On June 22, CMGT participated in a community organizing training organized by Inner-City Muslims Action Network (IMAN) and Illinois Muslims Civic Coalition which was also attended by Arab American Family Services.
The training was located at Go Green Community Fresh Market, a new grocery store that offers fresh and healthy foods as an effort to eradicate food deserts on the South and West sides.
The training was started by establishing a guideline created and agreed by all participants, followed by informative and interactive sessions, i.e., a discussion about self-interest, about power, a practice session of working as a team on a certain issue affecting the community, and practicing elevator pitch.
In identifying our own self-interest, some questions that can be used as guidelines are what values/morals/ethics are important to you? What was a time you felt least powerful? What caused that feeling? What makes you angry or frustrated in the world? What relationship are important to you?
The trainer and facilitators, Ahmad Jitan and Michael Nasir Blackwell from IMAN made us feel safe and comfortable to share our personal stories that become our driving force to serve the community.
Overall, it is a great training for community organizers because it emphasizes the importance of learning about ourselves, building relationship with our team members, and our community.
Chicago Muslims Green Team hopes to be able to include this training as one of our recommended courses for our Capacity Building program and invite more team members to participate in the future, inshaAllah.
