Consensus Organizing Center History

Mike Eichler, founder of the Consensus Organizing Center and the Consensus Organizing Model began his career as a conflict organizer. It was not until the early 1980's when Eichler was contracted to work for a neighborhood called Perry Hilltop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that he began to ponder with the concept of Consensus Organizing. The community of Perry Hilltop was engaged in "blockbusting" which involved destabilizing the neighborhood and encouraging resident turnover by stirring up fears that the racial balance would change and property values would plummet. Eichler, who at the time was practicing conflict organizing, responded in traditional conflict organizing fashion and the community of Perry Hilltop was successful in their efforts, however the blockbusting continued. It was then that Eichler realized that conflict organizing led to short lived victories and did not have long-term effects. Eichler realized that if residents in a community wanted to make real lasting changes they would need a new and different approach to address the problem. It was then that the Consensus Organizing Model was born. This new approach involved: communities developing their own agendas and taking complicated, creative, and beneficial actions on their own behalf as well as obtaining resources from parties who had an interest in the future of the community.

Following the success of Consensus Organizing in Perry Hilltop, Eichler was contracted by a new project in the Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania which had been deteriorated by the loss of employment due to the steel mills closing. Eichler applied the Consensus Organizing Model by communicating with community members as well as powerful owners of the steel industry to develop a strategy. He then trained community organizers in the Mon Valley to organize residents along with business partners. As a result of this effort, the Mon Valley Initiative was formed, a non-profit community and economic development coalition of 12 community development corporations.

At the completion of Eichler's work with the Mon Valley, the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), a national non-profit agency that provides grants, loans and equity investments to Community Development Corporations for neighborhood redevelopment, contacted Eichler. The LISC was interested in applying the Consensus Organizing Model to build capacity in local community development corporations by duplicating the model in other cities across the United States using a development team of community organizers. The main objective of applying the model to other cities was to give residents of lower income neighborhoods a meaningful opportunity to address and measurably improve conditions within their communities. In order to do so Eichler hired, trained and supervised talented individuals who took charge of Consensus Organizing efforts at several of the sites. The consensus organizing model went on to be successfully applied in six urban areas: Little Rock, Arkansas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Palm Beach County, Florida; Houston, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Interest in the Consensus Organizing Model grew after the success of the LISC projects. Entrepreneurial individuals from cities and towns across the nation, representing organizations addressing the gamut of economics and social issues, heard about the model and began to reflect how consensus organizing could position people to solve problems and make lasting changes in their communities.

At the same time, the model itself was still evolving. The model was originally devised to respond to conditions in a single neighborhood in Pittsburgh. The model was then refined and tested in the Mon Valley, and further developed with the help of LISC development teams. Each venture in Consensus Organizing reflected the trials and lessons of the earlier efforts, which enhanced the model's applicability in new settings and with new issues.

In the fall of 1994, Mike Eichler and his LISC development team colleagues decided that the time had come to create an institutional home for Consensus Organizing. They envisioned an organization that would dedicate itself to developing the Consensus Organizing Model and realize its potential for enhancing people's lives and improving their communities. The new organization, to be known as the Consensus Organizing Institute, would practice and teach Consensus Organizing in diverse settings across the nation and would advise local organizations about how they could help address issues and solve problems using Consensus Organizing techniques.

After directing COI for five years, Eichler felt that the method of Consensus Organizing needed to be institutionalized. He identified the need to develop formal curriculum and additional writings so that the model could have more influence within the organizing profession. Eichler began looking into universities that might be interested in developing Consensus Organizing courses, recruiting students and building career paths for generations of college students. Eichler was awarded a grant from the Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee Wisconsin to evaluate the School of Social Work departments. Eichler was to determine the level of training provided to students on Community Organizing. During this time he discussed the possibility of enhancing the departments with courses to include community organizing. Eichler explored potential university partners and developed competition.

San Diego State University was chosen among a number of competing schools because of its' diverse student body, positive reputation in San Diego 's neighborhoods and commitment from its' leadership including President Stephen Weber. SDSU has over 33,000 students, reasonable tuition and a well respected School of Social Work. In addition, the University has a strong commitment to support community based learning by linking the campus with the community as well as practice with theory. A component of the University's vision is to develop partnerships between community organizations and faculty, thereby providing off-campus learning opportunities for students.