Over 20 million American suffering from a substance use disorder. 1 in 3 families are directly impacted. The amount of lives we are losing to addiction is equivalent to the September 11th death toll repeating itself every three weeks. It is hard to argue there is not a need to organize our communities in order to fight for better outcomes and results in how we are handling this crisis.
But why should we use a traditional community organizing driven model? Of all pathways available to individuals and organizations looking to make a change in how our communities are tackling addiction, why is the arduous and complex process of organizing a community the pathway with the highest likelihood for success?
To build the necessary power to enact changes over a longer period of time, any power accumulated must be durable. It must be sustainable — growing and evolving as new issues arise, new information is learned, and new individuals join the fight. When individuals organize our communities around addiction and recovery, they make a commitment to taking sustained action. They don’t mobilize individuals for just one rally or candle light vigil. They don’t attend a single conference, feel enthused and inspired, and then distracted the moment the event has passed. And they don’t advocate for only a single piece of legislation at the local, state, or federal level. Instead, organizers focus on the long term sustained goal of aligning their communities for lasting change.
Activism, advocacy, mobilizing, direct service, community forums — these are all tactics that can be employed in order to successfully organize a community around a common goal. But they are not in and of themselves organizing any community, because they achieve short term outcomes.
Organizing a community means aligning all those individuals who are impacted by and working on the issues of addiction, treatment, prevention, family support, and recovery. It means building entities that fight for change over a sustained period of time. When we organize, we don’t rest with the same ten leaders attending the same planning sessions. Rather, each of those leaders are expected to bring at least one new individual to the discussion every time, expanding the experience, knowledge, and passion at the table. Community organizing is about building power that is sustainable over a long period of time, and that does not stop after a single success story.
By organizing our communities and building sustainable power, our communities can begin producing more significant results that will move the issue of addiction to the center of our local and national debate — and — most importantly — save lives.
