Coalition Building: No Easy Task

Bumped. --Craig

Crossposted at Young People For

One month has passed since I've begun serving as a Health Fellow at Greenlining Institute, a multi-ethnic policy advocacy organization, courtesy of Young People For's Leadership Academy. Before commencing my fellowship with Greenlining's Bridges to Health Team, I had some prior knowledge about coalition building. I recognized that there are different entities involved in coalition building, and therefore, different opinions (even voices of dissent), whose alliance exists to achieve a common purpose. When I came to Greenlining, I was immediately drawn to the organization's leadership in and success with coalition building. How do you build a coalition? What are the factors that must be taken into account in determining coalition membership? As the coalition expands, does decision making become less time efficient?

The formalized Greenlining Coalition's history traces back to 1979, though as the description indicates, several of its members had been collaborating since 1971. The Greenlining Coalition describes its unified purpose as the following:

The basic ideology that unifies the coalition is the understanding that increasing the size of the pie for all communities makes more sense than fighting for crumbs. Beyond ethnic diversity, the coalition represents diverse constituents that include faith-based organizations, minority business associations, community development corporations, health advocates, traditional civil rights organizations, and minority media outlets.

As noted, the Greenlining Coalition is comprised of about 40 organizations, representing the rich ethnic and cultural diversity of California. Can you actually have the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on the same coalition as the First AME Church? Can business groups work with faith-based organizations? When both parties share a common purpose of empowering and creating more equitable outcomes for underrepresented communities, the answer is, sure you can. In fact, history shows that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s effort in organizing and promoting the economic advancement of union workers was aligned with his leadership role at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA.

While my work with Greenlining thus far has reaffirmed the strength in building a coalition that represents the communities it is intended to advocate for and serve, I am gradually learning about the processes involved in determining acceptance into the coalition. Just because your group's mission statement is aligned with the Coalition's, does not guarantee automatic membership. How well would your organization work with the existing coalition members? Is your mission statement just words, or is your organization and staff truly putting the intended mission into practice and addressing the needs of the target population? Does your organization have a track record of putting the community's needs above your own group's interests?

As I am learning about coalition building through Greenlining, I am, as expected, coming up with more questions than answers. As the Young People For Leadership Academy has taught me, and Greenlining has reaffirmed, community organizing and advocacy is a life-long learning process. I'm constantly adding more skills to my toolbox while the needs, even demographics, of the communities I serve, continue to change. At this point, I have no clear-cut responses to my inquiries, but will be sure to share updates on my understanding of coalition building.