Unique Master's in Community Organizing

Master's in Community Organizing with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and AUSM

Learn the theory and practice of community organizing from teachers and mentors who spent a life time at it. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee master's degree in community organizing is a unique collaborative partnership with the Autonomous University of Social Movements (AUSM). Based in the Centro Autónomo in Chicago, the program offers the only master degree in community organizing in the country. Students combine discussion-based academic classes with hands on experience and regular mentoring from experienced community organizers.

Classes include:

• Popular education theory and practice, grounded in the work of Paulo Freire and Antonio Gramsci
• An in-depth look at community organizing models, including autonomous, Alinsky-style, faith-based, identity-based, labor, and cultural organizing
• Issues in community organizing, including race/gender/class dynamics, cross-cultural communication, leadership, and challenges facing immigrant communities
• Issues in urban organizing, including social and political geography, police, public education, and public health
• Political analysis, including power analysis, anti-capitalist perspectives, local power structures, and political parties

Each student designs and implements a community practicum, which might include:

• Working with women's cooperatives dedicated to food preparation, cleaning services or day care
• Developing community responses to police harassment, sub-par public education, foreclosure and eviction, wage theft, or the lack of cultural outlets for youth
• Developing popular education curriculum for teaching ESL or bilingual adult high school classes
• Defending homeowners facing foreclosure and tenants facing eviction

For more information call (773) 583-7728 or email ausm [at] mexicosolidarity [dot] org