GGSN members on a group call (anonymized for digital security)

Folks in the network can learn from each others’ experience, and swap materials (i.e. guides, workshops, media) they created in their own part of the world. The goal for the network is to compile our collective knowledge on good practices for supporting grassroots justice-oriented activist groups, to benefit from each others’ innovations, and together, to improve support for grassroots movements around the world.

>See the menu of Related articles below to learn more about the GGSN and how to get involved

*We are using ‘justice-oriented’ to contain all struggles for justice. The sections below expand on the terms “grassroots” and “justice-oriented” to explain how our network understands them. Please see the ‘glossary of terms’ at the end of this document for italicized terms used throughout.

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The people in our network work within institutions and groups or act as individuals that support grassroots organizers involved in anti-oppressive struggles related to climate justice, reproductive justice, LGBTQIAS+ rights, housing justice, workers rights etc.

GGSN members can participate as representatives of an organization, or as individuals without being affiliated to an organization. People that can benefit from joining the GGSN include any organization representative or individual that provides support as outlined below.

What we mean by “support” and what kinds of skills and resources are shared within the GGSN

The GGSN enables mutual support and sharing around all activities that promote knowledge transfer on topics relevant to grassroots activists, or that increase the capacity of grassroots activists. This includes but is not limited to:

• Coaching, training, mentorship
• Developing educational tools
• Holding convening spaces and establishing connections between activists
• Developing campaigns to put knowledge into action
• Care and wellbeing support for activists
• Ongoing troubleshooting support for activist campaigns

The GGSN will be less relevant to your work if you are…

Looking for peers and expertise focused primarily on philanthropy, aid programs, development programs or advocacy programs led by large and structured Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

If however, you are involved in philanthropy, aid, development or are a member of an NGO but are interested in learning how to better support grassroots activists involved in advocacy, then you may benefit from joining this community.

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Members of the GGSN are invited to join our dedicated Slack channel and mailing lists and typically exchange with each other in the following ways:

1. Zoom calls. Calls to raise and discuss challenges, discuss best practices etc. 
2. Email for updates/outreach
3. Resource databases. Members contribute their own tools and resources to these public libraries for the benefit of others. These include:
   1. A public collection of shared resources on Blueprints for Change and the Commons Library. 
   2. A secure drive containing shared tools and templates that not meant for public circulation, stored on Cryptpad 
   3. Knowledge round ups that compile responses to questions and challenges raised in calls from GGSN members. Some of which are made available in the public collection, while all are stored in the secure drive.

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• Grassroots groups have always been the least-funded and supported among those involved in social change
• Throughout history, grassroots-led social movements have created dramatic moments of change (more recently: Black Lives Matter protests, 2019 global climate strikes)
• Given their distinct organizing culture and practices (as defined below), grassroots groups face specific challenges that are not always shared by funded and structured staff-led organizations 

In our view, what defines “grassroots” groups is that they share at least one of these attributes:

• Are largely driven by “people power”, ie. motivated activist volunteers, though paid staff may facilitate and coordinate this energy
• Are self-starting and self-organizing, especially when they are first formed
• Share power and decision-making responsibilities amongst group members to a smaller or larger extent 
• Have some degree of autonomy to define their own strategy, tactics and group culture, especially at the local level

How we define “justice-oriented” activist groups

We have used the term ‘justice-oriented’ activist groups to contain the many intersecting fights for justice that unite us. 

Communities are affected differently and unequally by oppressive conditions based on race, socio-economic status, class, gender, age, dis(ability), sexuality, and other social identities. The characteristics of one aspect of injustice and its intersections with other identities cannot exist separately. Structural inequities cause power imbalances within society, and differing exposure to forms of injustice, suggests all fights are interconnected. 

Many projects/individual groups that are included in the network are focused on supporting a particular issue and are fighting for rights/justice related to it. These groups may use terms such as, “social justice”, “climate justice”, “racial justice”, “human rights”, “reproductive rights”, “gender and sexual rights”, “economic justice”,  “decolonization” etc. The GGSN understands all of these as falling within our definition of “justice-oriented” activist groups. 

