julierawson | Community Organizer Genealogy Project

Julie Rawson

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Work History

Start Year	End Year	Organization	Position
1972	1975	Northwest Community Organization	Lead Organizer Organizer
1975	1976	Ecumenical Social Action Committee	Lead Organizer
1976	1977	Dorchester Community Action Council/Dorchester Fair Share	Organizer
1977	1981	Somerville United Neighborhoods	Coach / Consultant
1984		Northeast Organic Farming Association	Board Member Director Lead Organizer Organizer

Organizer Profile

What brought you into the work?:

I went on a Methodist Church University of Iowa trip to the Northwest Community Organization in the spring of 1972. I realized at that moment that I was a community organizer, and had been one all my life, but didn't know there was a name for it. I quit school and went to work for NCO. I have not stopped organizing and consulting ever since.

Share 3 lessons you have learned through your work in organizing.:

As I look back, the most important thing I learned was about my self. As an organizer early in my career, I was all about helping people fight for their rights. I realize now that I was trying to deal through others with my own feelings of injustice in my life. I was good at the time, but when I became more self-aware, less judgmental and less black and white in my thinking (we used military terms in those days - troops, enemies)I was able to really get into my essence as an organizer of people.

Listening is the most important initial skill to bring to the craft.

Secondary and equally important is learning and crafting the skill of taking people's issues to a place of productive action - with them as participants.

Who has inspired you in your organizing?:

Don Elmer is the single most important trainer/mentor that I had. I still adore him to this day. He really helped my find my gifts and honor them.

Prior to becoming a professional organizer I was inspried by Martin Luther King, by Joan of Arc, by Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, by Cesar Chavez

Later I developed appreciation for Fidel Castro. Those are all big names. But truly the most insspiring peopel to me are the folks who are dedicated to community, in whatever fashion and with whatever issue they manifest it. The folks who look around themselves to include all others in their consciousness. I am most inspired by the nobodies who lay down their lives, or take immense risks to make life better for those around them - who have moved through their own needs and encompassed others in their sense of self.

What movements or political moments have most influenced your organizing career?:

Alinsky style community organizing
the organic farming movement
the Civil Rights movement
The various Central American freedom movements of the 80s

Share an accomplishment or list accomplishments from your career in organizing.:

I was one of those very early female Alinsky organizers in Chicago. Susie Sims was my mentor. I did good work while there, but I was so very young (19) and very wet behind the ears. I tried to infuse Chicago style organizing into Boston when I moved there in 1975 - the community organizing there was kind of tame.

I have had the most impact in my organizing life in the organic farming movement. I have been involved with the Northeast Organic Farming Association for 24 years. I am good at helping people find their way through their issues into appropriate action - to move from frustration to constructive and incisive action, while keeping integrity intact. I am good at cutting through the bullshit in a situation and helping others find their true gifts in order to move into effectiveness in their lives.

What are the barriers to successful community organizing in this country? How can we overcome these barriers?:

Fear is the greatest barrier to effective change. We need to lead with our own behavior - give people examples of passionate and compassionate activity. We need to take the daily risks to become larger than ourselves and fearlessly work for peace and justice.

Are you still in organizing? If not, in what other fields have you worked? What are you doing now?:

I am still an organizer, professionally with NOFA, in the community with music - choral and band, and recently on our organic farm with ex-offenders. I am truly excited about this new effort that my husband Jack Kittredge and I are taking on. The sky is the limit when you are having fun doing what you love to do. For me it is organizing, mothering (and now grandmothering), farming, and doing music, all in a wonderful overlapping way.

Genealogy

Visualize Julie Rawson's organizational relations

Julie Rawson's Trainers

Who developed and/or trained you as an organizer?

Person	Organization
Elmer, Don	Northwest Community Organization

Julie Rawson's Coaches

Who has mentored, coached, or consulted with you in your organizing career?

Person	Organization
Murray, Helen	Northwest Community Organization
Sims Maini, Susan	Northwest Community Organization
Trapp, Shel	Northwest Community Organization

Julie Rawson's Peers

Which of your peers influenced your development as an organizer?

Julie Rawson'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
Grosscup, Ben	Northeast Organic Farming Association

Julie Rawson'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.)

Person	Organization
Finfer, Lew	Somerville United Neighborhoods