Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

In this roundup, we responded to the question: How do you build a broad coalition, a united front, despite frictions in ideology and political positioning? Are there examples from other countries that have been able to do this?

**See the following document for the GGSN definition of “grassroots.”

GGSN anonymized community answers

Recognize that broad coalitions are not long-term

I can tell you first hand, it is impossible to maintain a broad coalition for a long period of time. Unless you find some sponsor who’s willing to pay and keep everybody together. Other than that, coalitions get formed when there’s a common cause. You find the common denominator. What is it that brings you all together, and that’s what you can work on.  It’s going to have to be something that’s very general and vague, because the more specific you get, the more particular it gets to each individual group. So at this point you’re wanting to build on ideology.

One of the things that it happens, and I saw it after the trump election, is everybody comes together with a unifying mission that we all have, and it’s not necessarily spelled out, and it’s easy for us to all agree that we’re in in this fight for democracy or in this fight for women’s rights, or whatever it is. It starts to break down when individuals and groups start to feel like there concerns are not being heard or their issues are being minimized. And then you get into this kind of cross fighting that happens and then there’s also a tendency to break into smaller and smaller groups. My sense is don’t worry about that. If these groups form, they’re going to keep going. These are smaller groups that are that will keep going. Stay in touch with them. Keep giving them support, do whatever you can. But the infighting happens in that. I think it’s oftentimes instigated from the outside. I think that there are plants at times so watch for that, but don’t get too paranoid. The main thing is to keep reminding people what’s at stake. That’s something a writer once told me is, what is at stake here? What do we have to lose, and that is that something that’s important to keep in mind.

Identify the specific factor everyone can unite around

I wanna lift up what was said about coalitions being short term and for something specific. When you’re linking and raising with different groups on issues, you should find out, what is it that you’re finding unity on? What is the impact on youth? For the LGBTQ community? For women? For workers? And then you’ll have multiple coalitions and based on the data that you’re finding, what it is it that they want to come together for and it will always be something specific. And maybe it’s for a certain campaign. Maybe it’s for the passing or the protest of a certain aspect of of a campaign. But it’s a tool that is flexible and is not meant to be long term, so it will largely be based on your social investigation. Here in the US, I’m part of [a coalition]. We just had a member join who was part of the military. So maybe when we bring up issues of the military maybe they don’t necessarily agree with that. But largely, they agree that the human rights situation is dire, and that’s our unity. The common denominator is who you want to isolate; the broadest enemy. So how are you helping make that clear to to folks?

Look to broad coalitions formed in India

India has been really successful at doing this. In this podcast episode, the speaker mentioned a little bit about how broad coalitions of people came together to save a forest. They talk about the use of moderators in whats app chats to kind of remind people that they have a common cause and to leave the other things for the other organizing opportunities. And, instead, let’s just focus on the thing that we have at hand, because these are all conversations we can have at a later time. There’s a transcript that explains it in a bit more detail. They say the same thing, it’s not a long-term thing. The coalition broke down. They weren’t able to maintain that momentum, but for a while it was really successful in bringing out people who wouldn’t otherwise have organized and participated, from both the left and the right, urban and rural: https://commonslibrary.org/commons-conversations-insights-into-environmental-justice-movements-in-india-with-radhika-jhaveri/

Look to broad coalitions formed in the United States

I was just thinking of the post trump era, or like the immediate post trump era and the indivisible network. This is an example of a very broad basis of unity to oppose the new trump regime, which broke apart, and it’s now more fissured. But at the beginning, like there was this common cause. It was like not strictly political ideology focus, but focused on building an infrastructure of political resistance to the trump regime.

Elections can be a common cause 

The following resource describes how an alliance was formed in Türkiye on anti-gender narratives during the state’s 2023 elections. The alliance was between 4 organizations that are are aligned politically, so it was not a broad coalition. However, the report offers lessons on uniting around a common cause (in this case, elections).

Here are a few takeaways from the report:

A SWOT analysis can be a useful framework for creating grounds for an alliance, by identifying the opportunities and strengths that could make it happen, and the weaknesses that could hinder it.

“Some practical recommendations were provided by the participants regarding alliance-building:
• Organizing regular and thematic meetings within this broader collective,
• Arranging online and physical meetings with guest activists, writers, journalists, and artists from other countries to observe the course of anti-gender movements, the pursuit of new alliances to debunk anti-gender narratives
• Creating spaces where we can stay informed about each other and analyze current agendas,
• Building platforms to strengthen dialogues about getting to know each other and seeing our workspaces, not only following
our press releases or reports but also keeping track of our emotional states and well-being through forms like phone meetings
and coffee gatherings,
• Creating a new synergy space, increasing collaborations and joint alliance projects,
• Reflecting on what we can learn from our dormant or outdated solidarity networks and restructuring the tools of our alliance,
• Attempting to produce shared language for our alliance and molding the substance that brings us together through the practice of creating this shared language,
• Taking steps to enhance our capacity (for anti-gender movements and narrative change), such as organizing reading circles,
benefiting from international networks and experiences, conducting training, and building new bridges between art and activism,
• In the face of the narrowing civic space, carrying out all of these actions while considering regional justice, shifting our practices to rural areas, and organizing more frequent local gatherings.”

In interviews with alliance participants, many emphasized the importance of making political boundaries and experiences visible, and discussing inter-movement grievances and equal representation. (This wouldn’t be advisable for a broad coalition, but makes sense when aligned on a political issue).

You can access the full report here.

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

1. The Commons Library
2. Social Policy, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPOD)

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris

The post Building broad coalitions despite frictions appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

• Creating group cultures around conflict
• Tools for difficult conversations
• Generative and destructive elements of conflict
• Healthy vs unhealthy accountability
• Accountability processes (engaging when things get tough)
• Conflict and neurodivergence

Quick Notes

This quick knowledge roundup is a compilation of knowledge intended for grassroots activists/advocates, those who provide grassroots support, and anyone else involved in a collective or organizational structure with an interest in moving away from traditional carceral and punishment cultures of handling conflict. It applies a simplified editing and vetting process before publishing. The thoughts and resources included in this guide were shared by individuals who participated in a peer-sharing event on conflict, co-organized by Alternative Justice, Gastivists Collective, RadHR and the Global Grassroots Support Network. Please feel free to share this around with others who could benefit from the knowledge. You can download this (under File menu top left) in several formats or link to it / embed it on a web page. 

Quick link to the full, most updated version of the guide HERE.

Anonymized response

1.Reframe conflict as generative

An organizing principle, used by parts of the Black Lives Matter movement, is that conflict operates on a spectrum. Before anything happens, before there’s a conflict, reflect on; why is it important that we’re able to disagree well? What do we gain? What does that look like?

