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State Voices Women of Color Cohort

From September to December, re:power facilitated a 9-week Women of Color Leadership Development Cohort for a group of 20 staff from across State Voices’ network, who hold roles ranging from Communications Associate to Organizing Director to Development Manager. The State Voices network now has more women of color staff than ever before and this program is focused on investing in their leadership and growth. 

We deepened our connection to State Voices after one of their staff participated in our February 2023 public cohort and recommended the program to the State Voices network. This participant stated:

“The content shared and worked through was unexpected but so needed—I love how you all connect everyday things that we often use for coping mechanisms as a way to harness our leadership and feel more connected to our inner selves. Thank y’all ❤️ “

State Voices participants from the Winter 2023 Cohort were enlightened and refreshed from their recent cohort experience. Many stated this opportunity helped them connect on a deeper level with other State Voices staff which enhances the work they do across the State Voices table.

“Thank you for the opportunity to be in this space and to heal. We as women of color do need to heal ourselves before we can heal the community.”

WoC – State Voices cohort member

Our WOC Cohort Alum are ambassadors for re:power and they stay connected to re:power by attending additional trainings, becoming facilitators for the cohort, and facilitating opportunities for re:power to partner with other organizations.

We look forward to seeing how our growing base of WoC alumni will continue engaging with us and championing our work in the future!

“This is magical and it works.”

WoC – State Voices cohort member

American Federation of Teachers

What we love about this work is the opportunity to train leaders across different social movements. In August, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) partnered with us to train 25 staff members from the National Political Department in developing a national volunteer activists program, slated to launch in 2024.

The AFT is gearing up to mobilize and organize its members, everyday individuals, and students, ensuring the safeguarding of public education across school board, state, and federal elections in the next five years.

The training introduced state and national staff to a relational organizing approach that can complement their electoral mobilizing strategies and tactics for the 2024 campaign cycle. There was a primary focus throughout the training on how electoral organizing connects to year-round organizing and movement building.

The curriculum included:

  • Developing a Transformative and Winning Field Plan
  • Campaign Strategy Development
  • Base Building and Direct Voter Contact
  • Building a Volunteer Program and Ladder of Engagement
  • Internal Team Management/Building Healthy Campaign Culture
  • Campaign Messaging & Communications
  • Introduction to Digital Organizing and Finding Our People Online

Boston Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement

From May to August, we partnered with the Boston Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) to train 15 immigrant residents of the city in grassroots organizing, as part of their “Immigrants Lead Boston” (ILB) program. The ILB has run for the past 4 years as a civic education project, helping immigrant residents of Boston navigate local government, but was reimagined this year into a unique collaboration with re:power.

Working closely with the Executive Director of MOIA, Monique Tú Nguyen, the Movement Building team rebuilt the program from scratch to focus on community organizing skills—helping the cohort learn how to share stories, build relationships, build teams and strategy, and take action alongside their communities.

re:power Director of Movement Building Programs Conrado Santos speaks at the ILB graduation ceremony. Photo courtesy of City of Boston Mayor’s Office.

The program was a success and concluded with a beautiful in-person graduation ceremony at Boston City Hall, where participants were granted certificates by Mayor Michelle Wu. Our team is also in early conversations about potential new avenues for continuing the partnership, including training graduates on how to lead sessions in their native languages, expanding the program, and more!

ILB graduation ceremony. Photo courtesy of City of Boston Mayor’s Office.
Fresh graduates of the ILB program. Photo courtesy of City of Boston Mayor’s Office.

Inatai Foundation

In August, we partnered with the Inatai Foundation to conduct a two-day candidate training for 29 of their staff in conjunction with partners from the Empire Health Foundation. While some of the staff expressed interest in pursuing public office, the primary goal of the training was to enhance their understanding of power. This knowledge aims to enable them to allocate their funding more strategically, supporting grantees dedicated to building long-term power through the electoral arena.

The training served as an opportunity for our team to update our curriculum, which has been in use since the Wellstone and New Organizing Institute era. We integrated modern updates that directly address the lived experiences of our participants and the current political landscape and pandemic challenges we are all navigating.

“I really enjoyed the training and it was structured in a way where I felt like I learned content and had the chance to practice what I learned and I know this will help me retain all the information. I found it especially helpful that all the trainers pushed the folks in the training to use critical thinking / scenario mapping as it helped me absorb and practice applying the information. I’d love to participate in future trainings from this group if possible!”

Inatai Foundation training participant

Throughout the training, participants immediately applied their newly acquired skills by engaging in a mock scenario. They were organized into teams to manage a fictional candidate campaign and present their campaign field plan, showcasing their learning on various topics covered.

Incorporating new facilitation techniques and methods, we aimed to inject dynamism and spaciousness into the training environment. This involved eliminating a strictly time-bound agenda and integrating team-building activities and icebreakers. These additions helped alleviate the intensity and information overload experienced throughout the day.

