ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The five-conversation framework in Stand Up! originated in a session I led in 2014 during a six-day PICO National Network (now Faith in Action) leadership training in Los Altos, California. During the first few days of the training, my colleagues took a hundred grassroots leaders from across the country through a set of powerful activities and teachings about race, faith, power, and social change. They challenged participants to see themselves and the world differently. As I watched, I wondered what people would do when they got home. So I asked for a few hours on a Sunday morning to dig deeper into how people could apply what they were learning to transform their lives and communities. That desire to make organizing wisdom as practical and useful as possible was the genesis of the framework in the book and has been my north star.

It shouldn’t be a surprise then that so much of what is in Stand Up! reflects the ideas and creativity of my colleagues in Faith in Action. For the past twelve years, I’ve had the blessing of working alongside some of the best community organizers in the United States. Fr. John Baumann founded Faith in Action (originally the Oakland Training Center, then Pacific Institute for Community Organization, and eventually People Improving Communities through Organizing) in 1972. His humility and discipline anchored the network in a commitment to treat people as ends and not means. That focus on people and their development along with a willingness to adapt and collaborate explains Faith in Action’s tremendous growth over the past decade. Our network has become a source of strength and hope for many working people and communities across the county. Faith in Action is now the largest faith-organizing network in the United States with forty-five grassroots community organizing groups in two hundred cities and towns in twentytwo states, with a membership of three thousand religious institutions and 2.5 million people, as well as growing work in Rwanda, Central America, and Haiti. In 2017, PICO renamed itself Faith in Action to better reflect its purpose and work.

Many of my Faith in Action colleagues influenced the ideas and practices discussed in Stand Up! They include Onleilove Alston, Juard Barnes, Lydia Bean, Risa Brown, Eddie Carmona, Denise Collazo, Jennifer Farmer, Joe Fleming, Rev. Cassandra Gould, Rev. Jane Gould, Stephanie Gut, Rev. Alvin Herring, Phyllis Hill, Deth Im, Rev. Troy Jackson, Jim Keddy, Adam Kruggel, Wes Lathrop, Tim Lilienthal, Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews, Andrea Marta, Lorena Melgarejo, Joseph McKellar, Kirk Noden, Kristee Paschall, Scott Reed, Edwin Robinson, Bishop Dwayne Royster, Daniel Schwartz, Sarah Silva, Ron Snyder, Monica Somerville, Shoshanna Spector, Lauren Spokane, Liz Sullivan, Ron White, Rich Wood, Felicia Yoda, and Alia Zaki Ludwig. Special thanks to Doran Schrantz for her ideas about the process people go through in becoming agents of change and building a base; to Joy Cushman for so many concepts, including the teams-roles-goals framework, the pyramid of social change, and the playing field; and to Rev. Michael McBride for agitating me around race and the need to let go of sacred cows around whom and how we organize. Thank you to Tamisha Walker for her organizing with the Safe Return Project in Richmond, California, described in chapter 7. Thank you, Lise Afoy and all my colleagues, for helping me create the space to write.

I am also happy to be part of a larger community of organizers who are testing out new and creative ways to transform American society to live up to its stated values. I’m especially grateful to my colleagues at the Advancement Project, Center for Popular Democracy, Center for Responsible Lending, Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, Community Catalyst, Movimiento Cosecha, Demos, Faith in Public Life, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Employment Law Center, People’s Action, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, SEIU, Sojourners, United We Dream, Wellstone Action, and Working Families Party for their support and partnership over the years.

Thank you to Jeremy Nowak for finding me my first job in organizing, Jill Michaels for hiring me, Rudy Tolbert for taking me under his wing, and Patrick Bond for teaching me how to take apart banks. As I say in the preface, I learned some of the most important lessons about organizing from my time living in Chile in the 1990s with my wife, Julia. Thank you to our compañeras y compañeros in Grupo de Salud Llareta and Educación Popular En Salud (EPES), including Karen Anderson, Valeria Garcia, Sonia Garcia, Ivan Burgos, Monica Janet Perez, Monica Maldonado, and Eladio Recabarran, and to Juan Carrera for teaching me Spanish and instilling in me a lifelong commitment to building new organizations.

Organizers learn organizing from the leaders they work alongside. I’m especially thankful to everyone who walked with me during my years of learning to organize in Philadelphia, including Angelina Rivera, Rosie Mateo, and Marta Aviles, whom I met through the Sheppard Parents Association (the parent organization in Philadelphia described in chapter 3), Ortencia Cortez-Santiago, Linda Haley, Dolores Shaw, and Sam and Phyllis Santiago, as well as my Philadelphia friends and colleagues Rochelle Nichols Solomon, Len Rieser, Debby Freedman, David Wycoff, Vincent Louis, Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, and Rui DaSilva. From my time organizing in Flint, Michigan, I thank Rick Carter, Rev. David Kennedy, Rev. David Carl Olson, Fr. Tom Firestone, Rev. Ira Edwards, Rev. Claudia Hollingsworth, Fr. Marty Fields, Fr. Phil Gallagher, Dr. Lawrence Reynolds, Jim Rouse, Sister Joanne Fedewa, and Oscar Barnett. The list of leaders and clergy whom I’ve had the blessing to work with through Faith in Action is long. Special appreciation to Paula Arceneaux, Paty Madueno, Rev. Heyward Wiggins, Rev. Cory Sparks, Dr. George Cummings, Deacon Allen Stevens, Sharon Bridgeforth, Susan Molina, Gloria Cooper, Rev. Jesus Nieto, Howard Lawrence, and Christy Figueroa.

