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Home > Archives for Movement Building

Movement Building

Post-Roe Series — Building State Power in These Times

August 9, 2022

Building State Power in These Times: Strategies to Defend & Expand Our Rights

With the battle to defend our rights shifting to the states, organizing strategies that win constitutional protections at the state level, strengthen and diversify state courts and build sustainable power for the long term are in the spotlight. Campaigns in Michigan and Ohio are leading the way by engaging voters in efforts to codify access to abortion in the Michigan state constitution and support candidates that stand for justice in the upcoming Ohio judicial elections.

Join re:power and special guests, Shanay Watson-Whittaker from Michigan Voices and Prentiss Haney with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, for a free webinar to learn more about opportunities, challenges, lessons and best practices to build power in the current political landscape.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • An overview of emerging strategies in the field to defend and expand our rights, focusing on the role of state constitutions and state courts
  • Real time case studies of Michigan’s ballot initiative campaign to codify access to abortion in the state constitution and Ohio’s strategy to engage voters in the upcoming judicial elections for State Supreme Court
  • Best practices and lessons learned about short and long term strategies to win on the November ballot and build sustainable power for the longer term
  • Resources to support navigating this arena as you think about the work moving forward in your state

Panelists

Prentiss Haney is Co-Executive Director of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. He is a veteran community organizer and strategist whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Guardian, MSNBC, PBS Newshour, and Blavity. In 2019, Prentiss stepped into leadership at the OOC after previously serving as the Executive Director of the Ohio Student Association.

Prentiss started organizing with Organizing for America, registering students and building campus teams across the state. He then joined the Ohio Student Association to continue building student power, serving in various capacities from training coordinator to regional team lead, communication director and more. Prentiss has trained hundreds of leaders in grassroots organizing, leading racial justice, criminal justice and higher education campaigns across the state.

In 2017, he co-founded the Midwest Culture Lab as an urgent political intervention needed to center and support young artists of color as trusted communicators, organizers and cultural strategists with the intent of increasing youth civic participation during elections. He is a 2018 graduate of Rockwood Leadership Institute and 2019 Transforming Justice Fellow with the Ohio Transformation Fund. 

Prentiss earned his B.A. in urban affairs at Wright State University. He currently lives in Cincinnati, OH.

Shanay Watson-Whittaker is the Deputy Campaign Manager of the Michigan Reproductive Freedom For All campaign. Also, Shanay is the Michigan Voices Director of Strategic Partnerships and the convenor of the Michigan Voices Reproductive Justice Workgroup. She’s a passionate Detroiter by way of the Bronx, NY. Shanay led political campaigns and worked at the Detroit Health Department, Detroit City Council, and the New York City Council. 

Early on, Shanay served multiple roles advocating for BIPOC people in politics. She served as the Chair of the Young Democrats of America Minority Caucus, Young Democrats of Michigan Minority Caucus, and the New York State Young Democrats Caucus of Color Chair. In Detroit, she helped run the NAACP Voters Registration project and the 14th District Democratic Party’s GOTV operations for four election cycles.  

Shanay raises six young adults and two grandsons with her husband, Ken Whittaker. Five of their children are in college, the youngest currently serving in the U.S. Navy. Shanay is a Jesuit-educated genealogy enthusiast, a die-hard New York Yankees fan, and a broken-hearted New York Knicks and Jets fan! She often quotes her political shero, Shirley Chisholm, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”

Sign up by Aug 24

Type Event
Category Movement Building
Cost Free
Dates Aug 24,
Location Online
Time
Wednesdays
6:00-7:30 pm ET
Sign up

Organizer Survey — Movement Briefing

August 5, 2022

Join re:power for our movement-wide briefing on the results of our 2022 Organizer Survey. The survey was developed in partnership with Analyst Institute to understand the challenges and needs of organizers, especially BIPOC organizers within our ecosystem. The results are in and we want to share them with all of you!

