WORKSHOP OFFERINGS 2024
We offer pre-scheduled and custom workshops to meet the needs of base building organizations that primarily work with Black and Brown, poor and working class, women and gender expansive people. Given the demands faced by base building organizations during election season, we do not have any public workshops scheduled for fall 2024.
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If you are interested in attending our skill building workshops on having one-on-one conversations, building member leadership, and building resilient coalitions that can navigate disagreement and tension well, please fill out our interest form. If there is enough interest, we will explore scheduling additional sessions.
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If our skill building workshop offerings do not meet your base building organization’s needs or you would like to bring us to your organization, please get in touch about our customized workshops. We offer both in-person and virtual learning spaces.
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Consider skill building workshops if:
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You want to have time to practice organizing skills like having one-on-one conversations, building member leadership, and building resilient coalitions that can navigate disagreement and tension well
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You want to connect with organizers from other organizations
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Consider custom workshops if:
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You want to develop a strategy or a power map for a specific campaign
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Your campaign challenges are regionally specific and need to be addressed in more detail
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You want a skill building training that integrates your organizational context and is only for the members of your organization
Our Offerings
Our skill building workshops are three hours long and virtual. They are designed to be interactive–invite participants to share challenges and practice skills with one another. All offerings support organizers to build the skills they need to be successful–having conversations that move people to action, developing real member leadership that supports their transformation, and building resilient coalitions that can navigate disagreement and tension well.
Each offering is available as an Organizing Fundamentals or Level Up workshop. Organizing Fundamentals workshops are for folks new to organizing or those who want to brush up on the basics. Level Up workshops are for organizers who feel confident in the basics and are getting stuck implementing them.
MEMBERS AT THE CENTER: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT BASICS
To build power and win, we must not only grow our base of members, but also support them to lead. This workshop teaches the fundamentals of creating leadership development pathways that support members to lead in our organizations and stay in our movements for the long-haul.
PLANNING FOR DISAGREEMENT: BUILDING BLOCKS OF STRONG COALITIONS
Coalitions bring together organizations with different self-interests around a shared strategy. Together, these organizations are more powerful and more prone to disagreement. This workshop supports participants who are starting coalitions to plan for disagreement with building blocks of strong coalitions–like setting clear expectations and having honest conversations about power. Participants will learn questions to ask when starting a coalition and grapple with the challenges faced when doing so.
FROM APATHY TO ACTION: ORGANIZING CONVERSATIONS THAT GROW OUR MOVEMENTS
Organizing is about listening to people, identifying what they care about, presenting a vision for what is possible, and moving them to action. Yet with the pressures of making ends meet, people who care often respond to our 1:1 conversations with “I’m too busy” and “things will never change.” This workshop offers an outline and tools for having organizing conversations that move people from “I can’t” to collective action.
COALITION TENSION: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Tension emerges in our coalitions because we have different interests, access to resources, and relationships to power. And often we don't take time to cultivate trust, develop shared practices, and have hard conversations. When tension arises, we often want to avoid or ignite it. This workshop offers another way—use tension to strengthen our bonds, grow our capacity, and move together to shift conditions for our people. Participants receive tools and coaching to plan for and respond to tension in this way.
PANEL EVENT: NAVIGATING UNCERTAINTY: RESILIENCE IN 2024
Sept 4th
5:30-7:30pm ET / 2:30-4:30pm PT
What a year! 2024 has been another tumultuous one and we, at The OC, are hearing from movement partners that the rising feelings of dread are making resilience and hope challenging. We know that hope is a practice and one of the ways we find it is to build connection with others. Join us for a free, in person event to bring us together, to hear from long-time organizers about how they face challenging conditions, to share lessons with each other and to, hopefully, build or nurture some relationships. This event will be livestreamed for anyone not able to join us in person.