Best practice guides are created to pool the institutional and lived experience knowledge of Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN) members, who are individuals and/or part of organizations that provide support to grassroots groups/activists. The purpose of these guides is to make this shared knowledge more accessible to improve the support provided to grassroots movements. 

This guide was developed in collaboration with the Commons Social Change Library. The following best practice guide explores, broadly, social movement knowledge gathering and sharing practices for people that support grassroots activists and organizers. 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

Ailish Carroll-Brentnall (Quakers in Britain), Ashley Waudo (Beautiful Trouble), Haruka Sano (Leading Change Network), Holly Hammond  (The Commons Library), Iain McIntyre (The Commons Library), Ilaj Zaremba (Ulex Project), Jen Gobby (Research for the Frontlines), Joscar Amondi Oriaro (Social Movement Technologies), Kenzie Harris (Global Grassroots Support Network), Marcia MacDonald (Research for the Frontlines), Nne Umoren (Green Leaf Advocacy and Empowerment Center), Sam (Effervescence Cityenne) & Sean Arthurs (Earth Rights International)

This guide was prepared and reviewed by: 

Kenzie Harris (Global Grassroots Support Network), Holly Hammond & Iain McIntyre (The Commons Social Change Library)

The post Social movement knowledge gathering and sharing appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

This quick knowledge roundup is a compilation of knowledge intended for those who provide grassroots activist support. It was developed as a rapid response to a question raised by members of the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN). It applies a simplified editing and vetting process before publishing. 

In this roundup, we responded to the question: How are people organizing against the far right? How are people contributing to a collective against the far right?

This guide was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris, Ines Lepage and Tom Liacas

The post Organizing against the far right – knowledge roundup appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

This quick knowledge roundup is a compilation of knowledge intended for those who provide grassroots activist support. It was developed as a rapid response to a question raised by members of the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN). It applies a simplified editing and vetting process before publishing. 

In this roundup, we accessed knowledge from several organizers involved in grassroots activist support across the world in response to the question: What does online security look like for your group? What platforms do you use for that?

This guide was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris

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Les groupes populaires (ou citoyens – en anglais grassroots) et en particulier les groupes étudiants, sont confrontés à un risque élevé de dissolution, ce qui nuit à la création d’une dynamique pérenne. Souvent, les groupes n’ont pas de structure permanente, ce qui cause une incapacité à transmettre leurs ressources et connaissances à la prochaine génération de personnes étudiantes et militantes. Plus précisément, les groupes étudiants doivent lutter avec les changements que dicte le cadre de l’école; la durée des sessions et du parcours scolaire. Avec le cycle naturel de 3 – 4 ans d’une personne étudiante et militante, les personnes organisatrices sur les campus ont l’opportunité unique d’analyser sur une ligne du temps le roulement fréquent des membres. En élaborant des stratégies et en s’organisant avant le roulement, il est possible d’éviter les obstacles communs et de bien utiliser les opportunités présentes.

Dans le guide suivant, nous définissons certaines des stratégies développées avec des bases de connaissances d’organisations déjà existantes, des perspectives de la communauté de pratique du HUB de mobilisation pour la justice climatique (aussi connu sous le nom de ‘HUB’, localisé sur le territoire du soi-disant Canada) et les perspectives de personnes étudiantes organisatrices qui ont participé à un cercle d’apprentissage pour faire face au roulement des membres. *Veuillez noter que la perspective provenant du cercle d’apprentissage est en italique à travers le texte. Il est compris dans ce guide : des défis auxquels font face les personnes étudiantes militantes, des stratégies pour soutenir et guider les nouveaux membres et pour la création d’une mémoire militante. Il s’y trouve aussi des informations sur les meilleures pratiques d’organisation des personnes étudiantes: comment s’organiser en cas de pandémie et des stratégies pour le bien-être, la motivation, le recrutement et la rétention des membres.

