Tenants Union of Meriden TUM/Reinvestment Alliance of Meriden RAM
Lead Organizer
1989
1993
Asylum Hill Organizing Project AHOP
Director
1993
2004
New Britain Area Conference of Churches NEWBRACC
Director
Organizer Profile
I attended a training seminar on community organizing at Springfield College conducted by Dave Beckwith and Mark Lindberg of NETCCO in 1978. I then worked with the Symphony Tenants Organizing Project(STOP) in Boston to learn about arson prevention strategies. I researched arson in Hartford CT and was subsequently hired by HART to implement an arson for profit prevention strategy in the Frog Hollow neighborhood of Hartford. I was trained as a community organizer and organized 13 block clubs in the Frog Hollow neighborhood from 1978 to 1981.
1. Given enough time, and information, neighborhood people not only have the ability, but also have the right to participate in the decisions that effect their lives. 2.Information is power. 3. Follow the money.
Saul Alinsky, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.,Cesar Chavez,Paulo Freiri
Mark Lindberg, Dave Beckwith, Scotty McTaggert
Wayne Johnson, Jack Mimnaugh, Alta Lash, Laddie Michalowski
The election of Ronald Reagan kicked off the era of the glorification of greed. The next generation of community organizers disappeared...there was no one to train, to take our place. They were all aspiring to own a BMW and yet the issues of education, housing, hunger, employment were there.
The employment of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was a tool I was able to use effectively throughout my organizing career. In Hartford, New Britain, and Meriden, I was able to teach community people how banks worked and how we could hold them accountable, and we did. I was able to organize at lease 6 CRA campaigns that were effective. We could always count on the banks to be arrogant, misinformed, and to hire the wrong law firms to represent them.
All organizing should start where the people are...not where the organizer thinks they should be. Organizers have to know where the community is...understand where they are...before they can do the work of organizing and empowering.
I am not doing empowerment organizing. I am involved in issue organizing, mostly around hunger issues and education issues. I long for the empowerment model to return.
Who has mentored, coached, or consulted with you in your organizing career?
Person
Organization
Kelly, Kevin
Asylum Hill Organizing Project AHOP
Lash, Alta
UCAN
Mimnaugh, Jack
UCAN
Norwitz, Len
Hartford Areas Rally Together
Michael Gorzoch's Peers
Which of your peers influenced your development as an organizer?
Person
Organization
Allison, Mike
Hartford Areas Rally Together
Boucher, Jim
Hartford Areas Rally Together
Kelly, Kevin
Asylum Hill Organizing Project AHOP
McKinnley, Dave
Hartford Areas Rally Together
Menatian, Mike
Hartford Areas Rally Together
Perez, Eddie
ONE/CHANE
Michael Gorzoch's Trainees
Whom have you developed or trained as an organizer? (Please list people who have stayed in the field or a related field for at least three years.)
Person
Organization
Lockwood, Laura
CWELF
Michael Gorzoch's Coachees
Who did you mentor, coach, or consult with you in your organizing career? (Please list people who have stayed in the field or a related field for at least 3 years.)