More about the Organizer Survey

Sign up by Aug 24

Type Event
Category Movement Building / Movement Technology
Cost Free
Dates Aug 24,
Location Online
Time
Wednesdays
6:00-7:30 pm ET
Sign up

Grassroots Fundraising

July 7, 2022

Overview

Fundraising and organizing go hand in hand. Just as there are people organizing themselves to take courageous acts of defiance, right next to them are people organizing resources to support those campaigns. Most times, the same organizers leading campaigns are the ones doing the fundraising, without fundraising training. Fundraising is seen as a necessary evil, but this is in part, due to the relationship we have with money and money with the violence of capitalism. Yet fundraising, if it is practiced within a framework of liberation, can ground us in community and sustain our movements for the long-haul.

re:power’s Grassroots Fundraising is a 4-session course curated to teach organizers the fundamentals of building fundraising campaigns. Participants will learn the skills necessary to recruit donors, maintain and develop donor relationships, and launch a fundraising campaign.

Who is this course for?

  • Folks tasked with raising funds for small and medium sized grassroots organizations, full time, part time, or part of their role’s responsibilities.
  • Folks who want to develop and deepen their organization’s relationship with grassroots donors to build more sustainable organizations.
  • Folks who want to develop grassroots fundraising skills to explore new career paths.
  • Folks who would like to hone any of the skills listed above

Ideal applicants come from all walks of life, though we are especially focusing on beginners who are passionate about their organizations and want to start their learning journey. Here are some attributes shared by all our applicants:

Relational & people-focused: Ideal participants are excited to build relationships, to invest in the leadership of others, and to continue telling stories to bring people together and move them towards action.

Organizing Insight: You don’t need to be a professional fundraiser, but we’re looking for applicants with experience doing grassroots work. We seek to support fundraisers who are currently part of an organization or seeking to build one.. 

Dedication to Inclusive Politics and Intersectional Solutions: At re:power, we center race, class, gender and sexuality across all our trainings — it’s part of our practice of inclusive politics. We want organizers to be open to new ideas regarding it and to the ideas and contributions from their fellow organizers who will reflect our diverse communities.

Course Expectations

This is an interactive course. We ask participants to write in the chat box, share verbally, and participate in breakout group discussion. We understand that folks have a lot going on though, so if you are not able to participate in a breakout discussion you can let the tech moderator know. We encourage, but do not require, participants to turn on video during breakout discussions.

Lesson Plan

Session 1: Evaluate the Soil

The first session of this fundraising series will be about identifying the feelings that arise while fundraising and exploring the role that class and money play in our fundraising journey.

Session 2: Planting the Seeds

In this session, participants will be equipped with the fundraising basics of “making the ask”, such as who to ask and how to ask for a gift. Participants will have the opportunity to practice making fundraising asks with each other.

Session 3: Watering Your Flowers

This third session follows the path after receiving your first gift. Participants will discuss best practices to cultivate and engage donors.

Session 4: A Strong Flower Bed

The last session of this series is a workshop on creating a strong fundraising plan. Participants will put together the skills they learned during the first three sessions and draft a fundraising plan.

Questions? Please contact us at grassroots@repower.org

Apply by July 29

Type Training
Category Movement Building
Cost Sliding scale* of $50–$200
Dates August 1 –August 29
Time 5:30-7:30 pm ET
Apply

*We believe people with more wealth, privilege, and access to money—and who benefit from systems of oppression—should pay more.

If you work at an organization with more than 60 employees, please ask your employer to cover the full cost of this training. If there’s anything that would help you make the request, please let us know.We know that this might be a new way of looking at things. Please reach out to grassroots@repower.org if you have any questions.

Additional Information

What’s the schedule? Can I come at different times each week?

We built this cohort with the busy schedules of activists in mind. Each week we will offer one unique session. We highly encourage you to participate in each session of the training series, as the material builds on the skills learned. Attending each session live provides the best opportunity to engage in the materials and discussion.

Ultimately we understand the complex lives of organizers and people during the time of COVID, and so each session will also be recorded and available afterwards.