The activists being supported may choose a number of routes and approaches towards systemic social change. Whether organizing and acting through direct action, politics, law, social media, storytelling etc. We consider all methods of challenging and resisting power and systemic oppression to be justice-oriented activism, and that all are necessary for the success of grassroots movements.

The post Defining ‘grassroots’ and how we define ‘justice-oriented’ activist groups appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

1. Equity. We aim to reflect the many voices and perspectives of our partners in the activist community in our team of advisors, bottom-liners and content contributors. We particularly seek the perspective of individuals who identify as: Black, Indigenous, People of color, women, queer, trans, two-spirit, non-binary, disabled, chronically ill, mad, the voices of the global majority, living in poverty, campaigners working with limited funding and access to tools, and those marginalized in a system of capitalist and white supremacist patriarchy who are building the movements we need for a fairer society. We welcome and ask for voices that will challenge and shake up our notions of how to compile/share experience and what is or is not useful to the communities we are trying to work with.
2. Empowerment. We want everyone participating in this project to feel that they are gaining something useful from the experience. We are conscious of the value of people’s time and ideas and will seek their input on how to create exchanges of time, skill and resources that are fair and productive for our advisors, contributors and bottom-liners. We also value using the development of knowledge and support to empower communities that are marginalized in our broader society, strengthening their experiences and achievements – all to strengthen our global work of change making.
3. Transparency. We believe in open communication, transparency, and honesty in our content, partnerships, attributions and promotion. This is why we have tried to lay out all the thinking and decision-making processes behind the project in this doc. We want everyone to know what they are getting involved with and to challenge the structures as needed. We also believe in revisions to our transparency and overall model, including listening to and adopting feedback from participants.
4. Collaboration. We seek to collaborate with justice-oriented activists and the movements they represent. Our place in the movement ecosystem is to listen to the needs of activists, develop resources to address those needs, and share them freely with respect across borders and issue areas so that we can all win and learn together.
5. Liberation. Through the production and collaboration on support for grassroots justice-oriented activists, we seek to liberate activists and our work from typical challenges in organizing around access – be it access to tools, funding, training and connection. We seek to include all voices, tailor our work across language, timezone, experience and funding status and include additional and ongoing voices and experiences.

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For the security of activists that work under surveillance from repressive state and or corporate powers, we do not list our members publicly. New applicants to the GGSN are screened.

Map of the world showing locations that GGSN members currently join from

The people in our network work within institutions and groups or act as individuals that support grassroots organizers involved in anti-oppressive struggles related to climate justice, reproductive justice, LGBTQIAS+ rights, housing justice, workers rights etc.

>See the menu of Related articles below to learn more about the GGSN and how to get involved

The post Who is currently part of the GGSN? appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Funding

The Global Grassroots Support Network is supported by the UMI Fund, a donor’s collaborative founded by international philanthropies that supports, incubates and accelerates strategic elements of the climate movement, through cooperation with partners for disruptive, scalable, greenhouse gas mitigation.

Platform

This project builds upon the platforms and networks first established by the Blueprints for Change guide-making collective.

Coordination Team

Kenzie Harris, Principal Coordinator

Kenzie Harris (she/they) is a disabled queer settler living in what’s colonially called Toronto, Canada (on land stolen from the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples). They have organized with and supported local Fridays for Future chapters, and National networks such as Climate Strike Canada on campaigns for climate justice and Indigenous sovereignty. They previously worked at Change Course as the education lead and digital campaigner, and at the Climate Justice Organizing Hub as the anglophone knowledge transfer coordinator and as a trainer. They specialize in knowledge accessibility. Today, their activism focuses on care and information access for chronically ill and disabled people.

Tom Liacas, Project Manager

Tom Liacas (he/him) is a straight white setter living in what’s colonially called Montréal, Canada (rightfully called Tiohtià:ke or Mooniyang, Turtle Island). Tom drew on his experiences as an activist and campaign strategist to work as an advocacy mobilization consultant serving NGOs in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. As a researcher and analyst, he has released reports and articles on emerging campaign practices for think tanks, funders and global publications. Most recently, Tom founded the Blueprints for Change project and Canada’s Climate Justice Organizing HUB.

