Bio & Books
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Collective VisioningHow We Can Work Together to Create a Just and Sustainable World Shows activists how to develop an inspiring vision of the future they want to create All of us want a future that’s promising and a way to get there. For decades, activists and community groups have worked to create equitable solutions. Why then are so many of us disappointed at the results? Organizers often fall short in creating groups in which people of all backgrounds feel comfortable speaking up. And while progressives are good at articulating what they’re against, they have a tougher time getting specific about what they’re for—creating a positive, energizing vision. Linda Stout, a lifelong agent of social justice, here introduces a process designed to ensure that all voices are heard, an inspiring vision of the future is agreed on, and an action plan is developed that leverages everyone’s diverse talents and abilities. Used successfully by over 120 organizations, it creates hope for change among those who’ve stopped believing change is possible. Stout lays out the extensive and innovative pre-work that must be done to build trust and openness before any kind of meeting is held—a distinctive feature of collective visioning. She describes a variety of creative approaches for encouraging people to share their histories and most deeply held personal values. She shows that knowing how and why each person is drawn to the work makes it easier to design action strategies that build on everyone’s respective strengths. Stout illustrates her points with inspiring stories of what collective vision can accomplish, drawn from her decades of committed activism. Filled with exercises and examples, Collective Visioning is a complete guide for leaders seeking to create inclusive movements that work from a place of hope to create a better, more just tomorrow.
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“This book is the next step to the work we did on visioning. You are taking the research we did and making it real and accessible. Thank you.”
- Elise Boulding, author of Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for an Interdependent World
“Linda’s book is urgently needed now. Many engage in visioning processes to identify hopes and dreams but lack the tools that can translate these into concrete action.”
- Susan Leslie, Director, Office for Congregational Advocacy & Witness, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
“Linda Stout takes her own place in that long tradition of women leaders – in the antislavery movement, the Populist movement, the labor movement. Her work forms a link between that history and the struggles to come in the twenty-first century.”
- Howard Zinn, author and historian
“Every page of Collective Visioning is full of Linda’s warm voice: telling stories, sharing powerful insights she learned the hard way, creating hope and calling us to action.”
- Susan Stinson, author
“Linda Stout is in a unique position for defining an inspiring new vision of community-based social change. I know of no other activist, leader or visionary who possesses such an all-encompassing and perceptive understanding.”
- Dr. Ron Miller, President, New Visions Foundation
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Bridging The Class DivideBridging the Class Divide tells the inspiring story of Linda Stout’s life as the daughter of a tenant farmer, as a self-taught activist, and as a leader in the progressive movement. It also gives practical lessons on how to build real working relationships between people of different income levels, races, and genders.
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“With a wealth of wisdom, Linda Stout shows how to organize progressive movements that are genuinely inclusive.”
- The Reverend William Sloane Coffin
“This is a voice to listen to—how to bring people together to create a decent society.”
- Howard Zinn, from the Foreword
“Linda Stout’s memorable life has been one of challenges. She’s suffered the fates, encountered troubles and defeated them. In short, her life has been devoted to a world of grace, peace and beauty.”
- Studs Terkel, author & radio broadcaster
“This is a moving personal story that shows how ordinary people can make a difference. Told in simple language, the story has profound insight into the way social class limits opportunities of working class people and how social class prejudice hurts. There are many practical insights about how people can organize effectively to make a better world.”
- Amazon Reader Review
“Bridging the Class Divide is one of the best books in the world on organizing for social change. By telling her own story, Linda Stout makes it clear what the obstacles are for low-income people to work for a better world, and what the obstacles are for forming mixed-class coalitions, and how those obstacles can be overcome.
This is not just my own individual opinion. I assigned this book as one of 8 books in a graduate course for environmental advocates, and at the end of the course I asked the students what learnings they would carry with them into their working life the most, and 7 out of 11 students named Linda Stout’s key points.”
- Betsy Leondar-Wright, Amazon Reader Review
“Activists will find this book invaluable. Rev. William Sloan Coffin said it all: ‘Class may well prove a nut even tougher to crack than racism. With a wealth of wisdom, Linda Stout shows how to organize progressive movements that are genuinely inclusive. Grassroots organizers especially will be in her debt, which is where I have happily been for years.’”
- Lynn Holbein, Amazon Reader Review
Linda Stout grew up poor in North Carolina. Her father was a tenant farmer, later factory worker, and her mother worked in the textile mills until she became disabled when Linda was five. Growing up in poverty, and being 13th generation Quaker, Linda wanted to make her community better but thought the only way to do that was through prayer and making small changes. It was through the Quakers (Society of Friends) that she first became politicized and understood organizing for change.