areas Foundation is the umbrella organization of civic organizations in the USA that use the community organizing method. The organization is based in Chicago .

Emergence

The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) was founded in 1939 by Saul Alinsky , auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, Bernhard J. Sheil , Marshall Field III. , Kathryn Lewis and Joseph Meegan in Chicago . The aim was to professionalize community organizing that had previously been developed by Alinsky in connection with the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council . The IAF was supposed to support the work of the civil organizations that were active in the ghettos of the North American cities as an advisory and coordination point . The IAF also served to secure Alinsky financially to enable him to repeat the method he had used in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in other locations. Under Industrial Areas are Urban Areas to understand. The name of the foundation can therefore be understood as a commitment to urbanism as a way of life according to Georg Simmel and Louis Wirth .

In 1968 the IAF was converted into a training center for full-time organizers. The aim was to train up to 25 organizers annually in a 15-month course, thus ensuring that Alinsky's method could find widespread use. The students were funded by a scholarship program from the auto parts manufacturer Midas Muffler Corporation. The 15-month training was shortened to four months only a few years later, as Alinsky was convinced that the future organizers needed more practical experience instead of theoretical knowledge.

Modern IAF

When Alinsky died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1972, his student and long-time collaborator Edward T. Chambers took over the management of the Industrial Areas Foundation. Under his leadership, the IAF was transformed into an umbrella organization of civil organizations working according to Alinsky's method. Today the network of the so-called “modern IAF” includes 57 associated local organizations in 21 states in the USA, Canada, Great Britain and Germany. The member organizations are contractually bound to the IAF and receive support from a professional organizer, advice and training offers in return for the membership fee. Instead of the training course for professional organizers, interested parties can apply for a multi-year training position at the IAF. In addition, the IAF offers so-called “10-day trainings” three times a year, which are mainly addressed to the voluntary management level of the local civil organizations. They should serve to convey the effectiveness of the Alinsky method among the local activists and thus support them in their attempt to organize themselves. The modern IAF sees itself as non-partisan, multi-ethnic, interdenominational and intercultural, emphasizing the equality of men and women and that of the different social classes. However, representatives of the younger generation of IAF organizers have involved the Christian churches more closely in the work of their local organizations than Saul Alinsky, who saw the churches primarily as a source of money and multipliers. This has led to the IAF being perceived by the public as a Church-Based Organization (CBO).

literature

  • Lukas Foljanty: Broad-based Community Organizing in the USA. In: Heike Hoffmann, Barbara Schönig, Uwe Altrock (eds.): Civil society as a bearer of hope? Governance, nonprofits and urban development in the metropolitan areas of the USA . Verlag Uwe Altrock, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-937735-06-1 .
  • Peter Szynka: Theoretical and empirical basis of community organizing with Saul D. Alinsky (1909–1972). A reconstruction. Bremen contributions to political education. Academy for Work and Politics of the University of Bremen, Bremen 2006, ISBN 3-88722-656-9 .
  • Edward T. Chambers: Roots for Radicals. Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice . Continuum New York / London 2003, ISBN 978-0826414991 .
  • Michael Gecan: Going Public . 25 Beacon Press, Boston 2002, ISBN 978-1400076499 .
  • Marion Mohrlok: Organizing in the style of the Industrial Areas Foundation. In: FOCO eV [Ed.]: Forward to the Roots ... Community Organizing in the USA - a perspective for Germany? Focus documentation on self-help and civic engagement No. 29 . 1995, p. 67 ff.
  • Jim Rooney: Organizing the South Bronx. State University of New York Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-7914-2210-6 .
  • Sanford D. Horwitt: Let Them Call Me Rebell - Saul Alinsky, His Life and Legacy. Vintage Books, New York 1989, ISBN 0-679-73418-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Edward T. Chambers: Roots for Radicals. Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice . 2003, p. 14
  2. ↑ Who are we? Industrial Areas Foundation, archived from the original on October 3, 2008 ; accessed on January 30, 2019 (English).