• The following chapter presented by Prentis Hemphill, with support from the Black Lives Matter Healing Justice Working Group, describes their guiding principle around restorative justice, which “at its very core asks us to rethink conflict. It asks us to see conflict, not necessarily as the splinters that lead inevitably to division, but to think of conflict instead as a generative moment, an opportunity to learn something about each other and the systems that we’ve created together.” This restorative justice principle reframes conflict as an opportunity to change ourselves, and the ways we work together. 
• For German speakers, the following zine on “transformative organizing also means conflict” is available.
• The diagram that follows below by conflict transformation depicts the conditions for 4 different outcomes; no conflict, atrophy (deterioration), destructive conflict and generative conflict. It demonstrates how liberatory conditions and significant attempts to change are necessary for generative conflict.

2. Proactively describe needs to help prevent/manage conflict

Proactively describing personal working styles and needs provides an opportunity to design systems and processes that inform how to work together. This mitigates conflicts that can arise due to needs being unmet. Often, people only come to a facilitator when something is really wrong. We spend more energy firefighting rather than proactively when mitigation measures can be adopted.

• Navigate’s Paul Kahawatte’s uses a metaphor of making a cake to explain this: before starting the baking process, share your allergies and intolerances. 
• See the following resource* by Ort Gallery, which offers reflections for thinking and talking through individual access requirements. It raises reflections related to; pronouns, physical access, mental access, invisible disabilities and chronic illness, bringing your whole self, allowing emotions, allowing expression of thought, swearing, dependents, needing time off, needing rest, quiet spaces/breakout rooms, space for meditation/prayer etc.

*This link is currently broken. We will update with this resource as soon as it’s back up!

• See the following write up by the Climate Justice Organizing Hub which applies a three step process to using a support and accommodations tool to identify and advocate needs. The tool comes from “The Neurodivergent-Friendly Workbook of DBT skills” by Sonny Jane Wise.
• Spring Up also has a 3-page ‘how to work with me’ guide.

3. Build trust to help move through conflict when it arises

Spending quality social time together is important to build trust, which builds a really helpful foundation when conflict comes up. It’s easier to advocate and communicate your needs with someone you’ve fostered a relationship with.

• Prioritize a long-term community-building and learning process within organizations. This should be a marathon, rather than a race. For example, host book clubs, view documentaries, go to artistics events together etc.
• ‘Our volunteer-run collective stopped all activities, and instead just did trust- and culture-building for a period. We can palpably feel the difference before and after. Communication is much easier now.’
• Tekmil uses an ideological framework that can influence culture by raising criticisms to reflect suggestions back collectively. See the following for the history, tips and foundation of Tekmil.

4. Intentionally create space for difficult conversations

The grassroots is constantly burnt out, and doesn’t have the resources, time etc. Yet, explosive conflicts are inevitable if concerns go unaddressed, which takes up all your time and resources. Trying to quantify time can be a trap. Creating an intentional space provides an opportunity to set empathetic intentions before entering the conversation, and to get into the body, and connect with feelings and needs. 

• ‘Sometimes we have to be with individuals for that thing they are facing, before attending to our agenda.’ Listen! Sometimes, that’s all you need to do. Create space for voices that want or need to be heard, without reacting to it. 
• Try providing a space to ask curious questions, without having to come to a solution everyone agrees on. Or, ‘try something between a fishbowl and a panel setup, with representatives from different contexts/perspectives. Listen without looking for solutions.’
• Tipping Point UK makes intentional space to air out any tensions that arose from the previous month through what they call the ‘Lemon Squeeze.’ Tipping Point adapted this from a process used by Tripod, which they called ‘Team dynamics meetings’. Tripod took inspiration for their process from ‘Tension shifting meetings‘ that were developed as part of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) UK conflict system, with support from Paul Kahawatte from Navigate and others from the XR transformative conflict team. The following webpage on tension shifting meetings includes resources such as an explanation, considerations and guidance, guidelines, a meeting template, meeting minutes template and a workshop plan.
• Level Up also does a variation of making intentional time regularly using what they call ‘Rupture Circles’, where they create a space as an organization to move through disagreements. This is intentionally done outside the heat of conflict moments. It provides an opportunity to practice disagreements, and to become familiar with the feelings that come with it.
• The following book called Difficult Conversations provides insights into how difficult conversations (between two people) might look ‘between the lines’, where and how they often go off track, and what to do about it.  There are difficult conversation book club sessions upcoming, that will be announced here. There is also a summary of the book available, with a ‘difficult conversations’ checklist.
• The following tool provides a 5 step process for holding difficult reflective conversations. These steps (explained in detail in the short article linked above) are: 1) Review, 2) Agree on the process, 3) Discussion, 4) Action Points and 5) Reconnection
• The following episode of the podcast Hidden Brain: Living With Our Differences, explains how minor disagreements turn into big blowups, and how we can diffuse these situations. 
• Try roleplay games or conflict mapping to surface ideas. There is a conflict mapping tool in the following resource by Seeds for Change. Conflict mapping helps people in conflict form a clearer picture of the issues that are underlying, by breaking the conflict down into 3 layers. It’s more structured than an open discussion, which can help with facilitating the conversation. This tool could be facilitated by someone in your group, by a neutral friend or external facilitator. It can be used for conflicts between a few members, or by the whole group.

5. Reflect on how power dynamics, identities and systemic oppression influence conflict and accountability

To do the work meaningfully, we need to look at structures of how we’re working together and how that impacts the work. Raising the backgrounds/identities that may influence the impact and navigation of conflict can be helpful.

• For example: the neurodivergent umbrella is huge, it encompasses so much. And yet, there’s still so much we don’t understand about how our brains work, and the complex variety of ways they work differently from each other. It helps to foster curiosity about the ways we can work to accommodate one another’s different ways of working, rather than conflicting on how we can work the same way.
• Spring Up has a power map generator to help surface power dynamics in groups.
• Accountability in some activist groups is more related to issues of privilege and power dynamics, rather than doing your work well or general ethical standards such as not stealing money. It can be about not having recognized privilege and how someone’s behaviour, or an organization/institution’s way of working, reinforces or replicates power structures. 
  • Accountability is about rebalancing existing power differentials. We’re accountable to each other, but also to injustices of the past, and for creating something better.
  • Also, recognize that perceptions of what is harming can vary considerably. Someone may do something thinking it’s a way to educate people, while others perceive it as harm. We often are not in agreement on whether something that happened is harmful.
  • When harm is perceived, look for non-punitive solutions together to “heal” the harm and prevent a repeat. What should change in the way we work together? Come up with a collective response. 
  • A transformative approach to accountability recognizes power dynamics. Page 11 of ‘Toward Transformative Justice: A Liberatory Approach to Child Sexual Abuse and other forms of Intimate and Community Violence’ from Generation FIVE provides a description of transformative justice. GenerationFIVE developed a transformative justice handbook that demonstrates applying a transformative justice approach to child sexual abuse.
  • Participants shared the following video on accountability, which includes many familiar movement faces!
• The following book, Transformational Culture by David Little touches on addressing toxic cultures and behaviours, how to shift towards restorative justice, and how to develop humane HR and management systems. Especially helpful in this book is a grievance procedure for investigating power structures through a collective approach.
• When delivering feedback, it can be helpful to frame it on a structural level rather than individual; share how it affects the whole community (group, organization), and how the system also plays a role. 

