We are in a moment of crisis and potential. The promise of democracy, never fully realized, appears to be slipping away as rights are eroded and as people are disconnected from the civic sphere while living in a constant stream of misinformation. At the same time, organizations and people are gathering to determine how we can defend the democracy we know, and fight for one that’s better. Masses of people mobilize for protests and small groups of neighbors fiercely protect one another, quickly developing new practices to keep each other safe in the face of government violence and repression.

These trends are inspiring. However, in creating new structures and affiliations, we may be missing an opportunity to engage thousands of people already connected to their communities.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) are right in our backyards. These organizations are rooted in neighborhoods, providing services and opportunities for residents to create change together, such as safe places for young people to have fun and connect with peers, a place to train residents to enter career pathways, help people to access the resources to build financial stability, and other supports.

They are also places that already build trust and connection among neighbors, often acting as cultural hubs, places where people can register to vote and advocate for change in their communities. This offers the potential to more readily build bridges with larger pro-democracy movements. With intentional strategy, we can leverage the many strengths of CBOs to advance toward the democracy we dream of.

Community-Based Organizations: Democracy’s Crucial Role

The work of CBOs assumes that these organizations are run within the context of a functional democracy.

In a functional representative democracy, the government will aim to meet the needs of its people. People can express their needs by participating in free and fair elections—choosing the candidates who promote policies and ideas that align with their needs and ideals—and through other informal and formal methods of public expression. CBOs are trusted partners of government agencies. They are contracted to implement programs communities have called for: affordable housing, adult education, youth services, education and counseling to counteract the legacy of systemic racism, and tools to build financial stability.

Read the full article about community-based organizations by Emily Blank at Nonprofit Quarterly.