How much time should I expect to spend on the course?

Participants should set aside about 4 hours a week for coursework—including attending live webinar sessions, homework, and biweekly office hours.

What equipment or software do I need to be able to attend the course?

You will need a technological device capable of connecting to the Internet. Windows machines, Macs and Unix boxes all welcome. We will be using Zoom and request that whenever possible, you turn on the video function.

Will we receive copies of the materials I saw in class?

Yes. Copies of the slides, handouts and other supplementary materials will be available to all trainees. We thank you in advance for your feedback.

I have a disability/ need support or an accommodation.

We are dedicated to supporting all of our trainees in their learning. If you need an accommodation or additional support of any kind, please email grassroots@repower.org with “Accommodation Request” in the subject line and we’ll do what we can.

Past requests for support have included, but were not limited to: early access to materials, different colored hand outs, an alternative method for completing quizzes, requesting facilitators speak directly into the camera and more.

Cultural Organizing & Digital Storytelling

June 10, 2022

About the course

Providing our communities with political education through organizing is one way to institutionalize justice. Culture and art is how we visualize the possibility of justice and liberation in our everyday lives. re:power is known for building trainings that give people and campaigns the tools they need to lead successful progressive campaigns. The purpose of this training is to expand re:power’s trainees’ capacity to use cultural organizing and digital storytelling to empower new leaders to spark social change within their communities. The goal of this pilot will be to test recruiting a community of artists, content creators, and organizers who already hold a progressive politic in order to collectively build radical narrative power. 

Our Lead Trainer, Amber J. Phillips, holds deep love and knowledge for telling stories and building community online, and is excited to share it with others in the community. We are especially interested in welcoming creative organizers who are interested in being both learners and contributors to the development of the curriculum.

Who is this course for?

  • Content creators:  If you consider yourself an artist , digital influencer, storyteller, and/or cultural organizer who doesn’t only enjoy taking in content online but wants to make content to add to the conversation– this training is for you.
  • Relational & people-focused: Participants will connect with a community of creators who are invested in making digital content that is entertaining, visually engaging, and calls people to take action and think deeper about different socio-political issues.
  • Changemakers: Lastly, this training is for the creator who sees the importance and has been moved by the power of digital storytelling and cultural creation.

Course Expectations

This is an interactive course. We ask participants to write in the chat box, share verbally, and participate in breakout group discussion. We understand that folks have a lot going on though, so if you are not able to participate in a breakout discussion you can let the tech moderator know. We encourage, but do not require, participants to turn on video during breakout discussions.

Questions? Please contact us at grassroots@repower.org

Additional Information

What do people do with their re:power grassroots organizing training?

re:power alumni have gone on to be national, regional and deputy data directors on presidential and national issue campaigns; engineers for grassroots organizations, non-profits, and tech companies; GIS and analytics directors for the White House and Federal Government; campaign managers, state directors, trainers and much more.

What’s the schedule? Can I come at different times each week?

We built this cohort with the busy schedules of activists in mind. There will be two unique session each week. We highly encourage you to participate in each session of the training series, as the material builds on the skills learned. Attending each session live provides the best opportunity to engage in the materials and discussion. Ultimately we understand the complex lives of organizers and people during the time of COVID, and so each session will also be recorded and available afterwards.

How much time should I expect to spend on the course?

Participants should set aside about 2–3 hours a week for coursework—including attending live webinar sessions, homework, and biweekly office hours.

What equipment or software do I need to be able to attend the course?

You will need a technological device capable of connecting to the Internet. Windows machines, Macs and Unix boxes all welcome. We will be using Zoom and request that whenever possible, you turn on the video function.

Will we receive copies of the materials I saw in class?

Yes. Copies of the slides, handouts and other supplementary materials will be available to all trainees. We thank you in advance for your feedback.

I have a disability/ need support or an accommodation.

We are dedicated to supporting all of our trainees in their learning. If you need an accommodation or additional support of any kind, please email grassroots@repower.org with “Accommodation Request” in the subject line and we’ll do what we can.