6. Related, call in (not out) comrades when they make a mistake or upset us

When calling in, it can be helpful to hold this complexity: we replicate structures that exist in mainstream society, even in our attempts to be different. In some ways, it feels like we expect these [bad] things to happen in mainstream society. When it happens in ‘our’ spaces, that’s to an extent inevitable, because we’re coming from the mainstream world. But, it can feel even [worse] when the behaviours are coming from people who are trying to lead with the value of ‘doing things differently’.

• It can be helpful to have someone assigned as a loose mediator to remind the group of the principles, and to support with a ‘soft touch’.
• Loretta Ross, a reproductive justice activist, discusses the concept of calling in on the following Ted Talk.
  

• In case of harmful behaviour, it is okay to ask a person to leave (the space) – this doesn’t need to be punitive. Callout culture can lead to further harm in itself.

7. Reflect on individual and group conflict patterns 

Develop a ‘conflict profile’ to reflect on and share with the group when conflict arises. Asking individuals to consider what they think about conflict, and how it feels for them, helps when thinking about how conflict arises in the organization/group.

• Spring Up offers a 1-page ‘questions to analyze conflict’ guide to reflect on power dynamics, systems of oppression, needs, and next steps.
• The following resource by Dragonfly partners at Interrupting Criminalization provides a series of reflective questions to reflect on the sources of conflict, and a diagnostic tool that points you to sections of the framework and associated tools to focus on.” The resource includes several tools such as: acknowledging differences and embracing conflict, defining and respecting boundaries, practicing direct communication and feedback, having compassion for our struggles with learning and unlearning etc.

8. Related, encourage personal work

• Use reflections on individual conflict patterns as opportunities for personal work and accountability. ‘As it’s written somewhere wisely in a book I’m reading about polyamory: “you can come with baggage, but it’s your responsibility to know what’s in the suitcase”.’ The following workbook called ‘Turning Towards Each Other’ by Movement Strategy Center includes information and reflective prompts related to: self-grounding, identifying your conflict patterns, common sources of conflict and dominant culture patterns. It then applies these reflections to group dynamics.
• Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues by David Bradford, Ph.D. and Carole Robin, Ph.D. was suggested as a read on self-accountability. It includes actionable advice on vulnerability, healthy boundaries, trust, feedback and conflict, and relationship building.

9. Develop a common set of guidelines, practices and language

• It can be helpful to put in place a set of guidelines or criteria that everyone in the group agrees upon / is happy to be ‘held accountable’ to. These may need to do with a group’s purpose. Healthy accountability can then be understood as being held accountable to something derived from the purpose of the group, as opposed to being held accountable to a set of rules not related to the group’s purpose or some kind of ‘universal’ standard. 
• ‘We have some common phrases that help bring us closer to being on the same page. For example, when someone is vague, we say “what’s your question, actually?” Sometimes this can create friction, but it’s good for preventing misunderstandings and clarifying’.
• Spring Up (mentioned several times above) is building common language and internal structures to support this. They have a number of virtual classes, ‘retreats’ and webinar offerings related to; organizational accountability, community care and accountability, power and consent in decision making, conflict analysis, liberatory facilitation, harm systems design, unlearning through teaching etc. They also offer 6 month courses and virtual retreats through their Bluelight academy.
• Providing common phrases, or a structure, for delivering and receiving feedback can be helpful. Quick resource on giving and receiving feedback available on the Commons Library here.
  
• If you find you’re having a lot of miscommunications between team members via written communication, some folks have found success playing around with AI to help focus and harmonize points.
• Non-violent communication can offer a helpful approach. There’s also times that a NVC approach can be less than helpful. A decolonized NVC approach, which uses a trauma-informed lens, can help reek the benefits of NVC without neglecting systemic influences. There’s a PDF download ($12) of the following workbook on decolonizing non-violent communication, by the Feminist Center for Creative Work. 
• Neurodiversity educators suggest a 4 step tool to deal with conflicts: Connect, explore, acknowledge and problem solve together. 
• Foster ongoing inquiry about safety in the space to support collective learning.

10. Reframe conflicting needs as a problem solving opportunity

• See the following write up by the Climate Justice Organizing Hub which includes insight on moving through conflicting access needs as problem solving opportunities.
• Focus on ‘what are you trying to protect’, and figure out what we have in common. For example, Gastivists Palestine position write up was collectively written by members from different backgrounds, including Arabic and Jewish. 

11. Be open to the process, rather than holding onto expectations

• ‘We try to tell everyone in the team: which topics are personal to you? What is a ‘red line’ that isn’t up for discussion? We have to stand behind what we are doing together as a team, but that starts with a conversation with oneself – what do you need to show up in a group?’
• Gastivists posted a letter to the climate movement on instagram, suggesting ways to talk about Palestine. Rather than asking organizations to take a position, we felt it’s more important to be open to a process and have a conversation, and take a position further down the line, after a few months.’
  
• When in a (longer) meeting, don’t be afraid to step away from the goal, or from what you thought you prepared/came for. 
• Remember there is not one objective truth, there are only perspectives!

12. Develop a list of people/groups that can be consulted as needed

• Develop a trust committee; a group of people with whom you can be emotionally vulnerable, who are not involved directly in the meeting/event. A trust committee can help hold members through the conflict as the group works through challenging issues.
• Consult a dedicated person outside of the group to coach and work around the relational and power dynamics within the organization.
• Some countries have programs to support neurodivergent individuals with communication and advocating/meeting their needs in the workplace (e.g. the access to work program in the UK can fund coaches and trainers for this).
  
• At an event, let participants know there is a ‘pivot person’ to go to in the case of harmful behaviour.
• Consider creating spaces or a community with whom to try things/ideate.

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris (Global Grassroots Support Network), Mari (Gastivists Collective)

About the collaborators

Alternative Justice

Alternative justice is a transnational collective of practitioners working towards building anti-carceral strategies to respond to harm, abuse and conflict. We base our practice in community sustaining frameworks like restorative justice, transformative justice and community accountability that seek to create conditions that cultivate real transformation in our communities. Together, we imagine a world without prisons & punishment – a world where people who experience harm have access to multiple and varied community-based processes that support their healing, allow them to seek tangible accountability from those who act in harmful ways, or, support them in taking accountability for the harm they’ve caused. 

We organise across 3 core areas:

• LEARN – Creating spaces to come together to read and learn more about restorative justice, transformative justice, community accountability and abolition and what these mean in our contexts. 
• PRACTICE – Moving from theory to action in communities of practice and by supporting each other in building our skills. 
• SUPPORT – Helping those who have experienced/are experiencing conflict, harm or abuse, those who have caused harm and want to move through an accountability process, and directly impacted community members.

Gastivists Collective 

The Gastivists are a small team of motivated people, active in a variety of climate and oppression-related struggles in several different countries. We aim to support grassroots groups who fight new gas infrastructure, facilitate the flow of information between NGOs and local groups, create connections between different groups around the world, and help build a movement that will stop gas and bring about an energy transition. We use gas as a lens to fight against many other injustices which are perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry. 

