Community Organizing Project

St. Paulus: Community Organizing Project participates in a citywide federation of 40 churches involved in community organization through the San Francisco Organizing Project. The model utilized is from Pacific Institute on Community Organizing (PICO) which emphasizes the empowerment of people through relationships. These relationships are formed through a process called " one on ones." Community people are encouraged to talk to one another concerning issues about their neighborhood and the city.

Monthly meetings at the church allow community members to cross boundaries of race, economics and neighborhood by coming together to prioritize issues and began researching ways to solve problems collaboratively. The research of issues results in groups of community members visiting local government officials seeking partnership in solving the problems. Likewise, large community gatherings occur at churches throughout the city on an ongoing basis, when community members invite officials to visit community to address issues.

The local organizing projects participate in citywide, statewide and national training which are designed to train community leaders, for leadership at the local level.