Communities in Maricopa County mobilize to create change

Over the last several months, Maricopa County residents have come together in public libraries and other local centers to develop community improvement strategies that could become national organizing models.

During Memorial Day weekend, for example, community members met in Mesa Public Library as part of a “community accelerator project.” They brainstormed how to build an inclusive community organizing model that would create lasting change.

Although these community members came from different backgrounds and neighborhoods, they shared commonalities: While their issues may have been different, their core hope for change was the same. They offered each other advocacy recommendations and planned to grow their meetings.

The organization model – creating a ripple effect toward change – could have national implications.

Residents in these meetings are applying what they learned about how to mobilize to their own communities back home.

“I showed up because I want to break down divisions that are preventing people from creating, developing, and sustaining a community that supports the common good,” said Carol Farabee, Founder of the Young Writers Foundation. “More than collaboration, the key is cooperation, when people realize they’re part of something larger and actually connect with others to achieve common goals.”

After the community meeting, Farabee moved forward on the launch of a publication and podcast for teenagers to have a voice amid environments where they’re often dismissed or ignored.

Called “Generation Us,” the publication already has almost 100 students working to publish its first issue in the next year. Topics will include politics, nutrition, homelessness, bullying, trafficking, and mental health given suicide rates among youth.

Farabee said that the students have a desire to become more civically engaged.

“Why is everyone so upset? How can I learn more?” some of the teenagers asked when learning of frustrations with political leadership generally.

More than their parents’ generation, Farabee said these young people question everything and are more likely to hold leadership accountable when it comes to helping others. They’re prioritizing research and facts over standalone opinions.

“I grew up in poverty, and I had a teacher once tell me I was a ‘nobody’ each time I told them that my voice mattered,” said Farabee. “My siblings and I were told that we weren’t supposed to be successful, but we proved them wrong, and I don’t want anybody to be told that, which is why I’m empowering young people to have a voice.”

Farabee said this youth effort will eventually become national, and even international, given the momentum she has seen, especially since young people are organizing and exercising their talents even during summer break. So far, the youth come from Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, and other parts of Arizona.

These community members are crossing cultural and other borders to engage everyone in the state, from Native American reservations to communities of young people with disabilities. They seek to ask the question, “How well do you know your neighbors and the resources needed in your own backyard?”

Barb Hoffman, Executive Director of the Red Means Stop Traffic Safety Alliance, attended the same meeting as Farabee and said she learned how to turn ideas into action through funding, technology, and collaboration. Her advocacy with Red Means Stop began after her 14-year-old son, Michael Allanson, was hit and killed by a red-light runner in 2004.

The “community accelerator” meetings have been ongoing and will continue in the coming months. These community members have proven that showing up in person, instead of distantly online, builds genuine connection and trust. Most people in attendance agreed that the simple act of caring about others and their community made them pay closer attention to who held elected office – and that planting a seed now would lead to revolutionary ends.

They wanted others to understand that anyone can enact change.

This year, these efforts will also be channeled into turning out neighbors to vote during a midterm election year that historically doesn’t yield high turnout numbers, as compared to presidential election years.  There will be a primary election in Arizona on August 28 and general election on November 6. Maricopa County is paying attention.

Oftentimes, people say that romanticized models of organizing – the kinds we see in history books – are of the past. But that kind of work is happening now in a county where seemingly ordinary community members are coming together with extraordinary goals.

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