Overview

Putting her personal passion to work, Fran Early is a community organizer for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. Working for social justice by working with faith communities proves to be an effective way to strengthen communities, build relationships, and change lives. Here Fran describes the motivation for her work, the work itself, and considerations for those congregations interested in broad-based community organizing.

About Fran Early

Fran Early is a volunteer organizer for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. She is a retired executive from the Prudential Insurance Company where her work focused on human resources, public affairs and general management. She has been an active lay leader in the Episcopal Church with a particular passion for social justice ministry. While living in Houston, Texas, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, she helped found the vibrant social justice ministry at Christ Church Cathedral. She founded a congregation-building program called Connections, and served on the vestry of her parish, St. George’s Rumson, while living in New Jersey. She is the 2006 recipient of the Episcopal City Mission Robert Tobin award for Social Justice work. She is also the first awardee of the Christ Church, Cambridge Minister's Award.

At Trinity Church, Boston, Fran was the parish’s Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) key leader. GBIO "is a broad-based organization which works to coalesce, train, and organize the communities of Greater Boston across all religious, racial, ethnic, class and neighborhood lines for the public good. Its primary goal is to develop local leadership and organized power to fight for social justice." The issues GBIO works for "come from within our institutions, from the concerns of the people. We cross neighborhood, city, racial, religious, and class lines to find common ground and act on our faith and democratic values. GBIO is affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)" During her tenure, more than 300 Trinity parishioners became involved in the GBIO’s community organizing efforts.

Interview

CRG: What is it about doing social justice ministry that engages you? Why have you chosen broad-based organizing?

Fran: In working with different people from a wide spectrum in the community and experiencing Christ in people different from me, my own spiritual life is enriched. I was lucky as a child to have strong friendships with people from many different walks of life. I grew up knowing there was a lot to learn and a lot of fun to be had with people different from me.

Broad-based organizing has appealed to me because it is a practical, common sense way to do social justice ministry and see real results. I’m a common sense, results-oriented person. I’m also very relational—and broad-based organizing is all about building relationships and community. In my experience, not much gets done in this world without a foundation of relationships!

Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) organizations have what they call the Iron Rule: "Never do for someone what they can do for themselves, never." The Baptismal Covenant of the Episcopal Church calls us to respect the dignity of every human being. This work puts that into action. I’ve been angry over the years when I’ve seen the old traditional liberal thinking of "doing for" people undermine people’s dignity. I’ve seen that kind of "we know what’s best for those people" attitude be accidentally condescending and destructive.

So much outreach ministry has been limited to charity. Certainly, it’s important to feed the hungry, but there are huge opportunities beyond that. When thousands of folks come together from so many faiths and walks of life, we have the power to move mountains—to create change in our communities.

Broad-based organizing is about taking power back and returning it to the hands of ordinary people.

CRG: Who have you found to be most interested in this work?

Fran: Churches or synagogues who want to expand or start social justice work; people who want to make a real, measurable difference in people’s lives, and people who want to build community—both inside and outside of their congregations. This work helps people find a way to put faith into action, to "walk the talk." It brings people together, helps them learn about and value deep differences, and then enables them to make a real difference in their communities.

CRG: What are the major underlying tenets or themes of this work?

Fran: The Gospel challenges us to do this kind of work. Again, it’s a way to "walk the talk." It’s not charity work and it’s not a "program." It’s different from much of our church and synagogue work because its primary activity is building deep relationships in the congregation and in the broader community. From that, we amass the power to address the issues that we can all agree on.

Too often, recruiting for a congregational program or effort is based on guilt or need; not on someone’s interest or passion. Participation in this collaborative work teaches us how to tap into a person’s passion. For example, for folks who get excited about getting to know people from all parts of the city, this will turn them on. If they are drawn to potential political power that all we ordinary people can have, believe me, they will have a lot of energy to do this work.

A big part of this is listening, valuing, and building trust with each other. For Christians, it’s seeing Jesus in the other person, listening to his or her stories, valuing and respecting one another in spite of deep differences. It’s not the educated or privileged deciding what’s best for others, it’s coming together from diversity to make changes.

We get to know and trust one another, creating a bond that can hold us together when controversial issues threaten to separate us. Shortly before the gay marriage amendment was to go before the state legislature for a vote, for example, three pastors and a rabbi from our group were quoted on the front page of the newspaper. Two were vehemently for gay marriage; two vehemently against.