As a collective, we aim to organize in the most horizontal and consensus-based way possible. We try to be aware of roles and power dynamics, and to adapt them towards ways that feel comfortable and sustainable for all members. We have a deep wish for this collective to integrate into our work the values of intersectional feminism, true anti-racism, anti-colonialism and inclusivity for all genders, ages, religions and backgrounds. We know this is a big ask, and that we will probably fail at times and have to try again. Your feedback on how we do so is welcome, and your support is needed.

RadHR

RadHR is about practically applying anti-oppressive ideas to how social change organisations and workplaces organise internally. It offers alternatives to off-the-shelf HR policies and processes, which tend to replicate the very oppressions that our organisations strive to challenge. In the way we organise our work together, many of us—without even realising it—are reinforcing the systems and values we wish to change or abolish. RadHR is a place where groups organising for social change can: share alternative policies and processes; learn from each other; and collectively dismantle the inherent oppressions and inequalities of ‘work’ within capitalism.

RadHR aims to be a collaboration between any of us who are thinking about how to organise ourselves according to our values. The team behind RadHR see our role as facilitating the sharing of wisdom between lots of groups and people. We’re starting from the perspective that none of us are ‘experts’ at the work of living our values—the answers need to come from all of us. The value of RadHR lies in the community surrounding it—sharing procedures that have worked and not worked, feeding back on how others’ processes have worked for us and building and adapting new ways of organising together.  We hope sharing policies will spark new conversations—through the website and via events—about what it means to be radical in how we work and organise for change.

The post Conflict is inevitable appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

In this roundup, we responded to the question: How do we make it accessible and support individuals to share their stories, especially if they do not feel safe doing so?

**See the following document for the GGSN definition of “grassroots.”

GGSN anonymized community answers

1. Identify the purpose for sharing, and risks involved

I think it is helpful to firstly be clear on what people want to get out of it e.g. you can’t promise they’ll get a policy change from sharing their lived experience. You need to provide a high level of support with a focus appropriate to what the person wants to get out of it. Some people share their stories only for tactical reasons, some want it to be part of their healing. They’ll need different support (like comms training for the first one, or therapeutic support for the second one). Don’t underestimate how emotional it might be even if they don’t expect it, include aftercare as part of the package.

Make sure there is a clear risk assessment and do it with the person so they can think through the risks and safety plan/ decide not to share their story. Make sure they know there are options like being anonymous, using a fake name, using an animation or illustration rather than a photo or doing something creative that conveys the emotion of the event but not the details. My old work made a video to help young people think about boundaries and sharing stories here: SOS – amplifying the voices of young people | Safelives. 

2. If there are risks involved, ensure digital and physical security practices are up-to-date

Some individuals will face risks if their story is shared publicly.

The following guide was developed for survivors of domestic violence. It focuses on how to secure devices, communications, and personal data when technology becomes part of the abuse.

In collaboration with cybersecurity researchers and survivor-informed advocates, this practical guide explaining how doxxing functions within abusive dynamics and how survivors can reduce risk, was developed.

For further resources on digital security, see our knowledge roundup on activist digital security practices.

3. Provide lots of options and templates to increase accessibility

I have 2 thoughts that I hope will be helpful. The first one is around accessibility. Accessibility and storytelling, I find, is often synonymous with having options. You can submit a video, or you can create art, or you can write a reflection piece. Have multiple entry points into what it means to be telling your story. Everyone tells stories differently, especially when it’s something that’s very personal for them. Some of those things might feel safe, while others don’t. That lets people self-select which avenue they will pursue. Say for my child to convey how they felt in a moment, when they might not have the words to totally capture it, a picture is worth a thousand words. Additionally, some people might feel safe to have their personhood connected to that story, while others might not. So, being able to select yes, you can share this with my name. Yes, you can share this without my name… give them this option as well.

The other thought that I was having is if you’re trying to support people to story-tell, I often find that helping people with templates of how they might start approaching their story is helpful. There’s one template in the sustainability world in Canada, that has this beautiful impact storytelling template for how you make it personal. This is how you connect it to the outcome that you want. And this is how you make it succinct. Having that ability to support them can be really empowering for people in a storytelling space that might otherwise be really overwhelming.

In sum: Accessibility means having options; take a photo, draw a picture, write an account, etc. It means offering different avenues for conveying experience. Some people feel safe having personhood attached but some not, being anonymous should be an option. Offering templates is helpful when trying to get folks to share. There are ‘impact storytelling’ templates online that can be empowering for people. 

4. Informed consent is key

One important element when sharing someone else’s story is having their free and informed consent, making sure people understand why and how their stories might be shared and what the impact might be. Ensuring they’re completely happy and comfortable, and that consent can be withdrawn at any point (but pointing out that anything published could live even if removed from social media/website/new printing). 

Use consent forms, but how it is explained in the form is crucial. There is a written version that can be explained/adapted to each situation. See this example: Sharing your story with Amnesty International

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

1. Safe lives: https://safelives.org.uk/resources/young-people
2. Express VPN: https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/tech-safety-for-survivors-of-domestic-violence/
3. Cyber Ghost VPN: https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/privacyhub/what-is-doxxing-why-dangerous-how-to-avoid/
4. Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol40/1394/2020/

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris and Tom Liacas

The post Encouraging story sharing appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

In this roundup, we responded to the question: How do you simplify your message and discourse for your target group when creating a campaign message? As civil society organizations, we sometimes create our message in a format that is difficult to understand to create a rights-oriented language, which creates a barrier to access to our campaign target group. 

**See the following document for the GGSN definition of “grassroots.”

GGSN anonymized community answers

Use the spectrum of allies and stakeholder mapping

I’ll share a resource from an organization called United Vision Idaho, which formed a partnership with a few other organizations in the US, People’s Action and Showing Up for Racial Justice. They realize during the pandemic that deep canvassing, they weren’t able to do at the scale that they needed to. They set up a texting program and develop training that was geared towards texting. I don’t know if that’s something that is available in your context to have those kinds of lists and things. But they do free trainings every month on this, just in case it would be helpful: https://www.mobilize.us/unitedvisionid/event/580587/

The other thing that I would say related to this is, we’ve been using a lot of spectrum of allies and opponents and stakeholder mapping to help segment our message. We use the spectrum of allies and opponents to think about the specific groups of people, and what messages will resonate with them. Then we use stakeholder mapping to identify who are the credible messengers for those particular groups of people. We have to be in relationship with people who are talking to other people. And if we’re speaking a similar language around values, we found that we’re able to cover more ground:.

