Best Practices in Public Policy and Administration: Grassroots Civil Rights Organizations

Author Note

To all the volunteers that told me to keep going for my education. Thank you for the limitless time and dedication you gave me when I needed it most.

Grassroots Civil Rights Movement

The best practices of a grassroots civil rights movement are community-building, communication, involvement, and raising awareness. Fundraising activities are necessary to build a strong grassroots civil rights movement. Stakeholder engagement is an important part of running a civil rights movement and can help make programs and activities that people can join to inspire change. Collaboration with the private sector (Centre for Public Impact, 2018) helps provide resources and capacities that can expand civil rights movements. Political commitment is required to support specific issues that can be agreed upon by both the Democrats and Republicans. Public services might include food stamps/EBT, child support, unemployment, transportation, free/reduced lunch for dependent children, free pre-K –12 public education, etcetera (Centre for Public Impact, 2018). Public confidence comes from good ratings, meeting fundraising quotas, and making lasting impacts in community programs. These values can be contributed to the case studies on “the US state of Georgia’s pre-kindergarten programme” because it talks about the methods of public change. This case study is like my professional life grassroots organization of the poor people’s campaign.

Poor People’s Campaign

In my professional life, I have joined the Florida poor people’s campaign which is a nonpartisan organization that advocates uplifting poor people from the issues they face every day. The major challenges of the grassroots Florida poor people’s campaign are distance, time-scheduled meetings, state-wide fundraising, and visibility. Many of the people that are in the Florida poor people’s campaign are from around the state in different cities. The distance between local groups can cause a problem when fundraising for certain programs and social events. However, the national poor people’s campaign helps bring people to the “March on Washington D.C.” every summer from different US states. I was fortunate to be granted a free trip to Washington, D.C. to advocate for the positive social change we need in Florida.

Getting volunteers involved in the process of civil rights change is important because we need to give people a voice. However, a challenge is a distance between volunteers. At this moment the Florida poor people’s campaign relies on professionals in their fields to advocate at their workplaces, churches, schools, and community about the issues poor people in America face. We inspire change and give members a chance to talk about the issues that are significant to Florida. For instance, we talked about the challenge of raising minimum wage standards to $15 dollars an hour. Currently, the Florida state government raised the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour for state employees that are working OPS positions. This was an amazing change that helped raise the wages of state workers.

Timing is everything. Many grassroots organizations that are nonpartisan or partisan must work around the busy schedules of their members. The organizations that I am involved in are usually scheduled during the afternoons to help accommodate individuals that work a full-time schedule. The challenge of positive social change in the poor people’s campaign is waiting patiently for legislation to pass that change situations for poor people. Nationally shared recognition that government policy has created new pathways for change (Rothstein, 2017) is a challenge of the poor people’s campaign. This type of challenge takes time and patience to create policies that can be implemented in government departments that will help.

Fundraising. The poor people’s campaign of Florida does not raise money for specific in-person programs because our branches are spaced out across the state. The primary funds for the Florida poor people’s campaign come from the national organization and donations. This is a challenge to spread the word about the political legislation that we need to change for the poor people of Florida. The best practice for this is to gain funds through the political commitments of professionals in the public and private sectors. Implementation of a modern and efficient system must recognize the agencies and congressional personnel that make necessary investments into campaign policy issues (Centre for Public Impact, 2017).

Visibility. Showing recognition to these congressional members and professionals that make policy changes to help the poor resolve their disputes can help uplift the lower class and expand the middle class. The best practices for positive social change are to raise the lower class and expand the middle class, which will help the local and state economy. Creating policies that make new jobs for the poor and helping people gain access to affordable living standards. The poor people’s campaign needs to become more visible in the state of Florida. Most of the visibility comes from the national organization that holds virtual broadcast sessions on the issues of the poor. Visibility helps establish the level of public confidence in such a project (Centre for Public Impact, 2017).

Conclusion. The best practices in public policy and administration are creating stakeholder engagement, political commitment, and public confidence. These practices can be established through methods of dividing time for policy creation, fundraising, and visibility of public policies. The poor people’s campaign is a grassroots nonpartisan campaign that works to help the poor people of the nation and create new pathways to alleviate poverty. The local and state government has a direct correlation to helping people that are experiencing poverty. For example, individuals that are working to make their disputed payment plans, food stamps, free public education, transportation, unemployment, reduced insurance, and more. Creating clear objectives to establish new public policies can help make attainable steps toward grassroots organizational goals.

References

Centre for Public Impact. (2018, September 10). Pre-K: The US state of Georgia’s

pre-kindergarten programme. https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/pre-k- us-state-georgias-pre-kindergarten-programme/

Centre for Public Impact. (2017, June 20). The FBI virtual case file system.

https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/fbi-virtual-case-file-system/

Jarpe-Ratner, E. (2020). How can we make LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education programmes truly inclusive? A case study of Chicago Public Schools’ policy and curriculum.

Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 20(3), 283-299

https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2019.1650335

Rothstein, Richard. (2017). The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government

segregated America. Liverright Publishing Corporation.