All of us here at Daily Kos are absolutely passionate about politics. But many of us also are deeply involved in small-d democracy: the work of creating positive, grassroots change on a local level. Whether as paid staff or dedicated volunteers, we're community organizers.
If you're a local organizer, I invite you to take a look at DemocracySpace, a blog from Everyday Democracy, formerly the Study Circles Resource Center. For two decades, Everyday Democracy has helped communities nationwide bring large numbers of diverse people together to talk about - then take action on - all kinds of local issues including racial equity, education, growth and sprawl, community-police relations, and more.
Once a month or so, we have a live blog to discuss issues of interest to community organizers. This month's event is today - Thursday, February 21 - from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern, and we will be discussing a topic near and dear to all our hearts: how activists are using the Internet to engage citizens, tell stories, and document our work. If you have a few minutes, stop by and join the conversation.
More below the flip ...
Even if you can't make it today, please check out DemSpace. I only post once a day - and you can sign up via Feedburner to get those in your email box - so it's not a lot to keep up with. But if you're a community organizer, you'll likely find many items of interest, from our weekly Friday digests to monthly book roundups, grant opportunities, and thoughtful commentary on the intersection of partisan politics and small-d democracy.
We also have a wiki where we store the rethreaded versions of our monthly water coolers, as well as other interesting stuff including lists of blogs written by people of color and by public officials. And of course, the Everyday Democracy website is packed full of resource material for community organizers.
DemocracySpace is a website for people who are as dedicated to small-d democracy as Kossacks are to creating a Big-D Democratic Party that's more responsive to us all. Please sign up for our emails and join us online.
DemocracySpace is a nom de blog of Julie Fanselow, writer and online organizer for the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Everyday Democracy (formerly the Study Circles Resource Center.) Fanselow also blogs at Daily Kos under the screen name Red State Rebel.