Building statewide power
Joe Szakos and Cathy Woodson talk about building statewide power in Virginia.
Dan Neal
Cathy Wilson and Joe Szakos of the Virginia Organizing Project are modest people with a powerful message: Building power takes time and intention.
The VOP worked five years to organize around the idea of "borrowing and sharing power" in order to build the organization into a major player in Virginia politics, Wilson told organizers from six states Friday.
Modest, maybe, but they're not afraid to tell people what the VOP can do to influence policy-makers at all levels. They discussed the organization's long road to success in a workshop titled "Buildling Statewide Power: Lessons from the Field."
For five years, Szakos and the VOP's 10-member board committed themselves to changing Virginia from a state dominated by Ollie North and Jerry Falwell to one that respected the dignity of all people.
For five years, they worked to build relationships with other like-minded individuals and groups across the state before the Virginia Organizing Project ever took a public stance on any issue.
Instead, they went from community to community in the state talking with individuals and groups about their goals for Virginia and asking, "how can we be helpful?"
"It was not easy," Wilson said. But at the end of five years, their willingness to engage and assist other groups wove a web of people ready and willing to help VOP move on its own work.
Dismantling racism
The effort built on a fundamental commitment to dismantling racism. All board members then and now must go through a dismantling racism course. Doing so gives everyone some "common language" to discuss issues based on racism.
It was an intentional effort, he said, to make certain that what the group wanted to build drove its campaigns, not vice versa.
"Dignity and respect, that's what we're all about."
He noted an early VOP budget of about $96,000 called for spending $35,000 on dismantling racism efforts.
Outreach
Szakos said he helps build strength by continuing to reach out to new people
"I need one new person every week," he said. Then he multiplied those relationships by asking those new contacts who he could talk to or who they could talk to about working to change Virginia.
He had to force himself to move out of his ordinary relationships. Others helped him. One board member convinced him not to talk to any white people for six months.
He linked up with Cathy Woodson. They traveled the state together and eventually Cathy was among those with whom he was able to build a trusting relationship.
He reached out to other groups, disability groups and LGBT groups, telling himself he had to figure out how to reach out to them.
In this kind of organizing, he said, you have to learn to build your own leadership skills and those of the people you work with.
Wilson said they talked about power with their allies, determining who has power, and how to influence them to support the policies advocated by VOP and its allies.
Virginia Organizing Project has been able to "raise the voices of people" through this effort to jointly leverage power, she said. They eventually could force politicians and other power brokers to pay attention to them.
They showed those with power what the Virginia Organizing Project could do: knock on thousands of doors, generate hundreds of letters and calls to the media and to congressional offices, and turn out voters in communities across Virginia.
- History