I’ve had many teachers and mentors in organizing. Although we’ve gone our separate ways, the lessons Steve Honeyman taught me about organizing are on almost every page of this book and guide me every day—not just the principles and techniques but the rhythm and orientation. I’m thankful to have been able to work for and with Gary Rodwell, a talented organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation. I appreciate Lew Finfer for his dogged commitment to community organizing and long investment in my development. Thank you to Scott Reed for investing in my leadership and Denise Collazo for being a constant partner. And to Joe Givens for coaching me in building Flint Area Congregations Together and teaching me to be a political consultant to faith communities.

As my friends and colleagues know, I am a Jew with a special place in my heart for the Catholic Church. I thank Peter Cicchino for drawing on his Jesuit training to give me the courage to take my first job as a faith-based organizer; Bishop Edward Deliman and Sister Dolores Egner, SSJ, for patiently teaching me about Catholicism and its commitment to family and community during my years working out of Visitation BVM parish in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia; Fr. John Baumann for exposing me to Jesuit thinking and being; John Carr, Kathie Saile, Ralph McCloud, Randy Keesler, and others who have been great partners in fighting poverty and injustice during their time working at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops; and my colleagues Joe Fleming, Stephanie Gut, Tim Lilienthol, Joseph McKellar, Lorena Melgarejo, Gaby Trejo, and others for letting me ride along on an incredible journey of realizing the promise of Catholic Social Teaching. It’s been an honor to get to know and work with Cardinal Peter Turkson, Fr. Michael Czerny, Juan Grabois, and others from the Vatican as part of the World Meeting of Popular Movements process. And of course, thank you to Pope Francis for showing the world a way to live into a different better future that values the inherent dignity of every person.

People who have deeply influenced my thinking and whose ideas are laced through this book include Jeff Brenner, Joy Cusham, Michelle Fine, Michael Katz, Marshall Ganz, Hahrie Han, Charles Payne, john powell, Stephen G. Ray Jr., and Carlos Saavedra Diaz. Thank you to my social-justice-loving rabbis, Aaron Alexander and Lauren Holtzblatt, who’ve helped deepen my connection to Judaism, and to Rabbi Jonah Pesner for his collaboration and support. I’m grateful to Ksenia Ovsyannikova for her friendship and wisdom.

I found the motivation to write Stand Up!—and first outlined the book—during my participation in a Rockwood Leadership Institute in 2013–14. Thank you to Robert Gass, Yeshi Neumann, and Shiree Teng and to my cohort members, Lindsey Allen, Sulma Arias, Lawrence Benito, Stacy Bohlen, Juan Cartegena, Andrew Friedman, Ben Goldfarb, Steve Hawkins, Rachel Laforest, Valerie Long, Heather McGhee, Andrea Cristina Mercado, Amy Morris, Navin Nayak, Deepak Pateriya, Will Pittz, Justine Sarver, Evelyn Shen, Shauna Thomas, Cristina Tzintzún, Naomi Walker, Dennis Williams, and Luna Yasui for creating a remarkable (and on-going) space for me to breath and evolve.

When I started writing this book, I had very little idea about how the publishing process worked. I appreciate the advice I received from Steve Phillips and Susan Sandler, Jennifer Farmer, Ai Jen Poo, Jim Wallis, Anna El-Eini, and Norton Paley about how to get Stand Up! finished and published. Jane Friedman gave me early advice on writing a book proposal. I had the great fortune to find Lisa Adams, who as my agent has guided me through every step in this book creation process with wisdom and integrity. I appreciate her confidence in the book and in me and her success in finding the right press. One silver lining of the 2016 election was Berrett-Koehler’s strong interest in publishing a book that spoke into the moment. I can’t imagine a better fit than a publisher whose mission is literally “connecting people and ideas to create a world that works for all”—the very mission of Stand Up! Neal Maillet, my editor, has provided thoughtful and respectful feedback that guided me as I rewrote the manuscript. I appreciate the energy that all the staff at Berrett-Koehler have put into Stand Up! and their commitment to getting the book into the hands of readers.

A surprisingly large number of people read drafts of this book and gave feedback. Thank you to Hahrie Han, Troy Jackson, Denise Collazo, Monica Somerville, Jim Keddy, Jean Ross, Ellyn Kerr, Don Schatz, Rob Ellman, and Robert Gordon for great comments and suggested edits that have made the book much stronger. Many people also participated in helping title the book, thanks to Berrett-Koehler’s commitment to collective wisdom and testing assumptions.

I’m grateful to the Skadden Foundation, led by the remarkable Susan Butler Plum, for providing me with a Flom Incubator Grant to support writing this book and to Faith in Action for a 2015 sabbatical that gave me an opportunity to see the world and write my first draft.

As I say in the preface, my parents, Sylvia and Lewis Whitman, started me off on a path of justice. I thank them and my brothers, James and Bradley Whitman, for their values and support.

I cannot thank Julia Paley enough for her fierce commitment to justice, her companionship and love, and for the unwavering support she’s provided throughout my life as an organizer over many years. We’ve shared so many of the stories in the book, and I could not have learned what I have and become the person I am without her. No one has been a better editor, source of good feedback, and provider of constant encouragement. I wrote the first draft of Stand Up! while we were living in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with our children, Isaiah and Natalia, who have been a source of both ideas and inspiration for a lot of what I’ve written in the book and done in the world. I hope the book can be a source of inspiration to you for lives of purpose and joy.