Ana Garcia-Ashley Executive Director, Gamaliel
Gamaliel is a faith-based, multi-ethnic, multi-racial organizing network operating in 44 regions in 12 states. Gamaliel is a strictly non-partisan organization. Each local “affiliate” represents congregations from multiple faith traditions, unions, and local community groups. Over its nearly 40-year history, Gamaliel has trained thousands of ordinary people, primarily in low-income urban neighborhoods, to exert their civic power to improve their lives and local communities. Gamaliel has grown into a national network dedicated to building a diverse corps of grassroots leaders committed to transforming the systems and structures that perpetuate racial and economic inequities.
Affiliates in the network have prioritized ongoing campaigns that: a) dismantle criminal justice and immigration policies that disproportionately harm people of color; b) improve local public schools; c) expand access to good jobs by improving metropolitan-wide public transportation systems and establish first-source hiring and apprenticeships for local residents on taxpayer-supported projects; i and d) address the problems in our communities that are a result of climate change. We have also supported others’ efforts to defend and improve access to quality healthcare.
Nationally, Gamaliel has partnered with CCC, SEIU, Interfaith Worker Justice, Center for Popular Democracy, Alliance for Citizenship, and the AFL-CIO on immigration reform and with AFT, NEA, The Sentencing Project and NELP on criminal justice reforms and educational equity. In our transportation and jobs work we have partnered with Myron Orfield and the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity, john powell and the Kirwan Institute, Policy Link, Partnership for Working Families, Jobs to Move America, In the Public Interest, ATU, CTAA, and TWU. In all of our work, affiliates establish ongoing relationships with community members and use integrated voter engagement (IVE) best practices to ensure high levels of civic engagement during and after election cycles.
The Challenges of Multi-Racial and Multi-Ethnic Organizing
Multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalitions represent the best way forward for transformative and inclusive social justice work. However, when they are formed, they are often temporary strategic formations, or they fracture under the weight of both recognized and unrecognized conflicts.
As a network, Gamaliel is clear about the historical importance and continuing relevance of the relationships that we have formed and the political struggles we have engaged in. In many ways, our work has long been in uncharted territory, moving through that territory with a deep level of commitment and intentionality.
There are few blueprints available on how to do this well. Most organizations avoid such efforts because of the difficulty and conflict that is often associated with building multiracial organizations. We became clear in the early 2000s that we were facing a number of conflicts and tensions—particularly between the Gamaliel African American Leadership Commission (AALC) and the overall leadership of Gamaliel—but also between our affiliate groups and national leadership.
Our approach in 2007-2008 was to form an Inclusion and Racial Equity Task Force, with the support and encouragement of the Ford Foundation, Tides, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Woods Fund of Chicago. The purpose of the task force was to
intentionally and honestly reflect on the conflict and fracturing and to identify constructive solutions, in particular, solutions that would move us toward inclusiveness (especially around race and gender issues) and a change in organizational culture. This was an opportunity for significant change and growth.
Our Methodology
Our leadership determined that an independent and robust study to identify factors within the Network that might be contributing to inequality and tensions along racial, ethnic, and gender lines was critical. Out of this desire, an independent panel of researchers was formed to undertake a comprehensive assessment. Headed by john powell, a nationally known civil rights advocate and researcher from the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity (now Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkley), an Inclusion and Racial Equity Task Force was formed to design and analyze a study that assessed Gamaliel members’ perceptions of both the operations and leadership of the Network with regard to their impact on inclusion, effectiveness, and racial equity. The Task Force engaged an Assessment Team to conduct the study. They were Dr. Margaret Camarena, Executive Director of Old Dominion University’s Social Science Research Center, Melissa Giraud, Idelisse Malave, Mary McGirl, and Shaun Tucker.
The method chosen for the study was a survey instrument designed by Dr. Camarena. Data collection took place over six months and included a wide-ranging sample of Gamaliel Board members, officers, staff, members of affiliate groups and former affiliate groups from around the country and external partners, based on the largest list available. Interviews were conducted in person, over the internet, by phone, and by mail. In an effort to cast as broad a net as possible to understand issues of racial equity and justice, the sample was weighted toward respondents of color. The final sample size used for analysis included 140 surveys.
The report included both a quantitative analysis of the survey responses and a content analysis of the qualitative responses. An internal document analysis was also performed to ascertain the formal organizational and leadership structure of the Gamaliel Network.