Past requests for support have included, but were not limited to: early access to materials, different colored hand outs, an alternative method for completing quizzes, requesting facilitators speak directly into the camera and more.

Grassroots Organizing: Storytelling Academy

June 10, 2022

About the course

Through narrative and storytelling, we–as individuals, communities and nations–can learn how to make choices in response to the challenges of the uncertain world we live in. Narrative is how we communicate our values through stories, bringing alive the motivation we need for changing the world. Because it engages the head and the heart, narrative can instruct and inspire, not only teaching us about why we should act but also moving us to take action.

In this course, participants will learn the public narrative framework and will develop stories about why they are called to leadership (“story of self”), how their values are connected to the collective values of their communities (“story of us”), and what challenges to our values demand urgent action (“story of now”). They will also learn how to effectively coach and support others in developing and sharing their stories.

Who is this course for?

  • Open to new things: Participants should be movement-focused people who want to learn a framework for organizing. We welcome folks who are totally new to organizing, or who  have been doing organizing for some time but don’t feel like they have a good structure for it. 
  • Relational & people-focused: Ideal participants are excited to build relationships, to invest in the leadership of others, and to build teams of purpose-driven leaders.
  • Involved in movement work: We seek to support organizers who are currently part of an organizing effort or are seeking to build one alongside others they know.

Ideal applicants come from all walks of life, from seasoned organizers and campaigners looking to sharpen their skills, to beginners who are passionate about organizing and want to start their learning journey. Here are some attributes shared by all our applicants:

Relational: We are interested in people who are curious and committed to working in collaboration with others. If you are interested in building power with your community, or in investigating innovative ways of bringing people together for social change, then you may be a good fit.

Organizing Insight: You don’t need to be a professional organizer but we’re looking for applicants with some experience doing organizing and/or community-building work on the ground. That work can be tied to grassroots, electoral, and/or issue organizing. We seek to support people who are currently part of an organizing/community-building effort or are seeking to develop one. 

Dedication to Inclusive Politics and Intersectional Solutions: At re:power, we center race, class, gender and sexuality across all our trainings – it’s part of our practice of inclusive politics. We want organizers to be open to new ideas regarding it and to the ideas and contributions from their fellow organizers who will reflect our diverse communities.

Course Expectations

This is an interactive course. We ask participants to write in the chat box, share verbally, and participate in breakout group discussion. We understand that folks have a lot going on though, so if you are not able to participate in a breakout discussion you can let the tech moderator know. We encourage, but do not require, participants to turn on video during breakout discussions.

Questions? Please contact us at grassroots@repower.org

Additional Information

What do people do with their re:power grassroots organizing training?

re:power alumni have gone on to be national, regional and deputy data directors on presidential and national issue campaigns; engineers for grassroots organizations, non-profits, and tech companies; GIS and analytics directors for the White House and Federal Government; campaign managers, state directors, trainers and much more.

What’s the schedule? Can I come at different times each week?

We built this cohort with the busy schedules of activists in mind. There will be one unique session each week. We highly encourage you to participate in each session of the training series, as the material builds on the skills learned. Attending each session live provides the best opportunity to engage in the materials and discussion. Ultimately we understand the complex lives of organizers and people during the time of COVID, and so each session will also be recorded and available afterwards.

How much time should I expect to spend on the course?

Participants should set aside about 2–3 hours a week for coursework—including attending live webinar sessions, homework, and biweekly office hours.

What equipment or software do I need to be able to attend the course?

You will need a technological device capable of connecting to the Internet. Windows machines, Macs and Unix boxes all welcome. We will be using Zoom and request that whenever possible, you turn on the video function.

Will we receive copies of the materials I saw in class?

Yes. Copies of the slides, handouts and other supplementary materials will be available to all trainees. We thank you in advance for your feedback.

I have a disability/ need support or an accommodation.

We are dedicated to supporting all of our trainees in their learning. If you need an accommodation or additional support of any kind, please email grassroots@repower.org with “Accommodation Request” in the subject line and we’ll do what we can.