Further resources on spectrum of allies and opponents:

• https://www.trainingforchange.org/training_tools/spectrum-of-allies/
• https://commonslibrary.org/know-your-allies-your-opponents-and-everyone-in-between/

Recognize when complexity is helpful

I think one thing I’ve learned over time is that as a movement that complexifies things, it’s hard to to summarize your message into something very short, or it doesn’t even align with our values to simplify something. There are times when complexity is good. I think, one example that I have is a post after October 7th, that my colleagues, wrote. It has a lot of layers, and got a  positive response, because we managed in a way to add nuance to what was simplified in so many other spaces: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cyn0qOAMFNe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Reduce the complexity, length and make it actionable

I was skilled up on simplifying complex language. It takes practice when you’re used to writing academically or for policy. Here is a presentation on turning research into action for communities/activists: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1heFlz1ZKhsejpoTRYa2x_Gzo4FGoJmELvTymbajWxfs/edit?usp=sharing

2 key takeaways, with tips explained in the above presentation, would be…

• To make the message actionable… Provide suggested uses, based on audience’s context and needs (what is the problem, and what can be done)
• To make knowledge accessible… Reduce information down in complexity and length.

For example…
While we want people to eventually understand language such as ‘abolish capitalism’, if that’s your main public-facing message, some people won’t understand it. Something like “tax the rich”, would be easier to comprehend, and it’s easier to understand what the action is to fight the problem. The latter also uses language that addresses things that might be more top of mind for the target audience; taxes, and the ultra wealthy.

You also don’t have to forgo rights-oriented language, you just need to create opportunities to explain it. If you can draw people in with language that is more universally understood, you could then provide a handout, for example, explaining key information and terms about the issue.

There’s also ‘readability’ tools that can be helpful when you’re starting to practice simplifying your language, more useful for longer texts probably, but if I type the above examples ‘abolish capitalism’ in https://hemingwayapp.com/ it comes up as post-graduate level wording.

Keep it short and use visuals

Most of my communication is through social media; I’ve learned most people won’t read a lot. Just state the who, what, where, why, how; keep it short. Visuals help to emphasize the message. Depends on your context too; make it short, and emphasize the visuals. A short message, a link and visuals is good for social media.

Establishing a human bond is key on polarizing issues

Another piece of this is that social media is great for for spreading quick messages and visuals, but it’s also a very polarized space. You can resist somebody’s message if you don’t like their identity. It makes me think of some campaigns on similar issues that were done. I’m thinking of the right to marry campaign when gay marriage was being voted on in different states in the US before it became nationally accepted. Their approach was door-to-door conversations. Sending out people to talk about their identity and be human, face to face with people, and in their experience they overcame a lot of prejudice, and overcame a lot of resistance, just by establishing a human bond. Of course, that takes enormous amount of resources. There’s a certain security and personal safety aspect too if people are exposing themselves at a doorstep to potential hate and maybe even violence. There is a good write up we did of that on blueprints for change, a guide on persuasive conversation campaigns, but it’s centered on establishing longer conversations with individuals rather than trying to promote a message that would change minds, because on issues that are that polarizing, it’s very hard to change somebody’s mind with one quick message: https://blueprintsfc.org/guide/persuasive-conversation-campaigns/

Further resources shared on deep canvassing:

• www.deepcanvass.org​​​​​​​
• https://commonslibrary.org/deep-canvassing-scripts-and-examples/
• https://bernalillodems.org/wp-content/uploads/DeepCanvassingPrimer.docx.pdf
• https://neighboursunited.org/campaign/deep-engagement/#playbook-toolkit

Attribution 

Sources of info cited in this roundup included: 

1. United Vision
2. Gastivists Collective
3. Blueprints for change

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris

The post Simplifying your campaign message appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

**See the following document for the GGSN definition of “grassroots.”

In this roundup, we responded to the questions: How do you deal with the turbulence/fractious atmosphere within groups over highly political views? There’s often other political things going on that split the group… people turn on each other or on leaders.​​​​​ Mediation and conflict resolution is one thing, but how do you treat this?

Activists working on different issues find it challenging to navigate political polarization and build alliances across ideological divides, and between cultural differences versus reality… especially when the problem originates within a particular area with strong cultural beliefs and values.

GGSN anonymized community answers

​​​​​Reflect on the bigger vision and how everyone fits structurally

I’ll share a reflection of when I saw something similar to that. An organization that was moving to a region and had all these people, structures were not clear and people are were working so hard and were feeling unappreciated, and others, you know, there were no clear boundaries. So there was a bit of confusion. Burnout contributed, and everyone became very emotional and passionate towards this cause they believe so much in, but they also feel like they needed space to also have their ideas. I think we at that moment, we used material on building an effective team structure.

We first got people to reflect on the bigger vision that we are all trying to achieve, and how individual visions fit with the bigger vision. We created a space to find themselves within the process. We begin to reflect on what are the resources that each and every person was bringing into the space. And we started celebrating each and every individual and what they have contributed. For example, saying out loud we appreciate that you did 1, 2, 3, and we’re able to reflect on that moment specifically rather than give more of a blanket statement of gratitude or congratulations. And by that, people begin realizing how their own contribution helps contribute to the collective. There was no single win that was independent, and isolated. We started, seeing how their win was as a result of contribution from other people.

We had to realize that there are things that were not clear, like boundaries, work structures or norms within the team. We also have to take time to put those in order. How do I want to be treated in this team? When do I want to be called? How do I call for support? How do I want to get this support without losing my own identity or ability within the course of work? Agreeing that there’s a bigger vision.

​​​​​Unaddressed oppression within groups/coalitions can lead to conflict

This is just from observation, not from personal practice. When we started working with young climate justice activists after 2019, a lot of the larger networks were really in internal conflict, and a lot of that was rooted in the fact that a levels of oppression and identities had not been given space in the movements prior. So People of colour and Indigenous folks in Canada who are part of these movements were not recognized and were not given space to speak for themselves. There were power imbalances and oppressions that just were not recognized or spoken about. That was really at the source of those conflicts. The movement had to stop what it was doing, and open a lot of space for those discussions to heal and to kind of come back together.

​​​​​Small gestures add up

There has to be an acceptance. And sometimes there might be disagreements. But how do you create a space where everybody sees heard, and they’re safe? That’s also important, but also, some of these conflicts have so many layers. One person, might be just hijacking the movement, they’re leading and not giving space to others. Sometimes there’s questions about funding. Where the funding is coming from, where the money is going. Transparency has to be there.

Small gestures add up. For example, if an organization is posting about Palestine on Instagram or on their website, it means a lot. I’m not just a person working on environmental issues. As a woman, and as a woman living in a conflict region, I need to be concerned about the issues of the woman who is living under occupation, such as those in Palestine. So not addressing things like this adds up.

​​​​​Try external mediation if needed

It depends a lot on personality. There are people who it’s their way or the highway. So when you have such a situation that’s difficult to tackle. But my idea, which may not work, but it’s worth a try, is some form of mediation. Someone who is neutral, or 2 people who are neutral, to have a conversation around it. Creating a space to share, even if it’s going to rub people the wrong way, is very important. And having mediators, to make a decision and agree. There has to be some method for compromise and understanding.

​​​​​Lessons from Hope-based campaigns

This was shared by the Social Change Initiative in Ireland; “We asked two organizations that tackle the promotion of far-right ideology – Hope Not Hate and the Hope and Courage Collective to define the far-right, explain how it operates, and advise on how to address it.” Their thoughts were shared in the following 6 minute video: https://vimeo.com/771191915

​​​​​Reflect on harmful dynamics

This article on Building Resilient Organizations by The Forge mentions the types of harmful dynamics that can show up in movement spaces, and proposes some potential structural, ideological, strategic and emotional solutions.

