Getting grassroots

This week I’ve spent a lot of time with people who are part of grassroots movements of one sort or another.  And, I started to think about whether there was anything we can learn from grassroots movements like these that are making important and fundamental societal and environmental change?

It started last Friday with a fabulous evening – the Equitas host family dinner – spent with 3 of the 130 Human Rights educators who are here in Montreal for the International Human Rights Training Program. A Cambodian working on a peace and reconciliation program in a world where some citizens fear reprisals in the wake of Khmer Rouge convictions.  A Brazilian Human Rights lawyer who devotes time to an NGO working on local Human Rights issues.  And a children’s rights activist from The Gambia.  Each of them committed to changing their society from the bottom-up.  They come here to learn.  They will go home to share and act.  And they will change their world one action, one person at a time.

Then, because I have a crazy idea of building a rooftop garden – my field of dreams – on our Church hall, I’ve started meeting local people in the community who are working on related projects.   They are working on food security, urban farming, creating a sustainable university campus and greening the downtown.   They are students at Concordia who are piloting a sustainable business growing herbal tea to supply a student run and operated tea shop at the Loyola campus.   They are professionals working with local action groups to green some of the most debilitated parts of the downtown.  There’s one young man who went to jail for an action he took to change a regulation in The Plateau.  And guess what they did.  And, they are profs and grad students working on urban farming projects.  It’s amazing.  They are changing our urban landscape one planter at a time.  It is amazing what’s going on just outside our door.

What do these movements have in common?

• They are “natural and spontaneous” movements
• They are driven by passion for the ‘cause’.
• They operate outside of “traditional power structures”
• They use “traditional power structures” to raise awareness and funds.
• They rely on informal networks to share information and resources.
• Their projects start small and local but with the clear intention of leading to big and sustainable change.
• They pilot and learn and share and pilot again.
• They build pride in the work and the community.

What do you think?  Is there anything we can learn from grassroots movements that we can apply to institutional change initiatives?

 

Tags: Behaviour change, Collaboration, Corporate social responsibility, Creating meaning, Cultural norms, Culture change, Engagement, Work