Past requests for support have included, but were not limited to: early access to materials, different colored hand outs, an alternative method for completing quizzes, requesting facilitators speak directly into the camera and more.

Introduction to Grassroots Organizing

June 10, 2022

About the course

This is a crash course in “grassroots organizing” that will cover an introductory set of skills for community organizers. Based on the work of Marshall Ganz, this organizing framework is rooted in building relationships to generate the power our communities need in order to achieve the change we want.

Over the course of three and a half weeks, participants will have the opportunity to develop their public narratives, learn how to build relationships and structure teams, strategize and power map a campaign plan, and draft a timeline for execution.

Who is this course for?

  • Open to new things: Participants should be movement-focused people who want to learn a framework for organizing. We welcome folks who are totally new to organizing, or who  have been doing organizing for some time but don’t feel like they have a good structure for it. 
  • Relational & people-focused: Ideal participants are excited to build relationships, to invest in the leadership of others, and to build teams of purpose-driven leaders.
  • Involved in movement work: We seek to support organizers who are currently part of an organizing effort or are seeking to build one alongside others they know.

Ideal applicants come from all walks of life, from seasoned organizers and campaigners looking to sharpen their skills, to beginners who are passionate about organizing and want to start their learning journey. Here are some attributes shared by all our applicants:

Technical Aptitude: Whether you have experience in organizing online or not, we are interested in organizers and campaign practitioners who want to rapidly develop their technical skills. 

Organizing Insight: You don’t need to be a professional politico, but we’re looking for applicants with experience doing organizing work on the ground. That work can be tied to grassroots, electoral, and/or issue organizing. We seek to support organizers who are currently part of a campaign effort or are seeking to build one. 

Dedication to Inclusive Politics and Intersectional Solutions: At re:power, we center race, class, gender and sexuality across all our trainings—it’s part of our practice of inclusive politics. We want organizers to be open to new ideas regarding it and to the ideas and contributions from their fellow organizers who will reflect our diverse communities.

Course Expectations

This is an interactive course. We ask participants to write in the chat box, share verbally, and participate in breakout group discussion. We understand that folks have a lot going on though, so if you are not able to participate in a breakout discussion you can let the tech moderator know. We encourage, but do not require, participants to turn on video during breakout discussions.

Questions? Please contact us at grassroots@repower.org

Additional Information

What do people do with their re:power grassroots organizing training?

re:power alumni have gone on to be national, regional and deputy data directors on presidential and national issue campaigns; engineers for grassroots organizations, non-profits, and tech companies; GIS and analytics directors for the White House and Federal Government; campaign managers, state directors, trainers and much more.

What’s the schedule? Can I come at different times each week?

We built this cohort with the busy schedules of activists in mind. Each week we will offer two unique sessions. We highly encourage you to participate in each session of the training series, as the material builds on the skills learned. Attending each session live provides the best opportunity to engage in the materials and discussion. Ultimately we understand the complex lives of organizers and people during the time of COVID, and so each session will also be recorded and available afterwards.

How much time should I expect to spend on the course?

Participants should set aside about 5 hours a week for coursework—including attending live webinar sessions, homework, and biweekly office hours.

What equipment or software do I need to be able to attend the course?

You will need a technological device capable of connecting to the Internet. Windows machines, Macs and Unix boxes all welcome. We will be using Zoom and request that whenever possible, you turn on the video function.

Will we receive copies of the materials I saw in class?

Yes. Copies of the slides, handouts and other supplementary materials will be available to all trainees. We thank you in advance for your feedback.

I have a disability/ need support or an accommodation.

We are dedicated to supporting all of our trainees in their learning. If you need an accommodation or additional support of any kind, please email grassroots@repower.org with “Accommodation Request” in the subject line and we’ll do what we can.

Past requests for support have included, but were not limited to: early access to materials, different colored hand outs, an alternative method for completing quizzes, requesting facilitators speak directly into the camera and more.

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