Adam Yalowitz, who spent Fall Quarter in Toledo, Ohio as a field organizer for President Barack Obama’s campaign, did not stop working when he returned to campus. Inspired by the president’s background as a community organizer, Yalowitz is bringing the lessons he learned from campaigning back to Northwestern.
“Obama and the new White House will obviously bring about a lot of change but can’t do everything on their own,” the Weinberg sophomore said.
The next step is to translate the energy Obama harnessed during the campaign into advocacy and to organize around local issues, Yalowitz said.
The president’s rhetoric about civic service has spurred an interest in volunteering, said Priyanka Rupani, a Northwestern Community Development Corps executive board member and co-chairwoman of One Voice, a student coalition that raises campus awareness of a different social cause each year.
“Before, people would laugh or brush off community engagement work,” the Weinberg junior said. “Obama gave it legitimacy and purpose.”
Yalowitz is capitalizing on student interest by coordinating an NU Organizer’s Training with NCDC, which will take place April 17-18. The event will feature two “field stars” of the Obama campaign, Joy Cushman and Alex Lofton, Weinberg ’07.
The workshop’s goal is to equip students with the leadership skills necessary to effectively organize their peers and communities, Yalowitz said.
“There are so many things students can organize around – making sure all our campus gear is sweat-free, promoting fair trade coffee, promoting a Good Samaritan alcohol policy, going green, making sure the endowment is used in socially-conscious ways,” he said.
NCDC was expecting up to 100 people to sign up, but many more have registered, said SESP junior Maddie Orenstein, the organization’s community outreach co-chairwoman.
Samantha Reed participated in Obama organizer training last summer but said she registered for this workshop to learn how to maintain student involvement and keep the campaign’s momentum.
“After the campaign, we have a network of people who have nothing to do,” the SESP sophomore said. “Hopefully we can think of ways to organize and issues or concerns to organize around.”
For Reed, it is Obama’s message of “we” that is most inspirational, especially concerning local issues, she said.
“When it comes to an Evanston school that needs tutors, that’s not really Obama’s domain,” she said. “But his message is that all of us can and should make our voices heard and should contribute.”
SESP Prof. John Kretzmann said he likes the idea of the workshop because community organizing is an essential skill and teaches people “how to get stuff done.”
“President Obama constantly says the three-plus years he served as a community organizer was the most important part of his education; he learned more there than he did as an undergrad or at Harvard Law,” Kretzmann said.
But the rise in volunteering cannot be attributed solely to Obama’s message, said Charlotte Cahill, an NU professor who specializes in modern U.S. history. It is also a “matter of historical circumstance,” as an economic crisis demands public service, she said.
“The crisis helps instill in people a real, genuine desire to do something,” she said. “It’s not just about Obama. Rates of volunteering might drop off if a sense of crisis passes.”
Cahill also cited the rise in unemployment as a factor to explain the increase in community involvement. Cahill said she met a fellow volunteer who had lost her job and decided to give back to her Chicago neighborhood at a homeless shelter.
“Frankly, they have more time on their hands,” Cahill said.
Madeline Talbott, a lead organizer with Action Now, said increased interest in community organizing lately can be attributed to both the “Obama effect” and the economic crisis.
Action Now, a Chicago-based group that identifies and solves problems in underprivileged neighborhoods, organizes communities around a variety of issues, both large and small. For example, community members on the South Side of Chicago held a “bake sale rally” Monday to raise money for street repairs.
Orenstein said she has also noticed that NCDC sites have had more student volunteers.
“Obama made people more accountable, or at least feel more accountable,” she said. “He wants people to step it up, play more of a role. And youth have responded.”
Students do not even have to step off campus to promote progressive change, Yalowitz said. The NU community is ripe for organizing around social issues, and students are responding to Obama’s call for action, he added.
Obama gave community organizing a “new kind of sexy appeal,” Yalowitz said. “There is a palpable energy of students wanting to get engaged and work on issues.”