“Just a really well-prepped and high quality training. You all were able to take really big concepts and make them digestible to the group. So appreciative of everything you all did. I continue to hear nothing but excellent feedback from colleagues about the training. Not only has it increased folks’ understanding and knowledge of campaign planning, but it has also spurred folks to action.”

Inatai Foundation training participant

Summer Round-up: Program Trainings & Partnerships!

It’s been a busy summer filled with important partnership trainings aimed at preparing our folks for the battles ahead, including the 2022 midterms. Here are some highlights from some of our recent partnerships!

Four Freedoms Fund

In June, we launched a twelve-week integrated voter engagement cohort for Four Freedoms Fund to train their immigrant-rights based grantees on campaign management. There were 20–25 BIPOC participants at any given time representing different organizations within the FFF grantee ecosystem, such as Mi Familia Vota, LCF Georgia, Nebraska Appleseed, North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT), and La Union Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE). Many of these organizations were representing the local immigrants rights fight taking place in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Nebraska, and Arizona to name a few. 

re:power Fund staff and trainers supported the leadership of many new organizers on utilizing platforms like VAN, introduction to digital organizing, how to base build alongside direct voter contact, identifying tactics, creating an effective and winning field plan, and even managing up as a middle manager. The cohort really leaned into bi-weekly coaching sessions held by re:power trainers and felt supported throughout the time in the program.

Here are a few reflections from participants:

“The coaches are clear and helpful in explanations. They lead and not tell.”

“Direct Voter Contact training was definitely the most useful since it was tailored specifically to our org.”

“It was nice to be directly asked the question and have my coach to talk it through with. I got some good feedback with good follow up questions.”

“I needed basic campaign ideas, tips and tricks and Victoria definitely provided! Things simply like ‘how many times does someone need to see your messaging’ during a campaign.”

Highlights: 

  • Deeper understanding in creating field and campaign plans as well as cutting turf.
  • Participants appreciated authentic in the field experiences of the coaches.
  • Re:Power coaches helped orgs create strategic and targeted universes for C3 plans.

Run For Something

Throughout the month of September, we partnered with Run for Something Action (RFSA) to launch a County Clerk candidate campaign management program for eight candidates in Denver and Texas who are in the midst of active campaigns to seek the role of County Clerk, also known as Election Administrators, during this year’s midterm elections in November. RFSA recruits and supports young, diverse progressives to run for down-ballot races in order to build sustainable power for Democrats in all 50 states. RFS aims to lower the barriers of entry for these candidates by helping them with behind-the-scenes mechanics, tactical and strategic support, advice, mentorship, access to training, and everything in between.

RFSA sought out a partnership with us to train their Democracy Defenders candidates on effective campaign management, digital security, VAN, and fundraising. We held four weekly sessions with eight weeks of coaching hours to support the candidacy of this important role throughout local democracies. At re:power, we understand the importance in this political moment to protect the integrity of elections at all levels of government following the failed insurrection of 2021 and the Big Lie campaign led by the extremist Right. We supported the campaign management learnings of 8 county clerk candidates in Colorado and Texas.

Here are a few takeaways from the program: 

“Kemi made the information accessible to me. The links were helpful to test my phishing skills. I like the music ahead of time, it helps set the mood and gets some energy flowing before a two hour session.”

“There is so much I wish I had known when I raised my hand to be a candidate… Thank you for educating candidates in such a powerful way.”

“Following the fundraising training, one candidate pitched to the entire Zoom their fundraising messaging for their campaign and was able to raise $100 from the call as practice!”

New Pennsylvania Project

The New Pennsylvania Project (NPP) is a voting rights organization founded in 2021 to expand Pennsylvania’s electorate so it reflects the Commonwealth’s demographically changing population. NPP is engaging and empowering young residents and those living in underrepresented and often neglected communities of color and immigrant communities to vote, providing education about the issues that matter in their neighborhoods and mobilizing the electorate to vote in every election—twice a year.

We partnered with the New PA Project and New PA Fund on a 3 month strategic planning process, culminating in a Board retreat. The process successfully laid the groundwork for launching the New Pennsylvania Project Fund and building  a shared vision of success for the New Pennsylvania Project moving toward 2024. 

New PA Project Board members and senior staff gave rave reviews for the retreat we facilitated. Some examples:

“Thank you SO much for your time, work and expertise in facilitating!”

“The shift to focus on more actionable items vs. getting through the agenda was helpful.”

“Willingness to be flexible and not have a rigid approach to getting through the agenda was excellent.”

