The Toolkit for Organizing is a resource that you can use to bring the Resident Action Project to your community. It includes how-to guides for several key organizing tools and more. The toolkit is not meant to be read cover-to-cover. Read it section-by-section, depending on what you need. If you’re interested in using the toolkit and would like to talk to some Resident Action Project staff, please contact us! We are excited to hear from you, and we are available to talk through what organizing tools make the most sense in your community.
Download the Whole Toolkit
Download Section-by-Section
What’s this whole toolkit about? This section is an overview of how to use the toolkit.
So who are we anyway? This section briefly covers who RAP is, where we’ve been, and why we are a part of the solution to the current housing and homelessness crisis.
Interested in learning more about how we got into the current housing and homelessness crisis? This section includes information about the current housing and homelessness crisis as well as a brief history of power in housing.
This section includes some basic concepts around community organizing, and a beginning understanding of how you can organize a campaign.
Community meetings are small gatherings of people to discuss issues in the community, potential actions, organizing strategies, or whatever the group needs. Community meetings are fundamental to organizing in any community!
One-on-one meetings are key to bringing new people into your organization and building your own leadership skills. If you’re interested in inviting someone to join the group or take an action, check out this section!
Canvassing is knocking on doors in a community to have conversations with many people. If you’re organizing an event, mobilizing people for action, or doing a survey, canvassing can help you reach a lot of people. This section of the toolkit walks you through what you need to do – step-by-step.
Tabling is an organizing tool that helps you reach people where they’re at. Whether you set up a table at a community event or near the front desk of a building where people are paying their rent, you have the opportunity to meet new people and invite them into RAP.
So many people are connected to social media, which presents many organizing opportunities. This section includes some information, tips, and considerations on using social media to organize.
Organizing is incredibly important work, and it can be exhilarating as well as exhausting. This section covers some basics around self-care and group-care to make sure that we are caring for ourselves and each other in this work.
Don’t overlook the appendix – it’s action packed! It includes a social justice glossary, a housing glossary, resources for continued learning, 198 methods of nonviolent protest and persuasion, and the Midwest Academy Strategy Chart!