Episode 269: Communicating and Organizing for Civic Impact
Welcome back to Sunday Civics, the home for the civically engaged. This episode, L. Joy is focusing on us charting a path forward for our communities. To discuss strategies for organizing using effective communications to enhance civic engagement and empowering communities to embrace their full agency, she brings Leslie Mac, digital organizer and strategist and Chelsea Fuller, managing partner and senior strategist with Black Alder LLC to the front of the class.
Leslie has been at the front of the class before, but this is Chelsea’s first time. She shares her first civic action advocating for inclusivity for queer and transgender participants in a cultural rites of passage ceremony when she was at West Virginia University. This experience catalyzed her journey as an organizer and underscored the importance of leveraging privilege and resources to create equitable conditions.
L. Joy notes how Chelsea’s first civic action leads us into the conversation since it touches on one’s agency. When it comes to civic engagement or participation, many people feel as though they are participants going along or there’s a perception that decisions are predetermined. Not that they are using their agency to speak to their and their community’s needs. Leslie emphasizes reclaiming one’s personal power and agency as a foundation for community empowerment. Adding that systemic structures often undermine individuals’ sense of control and urges a return to fearlessness and collective action.
Chelsea contextualizes short term focus versus long term work in organizing since many people have expectations for practically immediate results which leads to apathy when change isn’t seen quickly. She adds that campaigns and movements must root thor messaging in values rather than transactional political goals. Pointing out that successful campaigns build long term engagement by prioritizing community involvement and providing regular updates on progress. They conceded that philanthropic funding can at times undermine sustained work due to rigid definitions of success and limited support for narrative and communications strategies. Reframing losses as steps forward to the larger goal and not failures and messaging that truly resonates with people’s values will provide pathways to deeper involvement.
Leslie stressed that digital spaces should complement not replace in-person organizing and critiqued the reliance on digital soundbites for generating policies or ideologies. The deeper, more grounded discussions in offline spaces should be translated to online platforms, not the other way around. Chelsea and Leslie acknowledged the need for intersectional analysis that reflect diverse voices to craft cohesive messaging strategies. They all agreed on and underscored the importance of centering community needs in campaign strategies while addressing external misinformation and propaganda.
Do Now
Review L. Joy’s lessons from the year. Make your plan to get or enhance your civic engagement. Check out L. Joy’s “Get Vote Ready” journal if you need a place to start.
Leslie Mac
Leslie Mac is a Brooklyn born & raised Organizer. After founding Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism, the Ferguson Response Network and Safety Pin Box, she opened her own Digital Strategy Consulting Firm which supports grassroots organizations with communications coaching, digital strategy and culture work. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and 2 very spoiled dogs.
Chelsea Fuller
Chelsea Fuller (she/her) is a seasoned strategic communications and media strategist with more than a decade of experience supporting movements for radical change. Along with her role leading the communications work at M4BL, she also serves as Managing Partner and Senior Strategist at Black Alder, a leading movement capacity-building firm.