Highlights

  • We field tested a new, more flexible model for strategic planning especially geared toward organizations and leaders who aren’t familiar with strategic planning, are in constant mobilization mode and are seeking to balance planning with action. We approached the planning process as an opportunity to learn and teach about the components of the process, had a flexible and collaborative process for prioritizing deliverables based on real time capacity and needs, and held regular working  sessions with a clear division of labor to meet our goals.  
  • We focused on shared vision and values as well as opportunities and challenges at the Board Retreat. This helped create a sense of unity and purpose and inspired Board members about the work ahead. 

State Courts On the Power Map—Ohio Launch

Partners: Ohio Organizing Collaborative, Lead Ohio, Buckeye Institute for Justice 

The launch of our pilot project to train state leaders and organizations to navigate the state courts as key decision-makers on the issues we’re fighting for. This was a 3-part series, beginning with a state launch for organizational leaders in July, followed by a 2-part training series in September geared to community members and organizers, to provide context on the important role of state courts and deliver training focused on moving people to action. 

Anchor organizations included Ohio Organizing Collaborative, and Lead Ohio Fund, and participants came from multi-racial constituencies, including Faith leaders, students, voting rights organizers, criminal justice organizers, electoral campaigners, and aspiring candidates.

The curriculum is a first of its kind: geared toward BIPOC participants, particularly women and non-binary folks; focused on navigating a new and critical organizing arena–state courts. It was co-created and co-facilitated by re:power and Ohio leaders in a collaborative process that elevates the expertise and knowledge of folks on the ground while also providing the national context, strategy and training re:power Fund brings to the table. 

The curriculum addresses a critical need for BIPOC organizations and leaders to learn more about this organizing arena, as decisions about our bodily sovereignty, right to vote and other key issues increasingly move to the state courts—and in many states, judges are up for election in November.

Highlights

  • Great participation in all three events, with 75 organizational leaders at the launch, 60 folks at the first training and 40+ at the second.
  • We exceeded our goal for recruitment of our first SCPM  training team, drawing seven WOC from all over the country from a range of backgrounds,  including organizing in and around the courts—and the training team had a great first experience leading the trainings.

Future Coalition

Throughout 2021, re:power partnered with Future Coalition to train nearly 1000 participants across 7 unique training series geared toward developing new youth organizers in the fight for climate justice. This was one of the most ambitious training operations re:power has ever undertaken and likely one of the largest comprehensive training series held for youth climate justice organizers. 

Future Coalition is a national network for youth-led organizations and youth organizers across the country. With a focus on supporting BIPOC young people, queer young people, and young people on the frontlines, Future Coalition works collaboratively to provide youth-led groups with the resources, tools, and support they need to create transformative change in our communities and in this country. During our partnership,  they spent the year building new campaigns opportunities for youth to hold fossil fuel financiers accountable for their role in contributing to climate chaos – and we were so excited to be a part of it.

Here’s some more information about what re:power and Future Coalition did together:

Trainings Held

Re:power developed and designed 7 unique training series in partnership with Future Coalition. These included:

  • Pilot Grassroots Organizing
  • Grassroots Organizing 
  • Facilitators’ Training
  • Action Design Training 
  • Recruitment Training 
  • Action Safety & Police Liaison Training
  • Political Education Series 

Future Coalition was intentional in working with re:power to design a training series that would build upon itself and allow them to not only develop new organizers but also new trainers.  All of this work was part of building their Youth Climate Finance Alliance to organize big banks to stop funding the Fossil Fuel industry.

Wins

40 on-the-ground actions demanding a Fossil Free Future including:

  • 21 youth-led actions targeting Chase Banks;
  • 11 Federal Reserve actions;
  • 2 BlackRock actions;
  • 2 university divestment actions;
  • 1 Vanguard action; 
  • 2 solidarity actions; and
  • Secured meeting with Chase executives
  • In addition to on-the-ground actions, digital campaigning resulted in 113 phone calls and 1,775 emails to Chase executives demanding a Fossil Free Future.

Learnings

In working with a youth-led organization, there were significant lessons learned for each entity: 

  1. Move more slowly—urgency is important, but does not sustain people in the long fight. 
  2. Be ambitious! Future Coalition is a youth-led movement that does not put unnecessary barriers on their ambition. It was a great reminder for many of us who have done this work for a long time.
  3. Utilize a people-centered approach—the people are what truly matter in this work. Invest in the people first. 

What’s next

With the learnings and trainings from re:power, the Youth Climate Finance Alliance is entering their first ever shareholder season, where young people across the country will be calling on Shareholders to tell fossil fuel financiers to put an end to fossil financing.

Future Coalition is continuing to rapidly expand, opening its doors to even more youth movement support opportunities, coaching, resourcing and incubating of youth organizations. We are excited to watch them grow and continue to support!

This work was led by Conrado Ferreira dos Santos, re:power’s Director, Movement Building Programs.