CSI - CYCLE Strategy Institute

ABOUT HISTORY TOPICS

CSI was designed to meet a critical need in the field. Although there were a handful of organizing skills training and coaching programs around the country when CSI was launched in 2019, we knew of no other geared toward supporting organizing efforts for educational justice and equity. Since 2019, CSI has provided much needed capacity support for organizations to workshop their campaign strategies and tactics with peers, or for their staff and members to receive skills training and coaching. The approach that CSI offers is influenced by community organizing practices that:
- Incorporate proven tools for issue campaign planning and evaluation.
- Challenge dominant, oppressive worldviews, e.g. racism, classism, commodification, etc
- Follow a disciplined, systematic method of organizing.
CSI is founded on the beliefs that:
1) The challenges confronting our public schools are not natural or inevitable; they are structural and systemic, and have resulted from decades of decisions made by elected and appointed officials. Therefore, mere tweaks or reforms won't go far enough—we need systemic changes that eliminate, not mitigate, the root causes of the problems we face.
2) Elected and appointed officials with decision making power over our educational system often overlook or deprioritize the needs of those most affected by the challenges facing our public schools. Therefore, we need effective power-building strategies for young people, caregivers, and educators to compel decision makers to respond to demands for change, or replace them with people who will.
3) Ideas, values, and opinions profoundly influence social change. Understanding people's beliefs and motivations, listening to their real-life experiences and stories, and drawing connections between the issues they care about are essential. Organizers should both inform, and be informed by, the people most affected by the social problems we're trying to solve.