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

1. Hope Not Hate
2. Hope and Courage Collective
3. The Forge

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris

The post Countering polarization and building alliances across differences appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

In this roundup, we responded to the question: I’m seeking advanced level organizing support for those that want to ‘level up’ from 101 trainings.

GGSN community answers

Haiiya

Haiiya has training offerings, online for 5 days, International and in English. Might be a good one to follow for ongoing opportunities. Check for offerings here.

Social Movement Technologies

Social movement technologies has some advanced training options, and they won’t turn away people who can’t pay.

The Campaigning Forum

E forum in the UK might be worth looking into.

Power Labs

Offers some advanced trainings, kind of expensive but looks good-https://powerlabs.io/nerdy-movement-study-group

Sociocracy For All

Has trainings for all levels of organizers, some free: https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy-trainings/

Rosa Luxembourg – Organizing for Power and Power Up!

Strong foundations and skill-ups in structure-based organizing. Works for a multitude of contexts! https://www.rosalux.de/en/o4p

The People’s Academy

An online course starting in April that bridges theory, history, and strategy to underpin our common struggle for a better world, with the lens of revolutionary movements throughout the history of the Global South. It addresses more advanced historical and theoretical contexts of movements. Also includes exploring “the strategic successes and failures of popular movements, understanding how theory, practice, and historical contingency shape the formation of forces prepared to fight and win.” -Progressive International: https://act.progressive.international/academy/

Ulex Project

Offers various training and reflection spaces, on topics including but not limited to:  burnout prevention, collaboration, power dynamics, navigating conflict, movement building, anti-oppression and empowerment and specific community work.

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

1. Haiiya
2. Social Movement Technologies
3. The Campaigning Forum
4. Power Labs
5. Sociocracy For All
6. Rosa Luxembourg – Organizing for Power and Power Up!
7. People’s Academy
8. Ulex project

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris

The post Advanced organizing trainings appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

In this roundup, we responded to the questions: How do we encourage activists to celebrate wins, and come back from losses using rest and reflection? How can activists counter or realize that you cannot pour from an empty cup?

GGSN anonymized community answers

Keep the big picture in mind

Bill Moyers historic perspective on social movements is useful when working with activists in a period of low morale. Bill was a long-term activist in the States throughout the civil rights movement and then the anti-nuclear movement, and involved for decades in fights that took a very long time to get to a point of victory. He noticed every movement has peaks and valleys and ups and downs. Even after a really exciting moment of power, there’s often a crash afterwards where it feels like nothing’s working anymore. Moyer also noticed that a big moment is typically followed with the feeling of activist failure. He saw this pattern over and over again in social movements. 

For example, the pandemic setback was really hard on climate justice movements that were going strong in 2019 and the beginning of 2020. It felt like the power of 2019 totally disappeared. But showing activists that peaks and valleys are part of movement building helps them to persevere. It is grounding for young activists to see that these patterns have always been there, and it doesn’t mean that it’s over when things are slower. It may be a time to regroup and think together and reorganize. But that doesn’t mean that the fight is over or hopeless.

Providing spaces for reflection

Recognizing when work is not possible, and making space for sharing of emotions. For example, during pandemic lockdown, a group that was working with climate justice activists and had all of their programming around organizing, campaigning and building power realized that normal organizing just wasn’t possible. Since nobody was really in that mindset,  they  opened a space for sharing grief. It was powerful, because it responded to where people in the movement were at. It was a healing moment, to talk of hopelessness and grief at a very difficult time. 

Care as an everyday practice

Integrate care as an everyday practice, for example by doing regular check ins in the groups, to have a sense of how people are doing, where they’re at. You can start with gratitude, and continue with honoring the pain, making space for it. These regular practices of care are important to build. Work That Reconnects has open resources on practices of care and Joanna Macy wrote a book on this.​​​ 

Unpacking narratives on care and using peer exchange

To the question of challenging pouring from an empty cup, recognizing the appropriation of care by oppressive narratives is important, to be able to establish a true culture of care. The Climate Justice Organizing Hub holds a 2 hour care 101 workshop (slides here)*. In this workshop, we explore: How have colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy co-opted what care means? How has it impacted our response to communities and isolated us, and commodified the concept of care. What could a culture of care look like? These are good reflections to hold between big campaign moments, to reflect on our ideas about care needing to be ‘earned’, and to sustain long-term.

After the first workshop, there is a Care learning circle (part 2 of the Climate Justice Organizing Hub’s care series)* and these learning circles use peer-to-peer sharing of knowledge. What had been shared by participants on building cultures of care was summarized in one of these offerings on the following wiki page. This format might be helpful after a loss to move through the difficult emotions that come with that, together.

*Please note the slides shared above apply a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License. This means that anyone is free to: 

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material

Under the following terms: 

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

The importance of rest

Planning rest. Peaks of activity, followed by valleys, is important. It’s difficult to do, especially in our reactive environments. Try to plan for what is the next moment? What is the next thing you’re going to do to care for yourself, for yourself or being with others, for being outside of the work or the activism. Here is a resource that Amnesty International developed with staff youth activists together on well-being and resilience for youth activists.

The individual responsibility paradigm needs to be challenged

For example, a youth activist who was a leader in a student protest was constantly getting the message that she was the hope. It was great to hear on one level, but on the other it was putting a burden on her and a feeling of needing to do more. As activists already have enough on their shoulders, it is important to be careful about positive messages that can put pressure on them and lead them to push themselves too much. 

Make time to connect and celebrate 

Holding space to share how people are doing, to share struggles and challenges, collective rebuilding or collective hope. The moments to connect are super important, even if it’s in the wake of a defeat, or especially in the wake of a success. 

Celebrate! Make time to celebrate, including small wins within a bigger defeat, and look for these moments and for these little things to celebrate.

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

1. Work that reconnects
2. Joanna Macy
3. The Climate Justice Organizing Hub
4. Amnesty International

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris

The post Celebrating wins and coming back from losses appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

In this roundup, we responded to the question: Workshops, coaching, toolkits and chat groups – what blend of capacity building approaches do you find gets the most impact for the time you spend?

**See the following document for the GGSN definition of “grassroots.”

GGSN community answers

1. The first step is to identity needs 

I think it depends on your purpose and objectives, and those of the people you are working with. 

What do you/they want to achieve? What skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours do they need to achieve that purpose? Doing this analysis first will enable you to identify needs, and then plan for the best way to meet them. 

