The Organizing Moment

Reflections from our Practitioner Networks

Authors

  • Lara Rusch University of Michigan - Dearborn
  • Tobias Meier Koblenz University of Applied Sciences
  • Tessza Udvarhelyi Közélet Iskolája/School of Public Life
  • Alberto Velázquez COFOA
  • Elouise Z. Sirleaf Michigan United
  • Sami Atris Organizing Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.71057/4qz23w07

Keywords:

organizing praxis, organizing profession, reflection

Abstract

In preparation for Issue 2, the Journal’s editorial board reached out to its network of organizers to invite short statements on their current work. We asked that these reflections address the guiding questions for this issue, including how their work intersects with  social movements, unions or electoral politics, their experiences of working in and against authoritarianism, and their efforts to defend or promote democracy. The following statements from colleagues across three continents offer insights from diverse organizing networks and roles: an organizer turned local official in Hungary; a director of Faith in Action affiliates for Central America; an immigration organizer for the African diaspora in Detroit, and a lead organizer for Berlin, representing one of the largest German organizing networks.

Author Biographies

  • Tessza Udvarhelyi, Közélet Iskolája/School of Public Life

    Tessza is a member of the Hungarian housing movement, co-founder of the housing advocacy group The City is for All, and worked in Józsefváros as a community organizer between 2009 and 2019. Udvarhelyi served as campaign chief for three local electoral campaigns and founded the country’s first municipal Office of Community Participation in 2020. She currently works as the Deputy Mayor of the district, responsible for social policy and community relations. 

  • Alberto Velázquez, COFOA

    Alberto Velázquez is the Executive Director of Comunidades de Fe Organizadas en Acción (COFOA) in Central America. COFOA is a democratic, faith-based social change movement with more than 170 grassroots leadership teams across rural and urban communities in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Through community organizing, COFOA leaders have secured tens of millions of dollars in investment in water and sanitation systems, electricity, paved roads and bridges, schools, and clinics in their communities, and won land rights for more than 60,000 families in El Salvador. COFOA was founded in 2007, in partnership with the Central American Catholic Bishops, and operates as an affiliate of Faith in Action International.

    Previously Mr. Velazquez was Executive Director of North Valley Sponsoring Committee, PICO’s affiliate that serves seven Central/Northern California counties.  He studied at the School of Philosophy at the University of Nuevo Leon, Mexico in 1973.  After working in building industries in Sacramento, he became a PICO leader through St. Joseph’s Parish as part of a campaign to fight for the rights of low income Sacramento residents in the 1990’s. Alberto subsequently led a campaign in the Sacramento organization involving more than 5000 immigrant leaders in a fight for their rights, and resulting in the strongest increase in citizenship among immigrants in the region. As a result, Mr. Velazquez was awarded the national community leadership award by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco, CA.

  • Elouise Z. Sirleaf, Michigan United

    Elouise Sirleaf holds a Masters degree in Dispute Resolution and is an Immigrant Rights Organizer for Michigan United, a statewide power-building organization working “to reform our broken immigration system, protect our environment and end mass incarceration.” Elouise is a proud mother of 3, sister of 6 (one deceased), a Baptist, and loves cooking and exercising in Detroit.

  • Sami Atris, Organizing Germany

    Sami Atris has been an organizer for Organizing Germany since 2019. He holds a Bachelor in Aeronautics and Astronautics and started as a lay leader in his Shia mosque in Berlin. He is now Lead Organizer for the Berlin region.

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Published

2026-02-13

Issue

No. 2 (2026): Community Organizing and Democratic Visions

Section

Opening

How to Cite

The Organizing Moment: Reflections from our Practitioner Networks. (2026). Community Organizing Journal, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.71057/4qz23w07