March 10, 2013
More than 4,000 religious leaders from across the nation have joined the clergy of Newtown, Conn., in asking the U.S. Senate to pass meaningful gun violence prevention legislation.
February 21, 2013
Learn about PICO's Campaign for Citizenship, and the call of people of faith for a swift, fair and direct path to citizenship for our neighbors and friends.
January 3, 2013
Religious congregations across the country are leading "Gun Violence Prevention Sabbaths" during the month of March to raise awareness of the crisis of gun violence in our society. Will you add your congregation to the list?
December 12, 2012
This downloadable guide is designed to help faith leaders talk with their congregations about the practical and moral consequences of the tax and spending decisions before Congress, including proposals that would make deep cuts to the safety net.
September 20, 2012
A checklist for congregations running voter registration drives.
August 21, 2012
Faith reflections, worship materials, and information on voter suppression for clergy and faith leaders.
October 6, 2011
Resources for congregations and communities to use to tell elected officials to create jobs, raise revenues, and protect the social safety net.
September 14, 2010
Additional resources for the "Bring Health Reform Home" campaign.
September 9, 2010
A new PICO campaign to Bring Health Reform Home to our families and communities. PICO created easy-to-use education materials that describe the health care changes that will occur over the next four years.
July 8, 2010
Watch our 14-minute video about PICO's faith-based community organizing model.
Watch this short video to learn how PICO is continuing the work of faith-based organizing born in the Civil Rights Movement.
July 6, 2010
Dr. Tony Iton's powerful Applegate presentation examines the social and racial inequalities of health and mortality in our communities.
April 22, 2010
February 15, 2009
This presentation looks at the impact of the economic crisis on jobs, housing and health care, and provides a framework for helping communities and the nation rebuild the economy.
February 10, 2009
There are different methods of organizing or ways of making social change, and all have their uses. This one-pager lays out the differences between direct service, education, self-help, advocacy, and organizing.
Ron Haskins - a Brookings Institution Senior Fellow and former domestic policy advisor to President George H. Bush - offers a primer on pressure points in the legislative process where nonprofit advocates can push the levers of power.
Strategic frame analysis is an approach to communications research and practice that pays attention to the public's deeply held worldviews and widely held assumptions, developed the the FrameWorks Institute (www.frameworksinstitute.org).
A local organizing effort has moved through 1-1 visits and research, and is not getting ready for a major public action.
Complex issues require being longer-term campaigns.
These 3 slides give an overview of PICO's faith-based community organizing model.
El modelo de organizacion comunal de PICO en espanol.
An overview of the PICO organizing process, in training format.
El modelo de un entrenamiento del proceso organizador de PICO.
A training to help develop leaders' understanding of power and the dynamics of the power arena.
A one-pager outlining the key qualities of a good leader. Good leaders are not born as leaders: they are developed.
Some key questions to consider when wanting to dig below the surface in your conversations.
Training on Lessons for Organizing and Leadership from the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the actions of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon, Jo Ann Robinson and others.
October 1, 2008
PICO affiliate Metro Organizations for People's second report on the state of student-based budgeting in Denver Public Schools looks at next steps towards more equitable distribution of district-funding.
August 1, 2008
Leaders have decided to build an organization and now need to understand how to better connect with people in their community. This training exposes them to the elements of a 1-1 visit.
April 29, 2008
Use this chart to gauge your organization's ability to influence elected officials, their staff, public policy and voters.
March 24, 2008
Oakland Community Organizations has engaged in parent organizing for education reform for over ten years. This article from the journal New Directions for Youth Development, by OCO director Ron Snyder, details OCO's strategies, challenges, and accomplishments.
February 10, 2008
A chart outlining the basic steps of winning issue campaigns.
A one-page training on how to use your limited time wisely.
June 1, 2007
A basic overview of the core set of technology tools are at the heart of successful e-advocacy campaigns.