-Anonymous

2. If you have the time, use coaching. If you’re short, try toolkits

The best approach depends on what you mean by impact, and depends on the work you do. Impact can be defined in many ways, of course, but it’s central to the question of most impact for time spent. Some thoughts on different aspects of impact, and the time going into capacity building:

• Hard skills: workshops/trainings, followed by coaching opportunities. To develop this capacity, you have to invest time. The greatest thing you can do is offer short coaching calls or follow-up opportunities to solidify the learning, provide feedback etc. The people who take you up on these opportunities are the ones who are committed to keeping and embedding this capacity, so it’s worth the time!
• Strategy/analysis: this is a long-game because it takes a long time to cultivate. Consistent coaching calls are best for this (time-intensive) but once it “clicks”, they have embedded the thinking, strategy, and analysis that will make them more successful on their own, and they will share it too!
• Replicability/shareability: toolkits all the way! Video resources or how-to docs on how to use the toolkit are really helpful because it’s a one-time input that can be viewed again and again. Opportunities for coaching are important and again, it helps identify people worth investing time into because they’re reaching out to learn and grow their skills. A great example of this is what David Suzuki Foundation has done with their Future Ground Network: https://futuregroundnetwork.org/resources/

Our team is often doing capacity building with people who feel like their house is on fire (i.e. there’s a really pressing, urgent issue happening in their community). This means we’re doing really time intensive work for a short period of time, and embedding all sorts of capacity building as the time allows, teaching principles for campaign organizing, working with groups, developing a successful action plan, etc. We find this is a really great “sprint” opportunity to build capacity, and often there’s a hard end-date to the intensive work. 

The people we work with have limited time to respond and organize their community, to create pressure, and to get the outcome that they want. We use a deep approach of sitting with them through that time. We introduce different concepts at each meeting of a steering committee for the grassroots group. We also use a broader approach of creating spaces where we’ve looked at, if every single group has this challenge, how can we create a space where we create a time to actually sit with them?

Just being available to answer questions, and in a fishbowl style is often really really impactful as well, because other people get to think about the answer as it pertains to them, and can take what they can from that, plus come back with more specific questions about how it applies to their group.

-Dani Lindamood, Water Watchers

3. Use examples from lived experience and participatory action to solidify learning

There’s often a disconnect between the training and the struggle. We need to use and incorporate lived experiences to be a good trainer and to have an impact. Otherwise, you need to build content from those with the lived experience of the issue you’re tackling.

Assess whether what you’re providing meets the needs of the most important issues that the community is facing. Also, participatory action really helps. Connect with directly-affected people’s lived experiences, and facilitate groups based on the particular problem that’s impacting them.

-Julius Okoth, National Coordinator for the Kenyans For Tax Justice Movement

4. Knowledge/skill-shares can go a long way 

Through skill and knowledge shares, we have an online series every first Wednesday of the month. We have 1.5 hours on a concrete topic, and we share what people in different countries are doing now. Sometimes we start with highlighting one or 2 examples that may work or may not work, analyzing why, and then moving into breakout rooms to share. This is an effective way to build capacity; learning from people who are doing the same things. This community of activists gains knowledge and skills, and they then work with their own communities to pass the knowledge along.

We also run trainings on campaign strategizing and campaign planning. After the trainings, it’s useful to follow up with coaching or support sessions as an add on. Being available when people are trying to do and apply some of the things they learned helps. One to one goes a long way alongside just the training.

I strongly believe in the power of coaching where you’re looking at the problem and asking questions to help people find their own answers. This is time-consuming, but also doesn’t need a lot of preparation. 

-Anonymous

5. Peer support and experience-sharing builds confidence

Sharing experiences with other people who are doing the work is impactful. It’s one thing to present in the abstract. Hearing from and seeing examples of people who’ve actually done the work is important, and it also builds confidence. If somebody else who I can relate to has done this, I can too! Bringing people together to support one another, so they can lean on each other and support throughout their organizing, is the basis for how our network does our work.

If you are investing in building the capacity of people to take on a campaign and to take on an issue, the reality is you will need to see a deep investment of time.

-Lella Blumer, For Our Kids

6. Use different approaches for mass vs deep impact

We built up the Climate Justice Organizing Hub over the last 3 years in so-called Canada.  I’ll just pull out some highlights that resonate with what folks have said. We were given the task of supporting all young climate justice organizers across this huge country, and we had 2 challenges. One was scale, and the other was going deep and supporting promising groups in a more significant way. This goes back to that question of impact.

We had 2 types of impacts. One was to get basic trainings out to as many folks as possible. The other was to nurture and support promising groups in a more intensive way. 

• For the first impact of serving a lot of groups with basic entry level content, our first step was to do a lot of listening. We did over a hundred intake sessions with climate justice organizing groups around the country to get a sense of what the top 10 challenging topics are. We had built no programming in advance. We were free to build our initial trainings around the top 4 most commonly asked questions or challenges. We pulled knowledge from different experienced organizers on those 4 topics, and have repeated trainings on those for the last 3 years or so to as many groups as possible. These were universal topics such as how to create a group strategy, how to structure a grassroots group etc. These were questions a lot of groups were grappling with.
• We use a similar promising approach to the fish bowl, and sharing of experiences between organizers, that we call learning circles. They have been one of the best formats for knowledge exchange, where folks come with some content prepared from other case studies, plus their own experiences. Collectively, we come out of so much richer and retain a lot of knowledge from the experiences of others, plus with everybody engaging as peers. It creates a better context for knowledge exchange. People don’t tune out and become passive, like they can in the trainings sometimes.

-Tom Liacas, The Climate Justice Organizing Hub

7. Document everything you can to reference and pull from

In terms of efficiency, one thing we did was create a repository for all the knowledge that is shared in these different sessions. We created a wiki in English and French. We wanted to make our knowledge base open and accessible to everybody at all times. It’s also a place where we document what comes from our learning circles. The articles and topics that you see there have been enriched by group sharing. That’s happened over time. Every time we do a training on a topic, it incorporates more lived experience from those who participated. We document it in the wiki, and next time we do a training we draw on that wiki. It’s been a good way to serve people in between trainings and coaching sessions, for those who want to go and browse a topic.

We have a promising program starting in Quebec right now, which is a flying squad of trainers that go right into the field and sit down with organizers. In their case they’re visiting youth-led groups that are organizing the next big student strike on climate right now. They’re sitting down with them in real space to hear what their challenges are, and then spinning out quick and formal workshops and trainings drawing on our knowledge base. They’re delivering this without too much refinement, but then also meeting with the groups afterwards. 

There’s a kind of follow up and implementation coaching that goes on week after week. Continuous engagement with the groups that have been engaged with via trainings and workshops is a considerable investment in time. However, we use this model of having a whole squad of young trainers who aren’t experts, nobody is an expert themselves, but that have access to a larger knowledge base and can just be there in the field, listening to groups and working with them. 

-Tom Liacas, The Climate Justice Organizing Hub

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

1. Dani Lindamood, Water Watchers
2. David Suzuki Foundation’s Future Ground Network 
3. Julius Okoth, Kenyans For Tax Justice Movement
4. Lella Blumer, For Our Kids
5. Tom Liacas, The Climate Justice Organizing Hub

Other individual contributions have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris and Tom Liacas

The post Resourceful & impactful capacity building appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

In this roundup, we responded to the question: Ideas for countering disinformation, particularly in communities/regions where corporate interests (e.g. oil & gas) are pushing disinformation constantly/pervasively?