The next leadership team meeting started with one clergy member saying that his congregants were asking how they could possibly stay members of an organization where many of the congregation members are considered to be sinners by some of our GBIO leaders. The team decided it would be a good idea to go around the table and share thoughts and feelings. As each leader spoke, it became clear that we’d always known we had these differences, that we respected each other. In fact, that we had learned to trust each other and we had tasted the power we have together to get things done in our community. Therefore, we needed to make sure not to let these differences divide us.

This work is very much about power. Power comes from two sources: organized money (dues from committed organizations) and organized people. Any individual person or even an institution has miniscule power when compared to what can be accomplished when large numbers of diverse people come together. When sixty to seventy congregations—all from different racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and urban/suburban backgrounds—come together around an issue, that’s political power. Together we can make a huge difference.

CRG: How do you respond to those critical of churches and synagogues engaging in politics?

Fran: Fundamentally, I believe that we are part of this real world. The Gospel calls us to be involved as Jesus was. Personally, however, I prefer to hear sermons that teach the Bible and the spiritual journey, and that leave specific political agendas for individuals to think out for themselves. Practically, I recognize and value that there are many varying viewpoints on this subject. I like to try to understand the other person’s opinion, even if I disagree.

For an institution to be active members of GBIO, it needs to be strong enough to manage internal differences constructively. When I led GBIO at Trinity, first and most importantly, there was strong clergy support. Secondly, our leadership team talked with individuals and groups to educate and to hear their hopes and fears.

By the time Trinity joined GBIO, we knew we had strong support in many quarters across the congregation. We’d also learned to explain to folks that it was unlikely that this organization would do anything too shocking, since we chose our issues based on what our overall membership could agree on. However, should there be an issue or action that our clergy and leaders felt we needed to avoid, it was not necessary to participate.

That said, a congregation needs to know that GBIO activity is political. While approaches to an issue are very practical, the congregation needs to be prepared for the fact that GBIO activity may be controversial. t’s important to start with a base of support in a congregation.

Conflicts of interest are most likely to occur around tactics. For example, when there was an SEIU Union Janitors for Justice Campaign, which we had been asked to support, some member institutions were deeply concerned because they had powerful building owners in their congregations. On the other hand, there were many janitors in our congregations and the SEIU Union is a member of GBIO. So, our strategy became a very practical, less controversial, but super helpful one. Groups of our clergy met with the CEOs of major corporations to share perspectives.

Interestingly, when the CEOs learned the facts and heard the stories, several of them publicly endorsed the janitors’ position and told owners of their buildings that they were willing to pay more in their contracts. Additionally, janitors met with many members of congregations and told their stories so that our congregation members began to think of them as real people.

We say "we have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only actionable issues." It’s really important to understand the self-interest of all the parties if one hopes to achieve success.

CRG: What benefits might a church or synagogue expect by engaging in this work?

Fran:

1. Engaging in this work is learning to live the faith by doing it. In the Christian context, we’re teaching the Gospel by doing the Gospel. This can be a formative Christian Education experience.

2. This work provides an opportunity for an extraordinary spiritual journey: outward as the congregation engages beyond itself; together as it builds relationships and community within a congregation; and inward as it nurtures the individual spiritual journey of participants.

3. This can lead to building strong relationships throughout an urban area. It can establish an exciting place in the community for the church or synagogue. Many of our clergy value particularly the strong network of relationships they’ve developed among clergy but also politicians and other community leaders.

4. A congregation can learn the power of being together; especially when based on trust and making decisions together. Congregations learn to think about differences not as polarization but the opposite of that. Rather than dividing us, valuing our differences can make us stronger.

5. This work offers learning tools and techniques that are new to most of us. These tools provide ways to develop leadership, build community, and engage lots of folks.

6. It provides an opportunity to build deeper relationships and develop the techniques to do that. It’s about personal story rather than biography. One participant, after a one-to-one meeting, said, "I knew Joe. We served on committees together. I knew his family, his children, even his golf handicap. But I didn’t know him at all. Now I’ve heard his story and he mine. It’s a wonderful, new and different, deeper relationship."

7. If this work is done well, it can serve as leadership development training—attracting and preparing new leaders. It serves a niche for those wanting to be engaged but who aren’t as drawn to the more traditional charity or committee work. It’s about learning by doing. This is a great way to discover skills people didn’t know they had. When an immigrant who wasn’t able to finish high school gives a great speech in front of a thousand people, it's pretty exciting.