Les contributions et les ressources pour ce projet ont été fournies par : 

• Inside Higher Ed
• Les personnes étudiantes organisatrices qui ont pris part au cercle d’apprentissage sur comment naviguer la rotation des membres organisé par le HUB de mobilisation pour la Justice Climatique.

• La communauté de pratique du HUB (incluant des activistes chevronnés du mouvement et d’autres personnes qui ont choisi de rester anonymes).

Ce document a été élaboré par :

Kenzie Harris et Isabelle Grondin Hernandez, et traduit par Mathilde Fusaro et Inès Lepage.

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Esta guía fue creada para apoyar a activistas en hacer accesibles sus espacios, para poder asegurar que todas/os sean verdaderamente bienvenidas/os y estén motivadas/os a pertenecer a un movimiento en cualquier capacidad. La información que se encuentra proviene de bases de datos y recursos preexistentes creadas por organizadores y pensadores del movimiento. Hemos incluido recursos de blogs escritos por personas viviendo con necesidades de accesibilidad, como expertos/as del tema. Cada experiencia es distinta, por lo que fomentamos observaciones e ideas desde diferentes posicionalidades.

Varios de los temas en la guía son respuestas hechas por activistas que forman parte de la comunidad de aprendizaje del HUB de organización por la justicia climática (por ejemplo, cómo mejorar la accesibilidad de los eventos en persona, cómo mejorar el alcance del material promocional, etcétera). Esta guía también incluye definiciones de accesibilidad, consideraciones para planeación de acciones y eventos, comunicación y contenido, creando una cultura accesible, entre otras sugerencias relacionadas a crear espacios acogedores para todos/xs.

Este proyecto fue preparado y revisado por: 

Kenzie Harris e Isabelle Grondin Hernández 

Esta guía fue traducida y revisada por:

Daniela Leal

The post Entablando un activismo accesible appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Los grupos de activismo de base corren riesgo de disolverse ya que su alta tasa de renovación de miembros es un obstáculo que frena su impulso. La falta de permanencia en estructura resulta en la incapacidad de transmitir los recursos y conocimiento de los grupos a la siguiente generación de organizadores estudiantiles. Más específicamente, los grupos estudiantiles se enfrentan contra los cambios predeterminados por los semestres escolares y la duración de los estudios. La renovación frecuente también les da la oportunidad a los organizadores de poder planear alrededor del ciclo natural de 3 o 4 años de los estudiantes. Los retos se pueden superar al aplicar estrategias que ayuden a los grupos a prepararse para la renovación.

En la siguiente guía, delineamos algunas de las estrategias que fueron desarrolladas usando recursos provenientes de bases de datos de organizadores, ideas de la comunidad practicante del HUB de organización por la justicia climática (mejor conocido como el HUB, y ubicado en lo que colonialmente se conoce como Canadá), y de observaciones provenientes de activistas estudiantiles que formaron parte de un círculo de aprendizaje acerca de cómo manejarla tasa de renovación de membresía. *Nótese que las observaciones que vienen de los círculos de aprendizaje se ven en cursiva a través del texto. La guía incluye: retos que se enfrentan como activistas estudiantiles, estrategias para apoyar y orientar a nuevos miembros, cómo se construye la memoria institucional, más observaciones acerca de las mejores prácticas para el activismo estudiantil, cómo organizar durante una pandemia, el bienestar y la motivación, y estrategias de reclutamiento y retención.

Este proyecto fue preparado y revisado por: 

Kenzie Harris e Isabelle Grondin Hernández 

Esta guía fue traducida y revisada por:

Daniela Leal

The post Manejando la renovación de membresía en grupos activistas appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Systems thinking provides campaigners and organisers with an overall approach and a set of tools to understand the entrenched problems we work on and more strategically engage with the complex systems that we operate in.

