Gamaliel Foundation facts for kids

The Gamaliel Foundation helps groups of people, often from churches, work together to make their communities better. They teach leaders and create plans to solve big problems. By 2013, Gamaliel had 45 groups in 17 U.S. states, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. They said they represented over a million people.

How Gamaliel Started

The Gamaliel Foundation started in Chicago in 1968. It helped a group called the Contract Buyers League. This group worked to help African-American families buy homes in Chicago's West Side.

In 1986, Gregory Galluzzo became the executive director. He changed Gamaliel's focus to community organizing. This means helping people in a community work together for change. Gamaliel's main goal is to train and develop leaders. They want to help local leaders create strong, independent groups. These groups can then influence important decisions. These decisions might be about politics or money in their cities and regions.

The name "Gamaliel" comes from a wise man in the Bible. He taught St. Paul. A famous organizer named Saul Alinsky thought Gamaliel was the first great community organizer.

Gamaliel Foundation follows the ideas of Saul Alinsky. He began his organizing work in Chicago in 1939. After Alinsky passed away in 1972, his organization, the Industrial Areas Foundation, changed its focus. It started to focus on training leaders from churches. Gamaliel has followed a similar path. Gregory Galluzzo was a former Roman Catholic priest. He learned about community organizing in Chicago in the 1970s.

How Gamaliel is Run

Gamaliel has a board of directors with 15 members. This board makes the main decisions for the organization. It sets the rules and watches over how things are managed. The board also gets advice from different groups. These include the National Clergy Caucus and the African American Leadership Commission.

Gamaliel has a small staff, about 20 people in 2008. They also get help from interns and consultants. For example, Barack Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago from 1985 to 1988. During that time, he also worked as a consultant and trainer for the Gamaliel Foundation.

Gamaliel has five regional directors. They cover different parts of the United States. These are the Eastern, Mideastern, Midwestern, Southern, and Western regions. The groups that work with Gamaliel are separate. They raise their own money and hire their own organizers. Ana Garcia Ashley became the executive director of Gamaliel in January 2011.

What Gamaliel Does Now

Gamaliel has changed its focus. It now works more with larger groups that can influence whole cities and regions. Gamaliel is creating plans to impact national policies. These policies include things like immigration reform and health care for everyone. They also work on jobs, affordable housing, and fair public transportation.

The Transportation Equity Network (TEN) is a project by Gamaliel. So far, Gamaliel has mainly focused on big cities. These include Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. Gamaliel's long-term plan is to build an organization in every major U.S. city. They want to do this in the next ten years. This goal includes raising money and hiring 200 professional organizers.

Training Programs

Gamaliel offers national leadership trainings three times a year in the U.S. They also hold one training a year in South Africa. There is also a three-day advanced training each year. This is for leaders who have completed the longer national training. A special three-day training is offered for church pastors. Every December, Gamaliel holds a three-day retreat for all the organizers in its network.

Gamaliel also offers many shorter trainings. These can be half-day, full-day, or weekend sessions for local communities. Ntosake is a special year-long program for women. It helps women develop their leadership skills and feel more powerful.

Gamaliel trainings cover many important topics. They discuss "the world as it is" compared to "the world as it should be." They teach how to get involved in public life. They also cover how to organize groups based in churches. Other topics include understanding power, self-interest, and how "one-on-one" meetings help build an organization. They also teach about working across big city areas and how to keep an organization strong.