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OUR APPROACHSharing Power for Positive Change
IMPACT Silver Spring’s approach to community change is based on:
Power sharing is:
Read more about how IMPACT defines power and shares power within, to walk our talk in a diverse organization. An Alternative to Traditional Community OrganizingBased on Saul Alinsky’s work with labor movements in the mid-20th century, traditional community organizing involves engagement, training, and mobilization to build power among those who are underrepresented in the community – building collective voice to advocate for change.We offer an alternative to this model by bringing all people together – regardless of power status – to build new and shared visions of our community that we can all actively work toward. Montgomery County has many progressive policies in place, which does not preclude the need for advocacy, but IMPACT’s assessment is our community fundamentally needs to transform practice. For this reason, IMPACT’s approach is about experimenting with new ways of behaving with one another, creating new ways of coming together, and generating new capacity to genuinely collaborate for change. From “Charity” to “Network”Unlike other nonprofits that provide specific direct services, IMPACT is providing new environments for bringing diverse people together. We like to think that we are building a new identity that transcends the traditional understanding of nonprofits as “charities.” In a charity, wealthier community members sustain institutions that help those less fortunate. In a network, we are all on equal footing, and we can all collectively sustain the network for our mutual benefit. |
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