POWER is committed to working with community members to cultivate a network of relationships with other non-profit organizations, childcare providers, schools, small businesses, and public and private institutions that serve as a vehicle for community improvement and involvement.

POWER organizers work directly with local community members to help them address community concerns and revitalize their neighborhoods. Organizers train community members that want to become more involved with directly improving their community and the lives of their families.

The composition of POWER leaders reflects the racial breakdown of the low-income West L.A. areas it works in, which is about 55% Latino, 35% African-American and 10% Caucasian. Among African-American, Caucasian and Latino POWER leaders, there is a shared commitment to the organization that is brought about by action and relationship building. POWER leaders are aware that true community improvement can only be reached by getting African-Americans, Caucasians and Latinos to work together. Therefore, POWER leaders are dedicated to relationship building that focuses not only on building individual relationships but uniting African-Americans, Caucasians and Latinos within the community.


Leadership Development Through Training and 1-on-1s

POWER organizers conduct leadership development training of top tier leaders and other organizational members that want to become more involved with directly improving their community and the lives of their families. POWER holds formal Leadership Development Training sessions on a core set of organizing techniques including:

1. The art of 1-on-1 meetings - learn how to build trust, develop relationships, and understand working within other people’s self-interest
2. Developing campaigns - learn how to conduct an organizing campaign
   1. 1-on-1s, door-knocking, call lists, house meetings
   2. Developing strategies and demands
   3. Taking action, public meetings
3. Strategic power analysis - learn how to identify targets and perform research
4. Dynamics of a public meeting - learn how to organize and conduct public meetings
5. The importance of evaluation - learn techniques for improving as leaders and how to conduct a debriefing
6. Life skills - practice skills critical to organizing campaigns and for holding people accountable, such as arriving on time, showing respect for others, individual and group preparation

Mentoring of secondary leaders happens on a more informal basis. The goals are different goals than the top tier leaders:

1. Through the 1-on-1 meeting process - organizers meet with secondary leaders to help them improve in their work and also guide them to think beyond the specific issue they are working on and to think about their community as a whole; essentially organizers try to develop secondary leaders into top tier leaders who will participate in a formal training
2. Through debriefing - after an action or large public meeting POWER secondary leaders debrief the action publicly with the campaign committees