Strategic Findings and Recommendations from the Final Report
In brief, the findings fell into these categories:
- Clarity of the mission of Gamaliel/Clarity on the relationship between Gamaliel and local affiliates – The survey findings revealed that while there is a high degree of consensus on the importance of racial and gender equity to the mission of the Gamaliel Foundation, there is much less clarity as to what exactly that mission is. There is a degree of confusion as to the priorities of promoting network interests versus promoting community interests and personal empowerment.
- Concerns about the “Alinsky Model” of organizing – There were concerns raised about the appropriateness of the organizing model that Gamaliel uses for both in-house training and outward organizing. Many members of color and women found that the Alinsky model stresses both a confrontational style and comes out of a color-blind perspective that may no longer be appropriate to the goals of community and personal empowerment. The stress on gaining power has led to perceived abuses of power within the Network, and confrontational strategies privilege those who can adopt a masculine conflict-oriented style while stifling the voices of those who perceive themselves in more nurturing roles.
- Lack of formalized power structures/job responsibilities – The growth of the Gamaliel Network has not coincided with the formalization of decision-maker roles, lines of authority, job responsibilities, or procedures for advancement. The absence of these structures was noted by many respondents as playing a significant role in the conflict between AALC members and the leadership of Gamaliel. There was a continually cited confusion as to how and where decisions were made, who was accountable for those decisions, and the relationship between affiliate organizations and the national leadership (“Are they hiring Gamaliel for training and organizing, or are they working for the leadership?”). The internal document review confirmed the informality of many staff positions within Gamaliel.
- Lack of funding transparency – The survey revealed a lack of transparency among the Network over both what resources are available and how they were allocated. Because control of resources is a large part of the concentration of power, there was a perception that executive control over funding is a major part of the national leadership structure, particularly the executive director, having too much power.
- Communication issues – Ineffective communication was cited as a common concern both for in-network communication and presenting a public face to the world. It was noted that it took a large-scale crisis to open up this particular discussion. There is a perceived lack of actual spaces/venues for discussing the concerns of people of color and for affiliates to have a two-way relationship with the national leadership staff and an organizational norm of open communication. [Note: It was noted that there was a lack of formal grievance resolution procedures within the Network.]
- Cultural norms – It was noted by multiple respondents that Gamaliel was perceived as a “white organization,” both in terms of the make-up of membership, the early recruitment of white congregations, representation within leadership, and which voices are listened to at the proverbial table. Also noted was that the confrontational organizing model of Gamaliel was implicitly coming from a white and male perspective. As noted above, structural inadequacies were exacerbating this problem.
Rebooting the Network
Since the completion of the 2008 Inclusion and Racial Equity Study, Gamaliel has transformed its internal structures and decision-making processes to ensure they are aligned with its values of diversity, inclusion, and democracy. After months of network-wide discussions, in 2008 network leaders made a public commitment to hire, develop, and promote more women and people of color; local affiliate presidents stepped up to take a larger role in strategy development and oversight of the national network and staff.
To implement these changes, the board hired long-time Gamaliel organizer Ana Garcia-Ashley as its second executive director in 2010 (the first woman of color and immigrant to head a faith-based organizing network). Today, five of the seven national staff are people of color, and four are women. Across the country, over 60% of the local organizing staff are people of color and 60 percent are women. Major strategic decisions within the network are made jointly by the Council of Presidents and the State Directors’ Table, in consultation with the national staff. The composition of this collaborative body is 75% people of color and 50% female. People of color and women now comprise half the board. Gamaliel’s staff and leadership now reflect its members.
In 2014-15, having completed its internal re-alignment Gamaliel clergy, leaders, organizers, and staff embarked on a months-long strategic discernment process, guided by staff at the Grassroots Policy Project, that brought every part of the network together to revise and renew our long-term agenda for change. Through this, we redefined our understanding of transformational power,
re-examined our framework for achieving racial and economic justice, and incorporated our insights into our training programs and advocacy work. Our rebooted training curriculum now focuses on three aspects of power: (a) how to change formal decision-making structures and disrupt underlying power dynamics; (b) how to build a sustainable base of stakeholders and expand allies; and (c) how to create a narrative that shifts public understanding. We added reform of the criminal justice system to our national issue priorities. Our training unpacks the way criminal justice and immigration policies “criminalize” people of color to demonstrate how “structural racism” constricts opportunities for some groups.
