Summary: Rogers Park Community Action Network (RPCAN) is a multi-issue, membership-based organization working for community empowerment and social justice on the local, state, national and international levels. Over the last year, RPCAN has mixed online eAdvocacy tools with traditional mobilizing efforts to protect the rights and community life of Rogers Park.
Representing one of the most economic and racially diverse communities in the country, Rogers Park maps the city of Chicago in terms of economic and ethnic diversity. Right on the lake front, with easily accessible beaches and small parks, Rogers Park is now considered an up-and-coming neighborhood and, as such, has attracted the attention of powerful real estate developers that prefer multi-unit condos to one story dwellings and open spaces.
RPCAN has been at the center of much of the community mobilizing efforts to combat the effects of gentrification. Since many of RPCAN’s members are not online largely due to economic reasons, RPCAN relies mostly on traditional mobilizing tactics. In fact, they don’t even have a website. Yet Francis Tobin, an RPCAN long time volunteer, discovered that new eAdvocacy tools have lowered the barrier for entry enough to make eAdvocacy practical and effective for small, volunteer-run organizations with constituencies that don’t mirror MoveOn members’ IP-oriented profile.
In 2003, RPCAN stumbled on a tool called CitizenSpeak – a free email advocacy service for grassroots organizations. Francis was skeptical at first. Given the economic diversity of their neighborhood, would enough people have access to the Internet to make an online campaign worthwhile? Would targeted representatives care? Realizing there was only one way to find out, Francis created an account on CitizenSpeak and launched an email campaign to support the community’s fight against the city’s plans to cut public transit service.
“I was really surprised by how easy it was to launch a MoveOn-like email campaign,” Francis said. To create a campaign, Francis entered the email address for Mayor Daley, added text for the letter and hit save. CitizenSpeak generated a web page address specific to his campaign which he then posted on a community listserv.
Francis was surprised by the impact of the “personal statements” that people added to their emails. “In theory, we all know how important public transportation is, particularly in our community where many of us rely on the bus to get to work. But there’s nothing like getting a personal statement from someone who says that service cuts will leave them without a way to visit and bring food to a homebound mom.”
RPCAN launched a couple of other email advocacy campaigns to protect local hiring at local projects and access to affordable housing. Because of CitizenSpeak’s “tell-a-friend” feature and downloadable participation reports, each campaign generated new supporters that RPCAN could reach out to for support with future online and traditional activities.
At the end of 2004, RPCAN took on a developer that had surreptitiously purchased two lots across from a neighborhood elementary school to build 18 condo units. One of the two lots has been a garden, so allowing the construction of a large condo building would reduce much needed green space. The local councilmember gave the developer the go-ahead without consulting the neighborhood. RPCAN engaged in some limited traditional organizing to delay the project but they couldn’t get the time of day from their councilmember.
Then RPCAN launched an email campaign. “The really amazing thing was that only 25 people participated but it was enough to catch our councilman’s attention and agree to meet with us. People from the city said that the emails demonstrated real opposition to the condos and support for more green space.”
“Fighting powerful real estate interests for limited green/garden space is tricky to say the least. While we’ve only had one meeting and we still face a long struggle, easy-to-use online eAdvocacy tools are helping us to protect our right to open spaces. They expand participation by giving people a way to do something that might not come to a meeting but will click on a link. And they send a powerful message to representatives that there’s an organized constituency out there that means business.”