The Center for Community Change created the Community Organizer Genealogy Project in order "to document the development of community organizing, the development of individual organizers and the connections among organizers, organizations and networks." The project was led by Don Elmer who also interviewed the majority of the community organizers during 2008-2010 and 2019. The project created 110 oral history interviews with community organizers throughout the United States who worked in all aspects of community organizing: neighborhood organizations, labor unions, civil rights, human rights, religious communities. The interviews together provide a history of community organizing during the 20th century as well as the effect of community organizers on the history of the United States.
A standard set of questions was asked of each person. This is the list of the questions.
1. How did you get into community organizing? Who and What influenced you?
2. What kept you in organizing?
3. Who were your mentors?
4. What social movements influenced you? Who inspired you?
5. What are you most proud of in terms of what happened for people and the communities you served? (the empowerment of individuals, groups, neighborhoods, cities, states, the country, & genuine victories they generated, etc.).
6. Talk about failures in organizing or in your personal life that actually transformed how you organize and live your life?
7. How do you balance your work and personal life?
8. What have you learned from your work as a community organizer?
9. How must organizing change to be successful in the future?
10. What’s your vision of the future for your organization and community organizing in general?
These questions were used to begin conversations that were designed to delve deeply into each organizers experience. Therefore, other questions often flowed from the questions we wanted each person to respond to. Obviously some people were not comfortable with all of the questions, but I was impressed with the many who answered anyway. Don Elmer