8. Some churches and synagogues grow as a result of being involved. For instance, one church was engaged in the issue of health care. The church hosted several workshops and did a door-to-door campaign to inform community members about the issue and their options. As a result, new faces from the neighborhood are connecting with the church. Where large numbers of congregants get good at building relationships and connecting people with their passions, you’re likely to find a growing, energized, church or synagogue.

9. In the busy-ness of most of our lives, it can offer opportunities to be involved that fit different life styles. On the one extreme, a person can serve as a full time volunteer. On the other, he or she can make a difference by attending a two-to-three hour action event and being counted.

CRG: Can you give me an example of GBIO in action?

Fran: We’ve worked on statewide issues as well as more local ones. Most recently, we've received substantial credit for the Massachusetts Healthcare law that is bringing near universal healthcare to our state. Our first big campaign was a statewide effort for affordable housing which won a $100 million grant over five years. We had a three part strategy.

First we collected 120,000 signatures in support. That effort taught us how to organize ourselves to collect the signatures. It got a lot of press, putting the issue front and center for the legislature. It attracted support among allies, members, and the broader public.

Second, we held accountability meetings with elected representatives, senators, and city councilors. They were asked to give only a yes or no answer to the question: "Will you tell the house speaker [or Senate President, or Mayor] that housing is one of your top three priorities for this year’s budget?" Where ever we had well-organized constituents, the legislators said, "yes."

Third, we invited the President of the State Senate to speak at a 3500-person Assembly. He wanted to run for Governor and we'd helped him understand how pervasive the affordable housing crisis was. At the Assembly, he proposed the $100 million trust, which, in the end, was achieved.

On a different scale, there was the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) campaign which came out of our Haitian congregations. Those congregations had large numbers of CNAs who were not being treated with respect—not being able to speak Creole in their break rooms, for example, or being called into work and being sent home without pay when they were not needed. Both examples, while illegal, were common practice in many nursing homes. They were equally upset because they were assigned more cases than the recommended standards. Due to this caseload, they felt they weren’t able to provide good care to their residents.

We launched an 18-month campaign to address the issue. First, we created a Bill of Rights for CNAs. Residents, groups of clergy and lay people visited nursing homes asking them to sign the Bill of Rights. Many wouldn’t see us, most wouldn’t sign. One home "fired" two of our clergy who had been conducting services with its residents. Over 100 GBIO members gathered in front of that nursing home with speeches, banners, and press to tell the story.

Second, two CNAs filed a discrimination charge and 75 GBIO representatives went with them to make sure that they would not be retaliated against.

Third, we worked with the Attorney General asking him to send a reminder of the law to all nursing homes. This took many meetings, including one where we "reminded" him that he had received donations to his campaign from the nursing home association.

Finally, at a meeting of over 300 GBIO members, he agreed to send the reminder. As a result, the nursing home association provided a training class, which they allowed GBIO to preview, to provide training for nursing home management on working with immigrants. GBIO members gave the training their seal of approval.

It was a huge success. At a large meeting held at the end of this eighteen month campaign, one CNA said that a year ago she’d been frustrated and upset because she knew she was being treated badly and she knew she couldn’t do anything about it. "Now," she said, "We’re being treated better. Most importantly, we have hope. When we come together, we have the power to change lives."

On yet another scale, GBIO may have local campaigns that are based on one church or several institutions in a specific neighborhood. St. Peter’s Church serves a largely Cape Verdian community. The church invited neighbors into small group meetings. They identified a desperate need for a place for their children to gather after school while their parents worked and where they could get help with their homework as many of their parents didn’t speak English well. They worked with an organizer and nuns at the church, raised money, and developed a program that is touted as a model of what can be effective.

In other cities, coalitions of faith communities have addressed a wise array of issues, including housing, minimum wage, school reform, and job training and development.

CRG: You talk a lot about building relationships. Where do you start?

Fran: Within the church or synagogue, we start with one on one conversations where we share stories and build trust. Then come house meetings, which are small groups of people most often sharing stories, beginning to tease out the issues. Then, most likely, we move to GBIO-wide teams who come together to do the hard work of honing an actionable issue, strategizing, and executing a campaign.

CRG: How do you talk with a church or synagogue about membership?