In this guide we look at systems practice as an overarching approach that can help our campaigns and organising strategies be more effective at driving systems change. This approach is grounded in some key principles including focusing on relationships and patterns, working to unlock the forces of change, putting pressure on “leverage points”, planning to adapt and engaging multiple perspectives. We also go through a broad, flexible process that can be used to focus campaigning and organising strategies on driving systemic change. This is achieved by developing an understanding of the system you want to shift, identifying levers of change in that system and developing an adaptive strategy to put pressure on these levers to achieve your goals. We hope this guide will help you set up an approach for your campaigning and organising work that can analyze the different systems in play, not just the concrete issue your campaign or organisation seeks to address.

Farsi translation:

Thanks to the dedicated anonymous volunteers who translated this guide into Farsi!

Input and resources for this draft were provided by: 

Ben Simon and MobLab, Georgia Rigg (Amnesty International), Elizabeth Butz (One Campaign), Greenpeace (via their Systems Campaigning Toolkit), NEON’s & SmartCSOs’ work on systemic movements, the Omidyar Group (via their Systems Practice guide) & NPC (via their Systems Change guide). 

This draft was prepared and reviewed by: 

Chris Alford, Ben Simon, Alan Smith, Tom Liacas, Alison Brzenchek, Dalie Lauzon-Vallières, Elizabeth Butz, Sharon Brown, Eva Romviel. 

The post (Farsi version) Systems thinking for campaigning and organizing appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

This quick guide was created to support activists in making their spaces more accessible, to ensure everyone is welcome and encouraged to join movements in whatever way they can. The information included comes from existing organizer databases and resources by movement thinkers. We’ve included resources from blogs written by people living with accessibility needs, as we consider them experts on this topic. Each personal experience is distinct, thus we encourage further insight from different positionalities on this topic.

Note: This guide is a compilation of grassroots knowledge intended for grassroots activists. It was developed as a rapid response to a question raised by organizers and so it applies a more simplified editing and vetting process.

Input and resources for this draft were provided by:

The Climate Justice Organizing HUB, drawing from its community and resources identified in the Attribution section of the guide.

This guide was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris and Isabelle Grondin Hernandez

The post Making your activism accessible appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Grassroots groups, especially student-led groups, face a high risk of dissolving because their members don’t stay on for long, which creates challenges in momentum building. This guide includes; challenges faced by student organizers, strategies to support and guide new members and building institutional memory, plus further insight on student organizing best practices, organizing in a pandemic, wellbeing and motivation and recruitment and retention strategies.

Note: This guide is a compilation of grassroots knowledge intended for grassroots activists. It was developed as a rapid response to a question raised by organizers and so it applies a more simplified editing and vetting process.

Input and resources for this draft were provided by:

The Climate Justice Organizing HUB, drawing from its community and resources identified in the Attribution section of the guide.

This guide was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris and Isabelle Grondin Hernandez

The post Navigating turnover in activist groups appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Lorsque plusieurs groupes et organisations se réunissent pour travailler sur une campagne, ils choisissent souvent de collaborer ensemble au sein d’une coalition. Cependant, les coalitions ont acquis la réputation de causer des maux de tête aux militant.e.s en raison de leurs processus décisionnels souvent lents, bureaucratiques et descendants. Dans ce guide, nous examinons une autre façon de bâtir de puissantes campagnes de collaboration. Les coalitions agiles, aussi appelées « campagnes agiles », exploitent la puissance des réseaux pour développer des coalitions de campagne plus agiles, dynamiques et réparties qui se sont révélées remarquablement efficaces pour construire et canaliser le pouvoir collectif.

Les contributions et les ressources pour ce projet ont été fournies par : 

Marty Kearns (NetCentric Campaigns / Halt the Harm Network), Steve Anderson (NewMode / Open Media), Darren Barefoot (Capulet / Mobilisation Lab), Esther Foreman (Social Change Agency), Annie Kia (Lock the Gate Alliance), Ari Sahagun Mary Alice Crim, Umme Hoque et Amanda Tattersall.

Ce document a été préparé et révisé par :

Chris Alford, Amanda Tattersall, Alison Brzenchek, Umme Hoque, Mary Alice Crim et Tom Liacas.

Ce guide a été traduit en français par :

Mathilde Fusaro et révisé par Zoyanne Côté

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