Centering community organizers' ways of knowing in learning and evaluation projects

In recent years, community organizing has garnered increased attention and investment as funders recognize its efficacy in building power and driving transformative change. As interest in organizing grows, foundations engage evaluators to document and understand the contributions of organizers and facilitate learning about organizing work.

Ongoing learning is core to the practice of community organizing, but how organizers learn - their ways of knowing – are relational and experiential with a strong storytelling and oral tradition. These practices often diverge from the dominant learning approaches in the evaluation and philanthropic sectors which emphasize the written word, quantitative measures, and evaluative expertise. The disconnect between learning practices, coupled with the inherent power imbalance between funders and organizers, often compels organizers to adapt to funders’ learning and evaluation priorities and practices, even when the aim of learning projects is to support organizer learning.

This session will share findings from the Organizer Learning Project, a field-building project that seeks to make visible how organizers learn and grow and to bridge the divide between organizer and funder learning practices. Session attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of the unique learning practices and culture in community organizing and concrete ideas for improving support for organizer learning and evaluation.