Jacob Okumu, Supporting Coordinator

Jacob Okumu, based in Kenya, is a teacher by experience, a project manager and a community organizer with knowledge and experience in training, coaching, designing, and managing people centric projects/campaigns for social change. Jacob has led numerous trainings and coaching sessions on practices of servant leadership, volunteer management, design thinking and organizing campaigns strategies for sustainable change to groups and organizations in different communities and countries. He has led and managed campaigns and projects with organizations such as Be the Change Kenya, Tatua Kenya, Amnesty International Kenya, UNICEF Tanzania and Change.Org where he has been infusing digital and offline campaign strategies to enable petitioners and Change Leaders accelerate change as a campaign strategist. He is a member of the Young African Leadership Institute (YALI) Alumni, and Leading Change Network. He is passionate about justice and equality.

Radhika, Supporting Coordinator

Radhika (she/her), based in India, has been participating in environmental justice-related activism since 2017. Her core expertise lies in looking at existing public policy frameworks to understand issues pertaining to the climate crisis, environmental degradation and their impacts on lives and livelihoods. She has been an active part of the Save Aarey Movement (Aarey is an urban forest in suburban Mumbai, India that was slated to be axed for several ‘development’ projects). Through her involvement in this movement, she became part of a voluntary run youth based collective called “Let India Breathe’. They work with several environmental justice movements throughout the country. They are also the founder of Pantrynook – a zerowaste (plastic free) food packaging company. Radhika was invited to give a TEDx talk on The Individual, The Environment & The Power of the Modern State at Versova, Mumbai and was featured in Forbes India Magazine.

Maria Reyes, Regional Coordinator, Latin America

Maria Reyes is a queer Mexican climate and human rights activist with the Alliance of Non Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY) and Fridays for Future MAPA (Most Affected People and Areas). She works as a bridge so that the most vulnerable communities in the face of the climate crisis can access international spaces and resources. She has campaigned for fossil fuels divestment and equitable phase out in Mexico and Internationally, and is an international spokesperson on topics like just transition, false solutions, water scarcity, the intersection between the climate crisis and gender inequality, among others. She has attended various UN Climate Conferences, leading efforts to drive resources so that Global South climate activists and land defenders can attend too. Currently she focuses on building infrastructure for the protection of environmental defenders and building political education in the youth climate movement.

Keira Louise Aquino Diaz, Regional Coordinator, Asia-Pacific

Keira Diaz currently serves as the International Secretary of Akbayan Youth, a democratic socialist youth movement in the Philippines. Keira is also actively involved in the Milk Tea Alliance, a transnational democratic solidarity movement that originated in Asia. She is the acting Program Officer at YouthResist, a multisectoral alliance of youth organizations and special interest groups committed to safeguarding democracy in the Philippines; a project of the Center for Youth Advocacy and Networking. She is the former National Convenor of the Students Rights and Welfare Coalition Philippines, a coalition that is specifically focused on the institutionalization of students’ rights and welfare in both the local and national level. She was the former Education and Research head at the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines, a student formation of student councils, student governments, student political parties, and organizations in the country.

Marsel Tuğkan Gündoğdu, Regional Coordinator, Türkiye

Marsel Tuğkan Gündoğdu (he/him) has been working as a Program Officer at the European Union Sivil Düşün Program since 2020, supporting active citizens and civil society organizations throughout Türkiye. He studied Comparative Literature for his bachelor’s degree and Social Projects and NGO Management for his master’s degree at Istanbul Bilgi University. He worked as the Türkiye Consultant for ILGA-Europe for 5 years and has been carrying out advocacy and lobbying activities at both the EU and UN level for the human rights of LGBTI+ citizens in Türkiye. He also volunteers in the Political Participation Team at Social Policy, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation Studies (SPoD), and his main focuses are campaigning, advocacy & lobbying, political participation and constitutional demands of LGBTI+ citizens. He started working as Regional Coordinator for Türkiye at GGSN in October 2023.

The post Who funds and coordinates the GGSN? appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Summary of key outcomes in Tom’s Medium post

Copied below are some of the highlights from this account of GGSN’s first-year activities.

