Americorps*VISTA Training:
Community Organizing Part 2: One
to Ones
Overview:
Why is community organizing an important component of the VISTA
year?
Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA members institutionalize
civic engagement on colleges and in communities in order to
alleviate poverty. Institutionalizing the goals of a VISTA work plan
requires a deep understanding of the community on the part of the
VISTA member. VISTA members must also procure commitments
from multiple community stakeholders to invest and continue the
work after the VISTA member’s term of service is over. One on
Ones are a way for VISTA members to understand the social and
institutional geography of a community and bring attention to and
gain support for the goals of their work plan.
Possible placements in year:
One on Ones can be used to train VISTA members how to approach
community members, and should be a part of pre-service orientations
as a follow-up workshop for Community Organizing Part 1.
NERCHE’s Swinging Doors workshop is an ideal follow-up
workshop to understand the nuances of building campus-community
partnerships after initial One to Ones have established a relationship
or program.
Learning objectives:
1. VISTA members will understand how meaningful and productive
one-to-one conversations can lead to a deeper understanding of
concerns, interest, and resources and commitments to specific
actions.
How do one-to-one conversations help your community organizing?
2. VISTA members will understand how to conduct a professional,
planned, and goal-oriented one-to-one conversation.
How do you have a meaningful and productive one-to-one
conversation?
Number/type of facilitators needed: 1-2
Maximum number of participants: No maximum limit, as long
as the space allows participants to break into pairs to practice a One
on One.
Possible outside facilitators:
This workshop was adapted from a Community Organizing
workshop developed and led by Marshall Gantz and the Harvard
Research Team for Sierra Club’s Leadership Development Project.
For more information on the original workshop, please contact
Marshall Gantz at Marshall_Ganz@ksg.harvard.edu.
Colleen Holohan
Training & Evaluation Coordinator
Massachusetts Promise Fellowship
617.373.5606 C.Holohan@neu.edu
Karly Ausiello
United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley
51 Sleeper Street Boston, MA 02210
617.624.8000
Preferred space:
 Can accommodate all participants in chairs, lecture style
 Can accommodate pair interviewing (may need additional
breakout rooms if primary space is small)
 Can accommodate a flipchart or white board
Materials:
 Prepared flipcharts or PowerPoint with key workshop
information, including all charts, graphs, etc.
 Flipchart or white board
 Markers
 Paper
 Pens
Handouts:
None
Prep work:
 Prepare additional/ more specific examples for each activity
that will connect to the VISTA members you are training
 Pre-divide VISTA members into one-to-one interview pairs,
if desired
Brief Outline/ Agenda:
(10 min) How do one-to-one conversations help your community
organizing?
1) Overview
(45 min) How do you have a meaningful and productive one-to-one
conversation?
1) Overview
2) Activity: One-to-One Dry Runs
(15 min) Reflection
1) Practice Run Self Assessment
2) Plus/Delta
Detailed Outline:
How do one-to-one conversations help your
community organizing?
1) OVERVIEW
Campus Compact VISTA members must understand the host
community and develop networks of trust and two-way
commitments with community leaders and stakeholders. One on
Ones are a way for VISTA members to enact the principles of
community organizing, assessing the community, building inclusive
support for the goals of the VISTA work plan, and developing
leadership to support the goals of the work plan after the VISTA
member’s year of service ends.
ASK the VISTA members where they’ve heard the phrases “one-onone conversation” or “one-on-one time” recently. Discuss what
having “one-on-one time” means in these situations, focusing on the
idea of these conversations beginning with a mutual understanding
that the conversation would be purposeful or for a specific end.
SHARE with the VISTA members the following definition of oneto-one conversations as they relate to community organizing.
Definition
One-to-One:
A purposeful conversation with an individual to learn
about their concerns, interest level, and resources.
Focused on getting commitments to specific actions.
Now share with the VISTA members the community organizing oneon-ones best practices:
One-to-One Best Practices
 Clear goal or focus to minimize chit-chat
 Planned meetings and questions

Professional, not personal or intimate, conversations
How do you have a meaningful and
productive one-to-one conversation?
1) OVERVIEW
SHARE with the VISTA members that they will be practicing
community organizing one-to-ones. Remind them that these one-toones are planned, professional conversations that focus on getting
commitments to specific actions.
SHARE with them the following list of potential questions for such
conversations on a flipchart and/or in a handout.
Potential Questions
 How long have you been involved in this issue?
 Why did you get involved?
 Who do you partner with?
 Who do you see as the big players? What do you think about
them?
 What would you like to see happen on this issue?
 What is possible? What should be possible?
 Would you be able to (insert commitment/action)?
 Could you give me the names of other people to talk to?
2) ACTIVITY: ONE-ON-ONE PRACTICE RUNS
ASK the VISTA members to break into pairs, or separate them into
pre-defined pairs.
Give all the VISTA members five minutes to develop a goal(s) for
their one-to-one (i.e. the commitment or action they’d like the other
person to make) and a list of questions they will ask to achieve that
goal. Remind them that these questions can be from the list of
potential questions, or of their own design based on whom they are
interviewing.
Have each VISTA member interview the other member in his or her
pair and then switch after 15 minutes.
Reflection
Have the VISTA members respond to the following questions, either
individually on a handout or more informally by volunteering
answers as a group.
Practice Run Self Assessment
Did I achieve my goal(s)?
If yes, which questions/responses were the most helpful in achieving
my goal?
If no, what could I have done differently?
Overall, what worked well? What would I change for next time?
Prompt: Think about type of questions, order of questions,
length of interview, tone, style, setting, etc.
Did the conversation feel planned, professional, and goal oriented?
How does that make the conversation different that an impromptu
conversation about your interests?
Following this activity, discuss the process of the workshop itself.
Using a board or flipchart separated into two columns, one headed
with the sign “plus” the other, the sign “delta.”