In keeping with our emphasis on putting the stakeholders most affected at the center of our advocacy work, immigrants lead our immigration reform campaigns and formerly incarcerated people are at the center of our efforts to reform policing and prison policies. In Wisconsin, for example, we have several groups attached to our affiliates there that are comprised entirely of individuals with conviction histories and their family members.
We want to note that Mike Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in the midst of our re-visioning effort. Due to
the ongoing metro-equity work of our local affiliate in St. Louis, Metropolitan Congregations United, an analysis of the economic and social isolation of the people of Ferguson due to decades of exclusionary land use, transportation, and economic development policies was readily available so that this became a moment to teach the public about structural racism. With racial tensions remaining high for months, MCU developed a training for faith leaders to use with their congregations and in community forums. “Sacred Conversations about Race [+Action]” was structured to create a safe space for wrestling in an open and honest way with how race has shaped and continues to shape our lives and communities. It was integrated into our basic leader training and is now being used by local affiliates across the network.
In June of 2015, with some support from the Ford Foundation, the Gamaliel Network publicly announced its long-term agenda for transformation that focused on racial and economic equity, and the strategies it will engage in to move us toward those goals. We are clear that this is a long-term effort that requires flexibility, new skills and ever-deepening relationships with members and with our partners.
As we have continued to resource our frontline with increased [transparent] funding, leader training, and organizer development, our affiliates are doing more effective organizing. Locally, they have won campaigns that have resulted in city ordinances establishing based rights to safe and habitable housing; conviction integrity units and community advisory teams within police departments; made inroads in eroding the school-to-prison pipeline, and much more.
Conclusions and Movement into the Future
This is a new day for Gamaliel. We are taking proactive measures to ensure that roles at the national level are well-defined and communicated and that national leadership has a clear succession plan. We are expanding our local affiliate organization model to include the building of statewide power structures.
In December 2022 at our biennial Race and Power in America Summit (an outgrowth of the strategic discernment process), we launched the Race and Power Institute for the purpose of creating a bridge between race analysis and organizing work, providing ongoing professional development and resources for organizers and leaders—both within and outside the Gamaliel Network—at the intersection of policy, praxis, and philosophy. Through the Institute, we envision a future in which people of color are full participants in this nation, sitting at tables of power and actively engaged in democratic practice in order to direct and shape the decisions that impact their lives; enjoying the shared abundance of an economy that works for everyone; and experiencing the freedom, justice, and dignity of a truly inclusive community.
We are increasingly concerned with the growing embrace of authoritarianism in this country and its inextricable link to an insidious racist agenda (plus gender and class agendas), as well as our commitment to reclaiming the arts, disciplines, and attitudes of community-based organizing as the antidote to both. In an effort to dismantle the authoritarian agenda, we have joined with People’s Action, Center for Popular Democracy, Faith in Action, and other national organizing networks in a movement that we have labeled, The National Organizing Networks Revival. Our joint publication, “The Antidote to Authoritarianism,” ii describes the focus of our movement.
Multi-racial and multi-ethnic organizing has entered a new era in this country. As a faith-based community organizing network, Gamaliel continues to build power to transform the world as it is into a new world marked by equity, compassion, hope, shared abundance, and radical inclusiveness. With religious institutions as our primary base, we are clear that we are called to prophetic ministry—to speak truth to the powers that perpetuate racial and economic injustice and destroy imagination. Now, more than ever, we must double down and recommit ourselves to unmasking and critiquing the oppressive powers of yesterday and in this time, to telling a new story of what is possible when people act together in authentic community, and to developing leaders who can effectively organize to address complex race issues.
iIn the 2000s, as Gamaliel was expanding to cities and states across the Midwest, Gamaliel partnered with Professors Myron Orfield and john powell, to move affiliates from neighborhood-based issue advocacy to focusing on the processes, structures, and decisions that had created metropolitan-wide inequities. The focus was on unequal access to quality jobs and schools and the strategy was to get better public transportation links from poor, central city neighborhoods to job growth in the suburbs.
ii “The Antidote to Authoritarian,” which describes the problem and offers best practices (i.e., reclaiming the arts, disciplines, and attitudes of community-based organizing as the antidote) can be accessed at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19qGitWIuIR8Mufgc6YWlzJq5939CqEud/view?usp=sharing
Ana Garcia-Ashley Executive Director, Gamaliel ana@gamaliel.org www.gamaliel.org