Building a community of practice

I’ve always been a huge fan of open knowledge-sharing among aligned projects, which among other things, drove me to start Blueprints for Change in 2018. These “communities of practice” help all of us get better at the work we do and as a bonus, meeting folks around the world facing similar challenges is validating and fun! Funders have their peer communities, fundraisers have them too and digital campaigners have had the Online Progressive Engagement Network for the last 10 years now. So why not one for those of us who have taken on the job of building structured support for grassroots activists?

In the spring of 2022, thanks to the trust and support of UMI Fund, I started building such a network with fab colleague Kenzie Harris. Bringing together projects in multiple regions and continents and widening the scope beyond climate, Kenzie and I wanted to include any project supporting “grassroots justice-oriented”[i] activist groups. This intersectional approach aligns with our values and brings a richness to our community through diversity, but maintains enough unity of purpose to strongly motivate sharing.

Our hunch was that grassroots groups generally aligned on their anti-oppressive vision of the world will also have alignment around their advocacy approaches and will therefore face similar challenges. This assumption was rooted in experience gained during the years I worked with global projects Mobilisation Lab and Blueprints for Change.

With the promise that we would share knowledge around common challenges that all groups face, and share the resources each project has created to solve for them, we began drawing people into this Global Grassroots Support Network. At the end of a full year of outreach, we have gathered together some 84 seasoned grassroots organizers, campaigners, coaches and more, that support struggles for climate justice, reproductive justice, LGBTQIAS+ rights, housing justice and workers’ rights.

These members currently come from: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Spain, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, the U.S., UK and Zimbabwe. To widen our circle and get outside the usual circles of privilege and geography, we have started work with Regional Coordinators to bring even more folks in from Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, India, Nigeria and Kenya.

Hearing from grassroots organizers worldwide

One of the big lifts in GGSN’s first year was getting a sense of what top challenges justice-oriented grassroots groups were facing around the world and also what types of skill and support material those supporting these groups were looking for help with.

Kenzie, our Principal Coordinator, spent countless hours in 1 to 1 intake/info gathering calls with new members to record needs, challenges and all manner of wishlists from participants. We onboarded most folks to a dedicated Slack channel and an email list to get more organic exchanges going and facilitated a good number of global video calls, which required a lot of timezone juggling!

Based on Kenzie’s intake sessions as well as exchanges with members during group calls, the emerging picture of the most-often cited challenges grassroots groups are facing currently includes:

1. Help with building intersectional narratives and coalitions to link struggles together
2. Activist safety & security in repressive environments
3. Maintaining activist engagement and working together efficiently in groups
4. How to secure funding for grassroots organizing and how to report impact
5. How to build effective strategy within non-hierarchical structures
6. Managing burnout among activist communities & collective care

Swapping tools and resources among ourselves

The draw of joining the GGSN for participants, our answer to the “why should I bother?” question, was always the promise of getting access to tools and resources developed by other projects facing similar challenges.

In other words, that this network would prevent some ‘reinventing of the wheel’ because each member could copy shared resources created by peers and adapt them to their own local contexts instead of starting from scratch.

So far, thanks to the generosity of early members, we have written up and published a good number of publicly-shared resources that are made available to justice-oriented activists everywhere, through our partnerships with the Commons Library and our home base, Blueprints for Change. And to make all of this more accessible across borders, we’re actively working on getting all resources translated into Spanish and French in the coming months!

While long-form guides and workshops are great, we found throughout this first year that a lot more knowledge exchange happened informally in answer to questions asked on Slack and during group calls. To document all the great answers to these questions that came up organically in exchanges with members, we put together the collective knowledge contributed by our network in “knowledge round up” docs, covering issues such as: How folks are organizing against the far right?, resources for connecting with, uplifting, and supporting people in highly marginalized communities, advice on how to build a wider constituency/coalition… We’re now working on getting these written up for public sharing on the Commons Library and BFC.

The post What has the GGSN produced so far? appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

If so, please make sure you have read through the following sections before applying:

• Who can benefit from joining the GGSN?
• How we interact and share with each other
• Values & how we live them

If all of this lines up with your values and interests, we’d love to have you and whatever time you can give to exchanging with others!

Sign up here or via the embedded form below if you are interested in joining the GGSN community.
(via double-encrypted form on Cryptpad for your security)

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