January 1, 2007
This chapter from Rich Wood's "Community Organizing and Political Change in the City" looks at PICO's organizing effort to influence policy-making on health care, public safety, education, immigrant rights, and housing at the state and national levels.
December 1, 2006
This article reviews thinking and experimentation by staff and leaders within the PICO network designed to increase the social impact of community organizing while keeping this grassroots movement firmly rooted in the values and control of local communities.
October 27, 2006
This chart shows the building blocks of a winning issue campaign.
May 1, 2006
PICO affiliate Metro Organizations for People (MOP) looks at Denver Public Schools funding inequities and presents research on how weighted student funding could create a more transparent, equitable method for funding schools.
February 1, 2006
In this chapter from his book "Building a People of Power: Equipping Churches to Transform Their Communities," author and minister Dr. Robert Linthicum teaches how to build relational power by taking the time to sit down, talk and build a trust relationship.
September 12, 2005
An analysis of how many children on Medicaid would be expected to lose coverage under the National Governors Association cost-sharing proposals before Congress
September 24, 2004
This short case study explains how Oakland Community Organizations organized parents and community leaders to create new schools that are outperforming comparable ones in the city.
April 1, 2004
Created for PICO's New Voices campaign, this paper describes the federal government role in public education and provides an overview of programs, policies and current issues. The paper also provides a short political analysis and concludes with a potential education policy agenda.
February 10, 2003
This article from the Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology examines the impact of faith-based organizing on issues of blight and crime in Camden, NJ.
September 15, 2002
Sociology professor Richard Wood spent several years working with PICO and another group. His book shows how community activism and religious organizations can help build a more just and democratic future for all Americans.
September 11, 2002
Veteran PICO clergy Kendall Baker examines how the larger community could be shaped by faith-based organizing.
June 5, 2002
This paper from the Journal of Change Management argues that the success of an organisation is vested in the formation of sustainable relationships with the primary purpose of leadership being to influence the feelings and emotions of those associated with the organisation; to create the emotional heart of the organisation and thus to determine the tenor of the relationships between the people inside and outside the organisation.
January 1, 2001
Essentials steps for setting up and running successful house meetings.
December 1, 2000
After turning concerns into issues, the next step is the development of message. Effective messages bring people together and create the momentum necessary to create change.
September 1, 2000
In this article from the American Political Science Review, Theda Skocpol, Marshall Ganz, and Ziad Munson from Harvard University "show that membership organizations emerged early in U.S. history and converged towards the institutional form of the representatively governed federation."
February 2, 2000
The breakdown of the family in our society and the effect of this fundamental rending of our social fabric have been widely documented, and the member congregations and their neighbors who make up the PICO Network feel we have a critical contribution to make toward reversing these trends.
October 1, 1998
This story of the commissioning of the seventy is one of three texts identified by many Jesus scholars as the single most authentic source for presenting a picture of the historical Jesus. Although every verse in the New Testament is subjectively filtered through the eyes of resurrection faith, confessing Jesus as the Christ, there are occasional snapshots offered that reveal an objective picture of what actually must have taken place. This story is one such literary photo.
February 2, 1998
The language and ideas inherent in our faith traditions, particularly those of the prophetic tradition provide us with resources for cracking through the predominant political ideologies of the United States to imagine a new day.
November 4, 1997
Veteran PICO organizer Jim Keddy looks at the organizing principle at the center of the PICO model - "Power rests in the relationship." Because the word "relationship" is used by many professions, Keddy reflects upon the distinctive relational pattern suggested by the PICO model of organizing.
January 1, 1995
In this article from the Journal of Community Psychology, Dr. Paul Speer and Dr. Joseph Hughey compare the differences in the ability to develop power between neighborhood-based community organizing and congregation-based community organizing.
An article from the American Journal of Community Psychology looking at how the PICO Network's organizing principles and cycle of activity highlights the relationship between empowerment and power.
