New Community Organizing How-To Book Published: 'The Grassroute Guide: A Leadership Manual for Reluctant Grassroots Community Leaders'
Economic necessity and political disenfranchisement are driving a nationwide surge in local grassroots community service group organizing. Many groups are lead reluctantly by neighbors who lack the necessary leadership skills to deal with the complexities of their efforts. “The Grassroute Guide” (http://www. grassroute. org) offers hundreds of techniques and structural points to make any group more effective, self-sustaining and less dependent on individual leaders to stay on course.
West Stockbridge, MA (PRWEB) February 2, 2010
Organizational consultant Paul Deslauriers battle-tested his blend of group structure and focused communication for over 25 years, in over 90 advertising agency creative departments and TV stations, where backbiting, power struggles, and egos smash-up to create some of the toughest group environments around.
Now, with the need so great in so many communities, Deslauriers has tooled his organizational program specifically for nonprofit, grassroots community groups and regional coalitions.
"We show how to set up a grassroots community group and run it effectively," says Deslauriers. "We provide a direct route to success, but if issues and barriers do arise, we show how the group itself can work them out."
”Painful cuts in Federal, State and County program funding are spurring community groups to take over established initiatives such as: Food Banks, Ride Shares, Shelters, After School Programs, Day Care, Senior Care, and Clothing Exchanges. At the same time, a growing population is looking to simplify their lives and actively disengage from institutions that they feel are no longer aligned with their best interests,” says Deslauriers, “a shift from globalized Wall Street to localized Main Street. New forms of ‘off-the-grid’ programs are emerging: Transition Towns, Eco-Villages, Local Currencies, Time Banks, Community Gardens, and Alternative Energy Cooperatives.”
The Grassroute Guide (http://www. grassroute. org) is a detailed manual designed to meet the leadership and organizational demands of these growing community trends. The offer includes a 120 page E-Book and Paperback, Videos, Webinars, Workshops and Direct Consulting. Topics include: Image Branding, Facilitating Meetings, Coalition Building, Local Media, Staging Events, Neutralizing Disruptors, Funding, Diversity, Surveys and Assessments.
Deslauriers is currently applying his program in Western Massachusetts as Director of Berkshire Co-Act (http://www. co-act. org), which is establishing a coalition of 30 regional food support programs, a local currency, a media group and time bank. He is also actively developing a regional hydro-electric cooperative, as well a coalition of health and human service organizations.
Paul Deslauriers on YouTube Video (http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=_tYdWnTHjjU)
More YouTube Videos on The Grassroute Guide (http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=3ZcnVdHUPS8)
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