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The PICO Model for Community Organizing

The websites of the three PICO-affiliated federations in Alameda County, OCO, COR and BOCA provide lots of information about activities and about what each one is striving to do.  How the three organizations operate is something each person needs to learn for him- or herself.  What is particularly hard to put into words is how people are changed by their involvement.

Here is a quotation taken from the website of the national headquarters of PICO, http://www.piconetwork.org/:

"There's a sense of power and know how in PICO. Now, we know how to deal with the issues, as opposed to waiting for city hall to give us an answer, the mayor, the governor to give us an answer. We create the answer and give it to them to make it happen.

"People have a sense of being empowered, a sense that now I can have some control over my destiny and not have my destiny handed to me."

-- Rev. Heyward Wiggins, Camden Churches Organized for People, NJ

What is striking about the people you meet within the congregations affiliated with a PICO federation and within each federation is that they are people who have found a life for themselves.  They live purposeful lives.  They take an interest in other people.  They are quietly competent without being self-assured or overly assertive.  They are intent on finding out what can be accomplished and then accomplishing it.  They listen to each other and help each other.

All of this comes about as the result of training, but it is not a top-down authoritarian training.  It is a training in relating to people and being guided by a mutually understood purpose.

A person's involvement with community organizing within one's own congregation or parish within a PICO federation begins by having a one-to-one meeting with a member of the congregation's local organizing committee (LOC).  This is a prearranged 30 to 45 minute meeting in your home or other convenient place.  You and the LOC member get acquainted with each other and you get to explain how your life is going and what you care about and what problems you are facing.  Subsequently the LOC member introduces you to other members of your congregation who are involved with community organizing and explains the objectives the group is working on.  Attention is given to you and how your needs can be met but also to how your skills and experience can be utilized.  Your training and self-discovery begins.  People learn by doing.

Each federation grows until it has a sizable number of congregations affiliated with it.  Each congregation contributes financially to the running of the federation, which had a paid director.  The director has been trained to do his or her job, and the members of the LOC become trained in doing their jobs.

At the national and state levels PICO has "Issues and Results" which are a set of issues being faced and results achieved so far in dealing with those issues.  One issue is "Lifelines to Healing", which is described as follows:

"The PICO California Lifelines to Healing movement is committed to addressing the causes of pervasive violence and crime in our communities. We believe that the criminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, coupled with the lack of meaningful and quality opportunities, have contributed to a state of crisis in our state and country. Lifelines to Healing is committed to advocating for policies and resources that contribute to the healing of our communities."

The Ceasefire Night Walks sponsored by Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) are a part of the Lifelines to Healing effort.  Another part is support to Proposition 47 which will be on the California ballot in November.  This proposition has received unanimous support from the Catholic bishops of California, see Bishops' endorsement.  Prop 47 is aimed at remedying the biggest problems facing California's criminal justice system.  It will greatly reduce the prison population for non-violent crimes and provide better alternatives for treating mental illness and drug addiction.  This will make our neighborhoods and schools safer and enable more people to lead productive lives.

Altogether, the PICO federations and their congregations are effective in building people's concern about justice and human well-being and also effective in enabling people to live productive and fulfilling lives.

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