About PACT
What is community organizing?
Rev. April Lussier addressed an audience of some 100 people at a PACT community forum in September.
Each year, PACT trains hundreds of volunteer leaders to have substantive conversations with their neighbors and others in their community, determine common problems, conduct research on the causes of those problems, negotiate solutions with the elected officials, and establish long-term accountability with elected officials.
PACT develops “social capital” – the associations and relationships between people beyond their close friends and family – that is the hallmark of a healthy community.
PACT’s Local Organizing Committees (LOC's) at each member organization seek to develop a culture of learning within the LOC and are distinguished by:
| Shared Leadership – All active volunteers are called “leaders” and treated as the term implies. | |
| Praxis – Leaders are constantly encouraged to do things they have never done before and then reflect on what they learned in the process of doing so. | |
| Discipline – PACT meetings are run by trained volunteer leaders, who seek to run them in a timely, orderly, efficient way. | |
| Relationships – High value is placed upon building a broad network of relationships in congregations and in neighborhoods around Silicon Valley. |