**See the following document for the GGSN definition of “grassroots.”

GGSN anonymized community answers

Avoid fighting disinformation with more information

Within our organizing work, we always caution folks against fighting disinformation with more information. We see it mostly just reinforces beliefs and makes folks double down on their current position (i.e. reject the disinformation or eat it up) and ultimately is an exercise in “they said vs they said”. We often say if we spend our time fighting disinformation, we’re playing on the field of the powers-that-be when we should be pursuing pathways to change centred in our own campaign goals and high moral ground.We teach people to reframe their issue surrounding the moral high ground of their issue or campaign. We have people assess what their “high moral ground” is in relation to their campaign goals, then use that high moral ground to frame the campaign activities. Here’s a helpful excerpt from one of our training docs to help explore what your high moral grounds is and how you might use it in your campaigning…“Campaigns are on the high moral ground when the cause is just and actions are principled. Here are a few questions for exploring this within your issue:

• Do we believe in the justice of our cause?
• Are we effectively communicating that our cause is just?
• How can we get to the high moral ground from where we are now?
• What will it take to stay there?
• What mistakes might we, or others, make that could remove us from the high moral ground?
• What is our opponent’s claim to the high moral ground?
• How can we expose our opponent’s claim as false?”

We also use disinformation from our opponent as a success indicator! If the opponent is feeling so threatened by your organizing that they feel they have to put out disinformation, that is a WIN! You can use the WIN to inspire more people to the cause, celebrate your progress, name aloud that your opponent is feeling threatened by you because you’re on the road to winning, and ultimately press for further change through your high moral ground and campaign goals.

Use a framework to assess and respond

The Purpose team has been “developing tools to connect research with action within the everyday work of campaigners, advocates, researchers, policymakers, and others who face these challenges.” In other words, it’s been a big focus for their organization. The article linked prior describes who we’re worried about, how they’re spreading disinformation and a need to bridge the gap between research and action. One of the main results of this gap, according to Purpose, is that “many organizations use the common method of debunking/fact-checking or jumping into battle in the comments section. These responses only have merit in specific circumstances and frequently fail to engage audiences that matter because they don’t trust the fact-checkers.”

Here is their article describing their framework for assessing and responding to mis/disinformation. It describes a process for assessing and responding. All of their suggestions and application of the framework to the response model can be found in this guide which is free to download.

Lean on humor

Juice Media in Australia, where extractivism rules politics, uses satire to counter this.

Use deep canvassing

Neighbours United in so-called Canada helps folks learn how to use one-on-one convos to counter this.

Skill up online

We developed a course on misinformation. In this course, activists learn “to understand the mechanics of disinformation, and take fast and effective action to challenge disinformation and maybe even prevent it.” You can enrol and take the course online for free.

Check out democratic resources

Western States Center has some resources, such as one on confronting white nationalism in libraries.

Try out narrative work

A lot of the groups and organizations we work with use narrative work (Public Narrative) to surface personal stories, and intentionally create a collective narrative that counteracts disinformation or harmful narratives that are out there.

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

1. Purpose
2. The Juice Media
3. Neighbours United
4. SOGI campaigns
5. Western States Center

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris

The post Countering disinformation appeared first on Blueprints for Change.

Knowledge roundups are created in response to questions raised by members of the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN). The GGSN is an initiative building upon the Blueprints for Change* project. The GGSN is a security-conscious community of practice that aims to improve support for grassroots movements around the world, without a top-heavy structure.

Our network works with grassroots groups, and the groups that support them, that are advancing climate justice, racial and economic justice,  gender / sexual and reproductive rights, and political freedoms and civil rights. We share knowledge around common challenges that these groups face, and how each project has solved for them. Questions are raised to other GGSN members to compile the knowledge and resources we have to respond.

In this roundup, we responded to the question: How do we help people to overcome discouragement, and come back when they leave due to burnout?

**See the following document for the GGSN definition of “grassroots.”

GGSN anonymized community answers

Going back to the roots is important

I think this is a general issue for most [since] the pandemic [started]; losing contact with others. Some of us don’t come back that easily. Thinking about the initial purpose is important. Sometimes we also need time, setting up boundaries, not pushing so hard. We first need to feel good again about what we do.

Resource: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act10/3231/2020/en/

Offer community healing spaces and adapt ways to engage

I developed new chronic health issues from the pandemic. It required a rapid scaling back how much I was doing. I felt guilty, but I couldn’t couldn’t come back into movement spaces sustainably until that time for my health was taken. I can’t recall who said, “a movement isn’t a movement if it can’t move without us.” People must be able to step back from the demand of societal change to focus on taking care of themselves and their community members, in a world that doesn’t create space for this, for sustainable movements. What brought me back into movement spaces was engaging in collective healing spaces, and learning about other ways to engage that met my new access needs.

To support this, offer healing spaces, such as healing circles to vent or practice gratitude together, or circles to grapple with challenging topics like unlearning ableism, so people can heal in community. I think something our movement spaces as a whole could do better at is letting disabled people, and especially QTBIPOC disabled people, lead on this. Disabled people are arguably some of the greatest experts on burnout prevention and management, out of survival necessity.

Here’s a few more things to check out:

Shake up the Establishment has a journal for purchase, specifically designed for climate activists: https://www.shakeuptheestab.org/journal. It includes:

• 40+ interactive activities & prompts centring rest, recovery and resistance & collective dreaming
• Evidence-informed readings and reflective activities
• Resource compilations that further critical understandings of justice, decolonization, mental health awareness, intersectionality and systems-thinking
• Creative written work centring intersectional lived experiences
• Invitations to find ways to engage in prioritize slow, intentional and relational community care

Make space for visioning

We had a wave of disappointment after 2019 strikes despite how many hit the streets. Covid hit and couldn’t do the things that made organizing fun anymore. What is the shared vision of the world we want? We created a space for grief, and that was hugely powerful.

Related resources: https://en.wiki.lehub.ca/index.php/Navigating_turnover_in_student_groups

https://en.wiki.lehub.ca/index.php/Diagnosing_low_group_capacity

https://en.wiki.lehub.ca/index.php/Activist_mental_health

https://en.wiki.lehub.ca/index.php/Mobilizing_and_activating_members:_recruitment_and_retention_101

Make sure you have a community.

Make sure you’re not only doing activism. Having friends is important to get people to come back! Do things together that aren’t activism related.

Burnout comes when you think you need to work harder to solve the problem. Take time off instead!

Do the things you want until you feel guilty about not doing enough. Then when you feel guilty, take some more time. E.g. start up an accessible nature group!

Document ways communities are showing care for one another

Collective care strategies being documented: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FUYKpnDvJnmjYyr-5BuA78n3ubrC5CFc/view

Attribution 

Input and resources for this guide were provided by: 

1. Amnesty International
2. Shake Up The Establishment
3. This Autonomia
4. The Climate Justice Organizing Hub
5. Liga de Salud Trans

Individual contributors to the knowledge roundup have been anonymized.

This knowledge roundup was prepared by: 

Kenzie Harris

The post Coming back from burnout appeared first on Blueprints for Change.