Grassroots Involvement Quotes

For me, policy is best when connected to the roots, and roots are best when connected to policy. So I encourage you all to stay connected...and walk with real people while doing the activism. Lord knows we need folks who are engaged.

If we want any significant development, we must co-opt civil society.

It's important for me to go back into the ghetto, where I'm from. I still get my oxygen from there. I don't live in the ghetto but every time I go back, I'm seeing the same things that I lived. That's one of the things I mean when I say, "My feet back onto the ground."

I believe that when it comes to the creation of Sankalp Patra, India in its history has never seen such participation of people.

I probably hold more town halls than any member of Congress.

The CDU is a party with more than 400,000 members. The fact that each one has a different opinion is what makes us interesting.

One of the great crimes of the Bloomberg/Klein administration [in New York City] is that they've removed themselves from communities, as if communities have nothing to say about what their needs and aspirations are for themselves and for their children.

Maximum Feasible Participation of the Poor

The membership survey was a great moment for inner-party democracy. We can't go back, nor do we want to. Our members are pouring their hearts into this campaign. But people don't join the Social Democrats party just to put up posters. They join because they want to help steer the party.

Speaker Boehner has said many times that the House of Representatives is the closest institution to the people, and he recognizes that by empowering the members to have direct input into the process.

It's not enough to raise awareness. You have to give people solutions, and you have to invite them to get involved in whatever way they can, whether that's doing volunteer work or taking a portion of their salary and figuring out where they want that money to go. You have to find ways to inspire people to get involved.

I get out in the 'hoods. I want to go to the worst, the grimiest places. That's where I want to be. Those are usually the kids or the communities that kind of get left behind or forgotten about. I feel like I was in that situation at one point. That's where my mindset is and that's what I stand for.

It was a democracy in the truest and most frustrating and most rewarding sense of the word. Anybody could come in and say, "You know, I'm just not cool with that." We'd be like, "Who's that?" "Oh, I was just cleaning the trailers." It was nuts.

We are a grassroots party. We always have been. That's been the strength of the GOP.

I believe my role as mayor is to be out in the community and as much as possible, I want my team out in the community.

I want to see far more decisions taken far closer to the patients, the passengers and the pupils. Far more power for locally and regionally elected politicians who understand best the needs of their areas. And far more say too for the dedicated staff at all levels in health and education.

I've found that when you roll up your sleeves and join people in their daily work, they tend to open up quite a bit and let you know what they really think about the issues facing our country and what kind of job they think the government is doing.

I very much believe in values-based leadership, and that the values that I believe in and try to govern by are transcendent values. They have nothing to do with race or even with political parties. Secondly, I think nothing substitutes for the power of the grassroots by showing them the courtesy of going to them where they are and inviting them to take part in the political process.

Learn from the people. Plan with the people. Begin with what they have. Build on what they know.

I want to see the church get closer to the people. I want to get rid of clericalism, the mundane, this closing ourselves off within ourselves, in our parishes, schools or structures. Because these need to get out!

High level policy makers and program managers do not normally listen to the voices of local people, local providers and local program managers when they make decisions about contraceptive introduction or other aspects of program development in reproductive health.

If you push down that pyramid of power and spread out the base, every member gets a chance to file their bill and have it heard and file their amendment and have it heard, as opposed to the system that we have now, which closes out, closes down bills, limits debate, and so forth.

I have had the opportunity to speak to the people of South Jersey. I have held Tele-Town Halls, gone to countless events, and met with thousands of the individuals who make up our community.

So, for me the town hall meetings are really an opportunity to engage in two-way dialogue with people, and they've been very helpful.

I make it a point to go home every weekend so I can meet with Georgians and hear from them directly.