SRDI partners through facilitation, training, coaching, data, and connection (to peers and national resources) to develop and strengthen anchor organizations in local communities that support multi-county grassroots efforts.

Why a Grassroots Support Strategy?

SRDI believes that the long-term health of the rural South depends upon people in marginalized communities coming together to develop grassroots structures that give them the individual and collective power to improve local communities, develop grassroots economies, address issues of oppression, and influence mainstream policies and systems.

It is critical that grassroots leaders are empowered with knowledge, skill, organized constituencies, financial resources, and organizational capacity – a system of support.

What is Grassroots Support Organizing?

Grassroots Support Organizing is a strategic effort to strengthen a region’s grassroots sector: the web of community-based leaders, groups, and networks working for racial and economic justice across that region. This organizing model is carried out by Grassroots Support Organizations (GSOs) – locally rooted organizations that work every day over the long haul to:

1. Build strong leaders and groups that get things done locally
   
2. Organize multi-county grassroots networks that can address issues related to systems and policy change
   
3. Connect grassroots efforts across race and class to mainstream resources, partners, and decision making bodies
   

It is our belief that local Grassroots Support Organizations doing the daily work – not outside experts – know best how to impact their communities, their organizations, and themselves.

SRDI works to strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of grassroots support organizing efforts that respect, honor, and preserve local culture, heritage, and the natural environment while simultaneously working to resolve the crippling legacy of racism and other oppressions in the rural South. Specifically, we are working to deepen the impact of rural grassroots support organizing efforts that increase income, assets, and racial equity for marginalized populations.

Grassroots Support Organizing Strategies

1. Strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of anchor Grassroots Support Organizations [Click here to learn more]
2. Develop authentic relationships among rural Grassroots Support Organizations [Click here to learn more]
3. Link grassroots support resources across multi-county regions to create an integrated “system of support” [Click here to learn more]
4. Increase financial sustainability of rural grassroots work
5. Promote grassroots policy and systems change [Click here to learn more]
6. Bridge grassroots efforts across race, class, and systems to mainstream resources, partners, and decision making bodies
7. Inform the national fields of community organizing and rural development

Grassroots Support Organizing Results

Results that directly touch the lives of people living in low-wealth communities will happen at three levels:

• Local communities
  More sustainable and effective grassroots leaders and groups work daily to improve a local community and help meet the needs of low-wealth people
• Multi-county regions
  Grassroots leaders and groups come together across 5 to 20 counties in a rural area to build the collective power needed to address multi-county issues related to policy and systems change
• The South
  Grassroots networks from across the South come together to build the collective power needed to address issues related to policy and systems change across the South