UDC Students Learning To Organize

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“What better place than Washington to have a formal structure for learning about community organizing?” says Sylvia Benotti, a professor who’s teaching a class on organizing at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) this semester. Principles & Practices of Organizing in Communities & Organizations is intended to provide students with the knowledge and skills to help their communities through organizing. “We want to heighten an awareness for the possibility of doing this and how it works,” says Benotti, Director of the Certificate in Non-Profit Leadership at UDC. The course includes guest speakers from local unions and other community groups, as well as hands-on experience in different organizations through service work. The course, which has filled up astonishingly fast, according to Benotti, may expand into a larger, more intensive program for organizing. “I think it has huge potential,” said Benotti. “This is our first class like this and we hope it will be the first of many.”