Making Policy, Making Change: How Communities Are Taking Law Into Their Own Hands - Softcover

Themba, Makani N

9781890759070: Making Policy, Making Change: How Communities Are Taking Law Into Their Own Hands

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1890759074 ISBN 13: 9781890759070

Publisher: Chardon Press, 2000

Learn how activists are making change and getting it in writing. More than 1,000 local policies have been enacted recently, ranging from limiting the number of liquor stores and alcohol and tobacco billboards in low-income communities to ordinances on corporate accountability. Find out how you, too, can create change from the ground up.

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From the Publisher:

"This book has big concepts, insightful analysis, tested strategies and tactics, and numerous practical hints that are immediately useful. Most important, it provides stories from those who have learned lessons that you simply cannot afford to ignore. Do yourself and your cause a favor, take advantage of the experience captured here and avoid the pitfalls." (Lawrence Wallack, Professor of Public Health, UC Berkeley; co-author, News For A Change)

"Full of practical "how-to" ideas for grassroots organizing to change public policy. An all-too-rare balance of realism and optimistic vision." (Elizabeth Martinez, author, DeColores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century)

"A much-needed life jacket for those committed to progressive social change. In a straightforward, full-blast recitation from one who knows, Makani Themba weaves powerful stories of grassroots struggles to shape and construct policy. Her stories of ordinary folks reaching extraordinary heights is indeed inspiring, encouraging and, thankfully, to more than a few, perhaps threatening. This book is a requiem for apathy and inaction." (Clarence Lusane, Assistant Professor, School of International Service, American University; author, Race & the Global Era: African Americans at the Millennium)

From the Back Cover:

Throughout the country, activists are making change and getting it in writing. Read how community groups have successfully developed and promoted more than 1,000 local policies that have:

limited alcohol and tobacco billboards and liquor stores in low-income communities
won higher wages and more rights for workers under public contract
held corporations accountable for environmental damage
brought youth into the policy-setting process

By using case studies that focus on community organizing campaigns that created local policy, Themba provides an invaluable guidebook for activists. Written for social activists, community organizers, and students of social and public policy, she offers cogent and clear insights into how these successes can be translated to other social justice organizing.

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