Who is TMO?

About TMO Houston

The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) is an organization of institutions dedicated to developing power and leadership among citizens in order to transform the city. We work to create relational power that can build and strengthen each member institution as well as shape public policy for the common good. TMO was formed in 1980 to give a voice to people who are usually excluded from major decisions that affect their lives. TMO is a part of a larger network of organizations known as the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). The Industrial Areas Foundation is a nationwide organizing institute with a fifty year history. TMO believes that a truly democratic society requires the active participation of ordinary citizens. When people lack the means to connect to power and participate effectively in public life, social relationships disintegrate. Our model of relational organizing helps build real community. It generates social capital through a tight web of relationships across lines of race, ethnicity, class, faith, and geography. This social capital enables us to participate fully in public life and to become more effective actors in our communities.

TMO is:

• Broad-based, consisting of congregations and other institutions from across the region which represent the racial, religious, and economic diversity of the area.
 
• Values-based, involving women and men who are committed to acting on the call to social justice that is so central to many of our faith traditions.
 
• Non-partisan, never endorsing candidates or political parties, but embracing fully the art of politics—the discussion, debate and active participation necessary for persons to take collective action to reclaim their birthright as citizens in a democratic country.
 
• Dues-based, giving member institutions ownership over the organizing and the independence to act freely on their own interests.
 

How We Organize

We organize by building trusting relationships between institutions and people of diverse backgrounds and by training leaders to organize within their institutions and to create public relationships with local policymakers that help our member institutions speak and act for themselves for the common good of our local communities.

 

Organizing Process: Developing core organizing teams in member institutions who are trained to lead a listening campaign across their institution through individual meetings and house meetings.

 

• These meetings allow members to develop relationships, learn about the pressures facing families, identify leaders, and surface issues for potential action;

 

• Neighborhood Walks, help people to understand their neighborhood and surroundings;

 

• Research Actions, to develop the expertise around an issue to make action effective and meaningful;

 

• Action, bringing public pressure to bear on the people who have authority to make a difference;

 

• Evaluation, helping leaders learn from their experiences.

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