Fran: Every organizer in every city is different. In my work, typically I want to get to know the leaders of the church or synagogue—clergy and lay leaders—and learn their interests. It’s really important to have thoughtful exploration and discernment before getting to the stage of becoming members.

CRG: Do you have any cautions for people who want to engage in this work?

Fran: Be discerning. Involve the congregation in learning and discussing. There needs to be a strong base of support in a congregation. It’s generally not a good idea for a new pastor to jump right in; and it’s unlikely to work in a wobbly church or synagogue. A congregation has to do the work and ask, "Does this fit?," "Does this help our congregation?" If it’s not in the congregation’s self-interest, then I propose it do whatever is!

CRG: If congregations do get involved, what sort of support can they expect?

Fran: Typically, there are several professional organizers who provide support. Training and leadership development is central to everything we do. Local and national training is available. Most clergy and primary leaders attend a national six-to-ten day training session.

CRG: Saul Alinsky did a lot of grassroots organizing in the 1940s and 1950s in the IAF, a precursor to the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. Is this an extension of his work or something different?

Fran: Saul Alinsky founded the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). (You can go to their Web site to learn more.) What’s changed is that now most of the work is done through faith-based institutions. They organize themselves, and in that way, there’s more capacity to build power.


Resources

Industrial Areas Foundation
220 West Kinzie Street, Fifth Floor, Chicago, IL 60610
Tel: (312) 245-9211, Fax: (312) 245-9744, email: iaf@iafil.org
http://www.industrialareasfoundation.org/

The Industrial Areas Foundation is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of all people through social action. As stated on the IAF Web site, "The IAF is non-ideological and strictly non-partisan, but proudly, publicly, and persistently political. The IAF builds a political base within society's rich and complex third sector - the sector of voluntary institutions that includes religious congregations, labor locals, homeowner groups, recovery groups, parents associations, settlement houses, immigrant societies, schools, seminaries, orders of men and women religious, and others...The IAF develops organizations that use power - organized people and organized money - in effective ways...The IAF is indeed a radical organization in this specific sense: it has a radical belief in the potential of the vast majority of people to grow and develop as leaders, to be full members of the body politic, to speak and act with others on their own behalf..."

Greater Boston Interfaith Organization
594 Columbia Road, Suite 402, Dorchester, MA 02125
Tel: (617) 825-5600, Fax: (617) 825-5400

GBIO is one of many Industrial Areas Foundation organizations around the country. It is made up of 60 to 70 faith-based institutions including churches, synagogues, the Muslim American Society, along with other community-based non-profit organizations. GBIO crosses nearly every ethnic, racial, faith and neighborhood line in Boston. It's purpose is to hold public office holders accountable to the people’s agenda. "When we add up all the individual members and affiliates of GBIO," says Fran, "We can count up to 60,000—and because we chose to push for issues we can all agree on we represent a powerful force. With our allies, state-wide public officials have a self interest in paying attention to us."

Note: According to research by sociologist Nancy Ammerman, nearly all congregations in the United States are engaged in serving needs of their community (feeding the homeless, for example), only a tiny percentage (3% in her study) do work that involves changing society on a structural basis. The work that GBIO and IAF do is not mainstream. It is Gospel-based but differs from most traditional forms of community service work.

Synagogue 3000 Report—Synagogues and Social Justice: Creating Sustainable Change Within and Beyond the Congregation (Fall 2007)
Los Angeles offices: 10350 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 205, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5074. Tel: (310) 553-7930, Fax: (310)553-5995
New York offices: One West 4th Street, New York, NY 10012. Tel: (212) 824-2277, Fax: (212) 253-0230.
email: info411@synagogue3000.org, http://www.synagogue3000.org

In May 2007, the S3K Synagogue Studies Institute and Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ) convened a consultation on synagogue engagement with social justice. Participants included fifty clergy, lay leaders, activists, and funders from around the United States who are interested and involved in doing justice work within and beyond synagogues.Working with congregational scholars Nancy Ammerman (Boston University), Mark Chaves (Duke University), and Richard L. Wood (University of New Mexico), the gathering began to address these issues. Their observations are included in this report, along with questions to assist synagogues considering this kind of work.

This interview is part of the Wise Voices project, which gathers thoughts and essays from people who know congregations. These are leaders with know-how—through first-hand knowledge, academic study, or practical experience. If you are or know of a Wise Voice we should include, please contact us at info@crg.org
 .