Want to get more of our updates? Connect with us on Facebook. 
 
Training for Change in 2010 By the Numbers...

• on average we were leading a full-day training 1 out of every 3 days this year;
• led 98 workshops for over 1,599 activists (nearly half were people of color);
• co-facilitated with 28 different trainers, which means a lot of mentorship;
• 42 trainings were at least a day long;
• led trainings for 34 different groups working for immigrant rights, unions, AIDS funding, environmental justice, youth leadership, transgender support, gun control, breast cancer, poverty, and many more…

 
TRAINING TO BUILD MOVEMENTS
 
FDR’s New Deal could not have happened without a mass movement for new economic policies.  The Civil Rights Act passed because of the brave organizing of students, churches and civil rights organizations.  Women’s right to vote was only won through fierce direct action.  And the next big wins will come from grassroots leaders, many of whom we work with on a daily basis, teaching and training.
 
That’s one reason we launched the Organizing Skills Institute (OSI) this year in Philadelphia, to help teach organizers to use this moment. We put our hope, not in Washington, but in the leaders of local groups like ACT-UP, Save the Libraries Coalition, Mill Creek Farm, Student Healthcare Action Network and Vote for Homes that are actively pursuing a vision of economic and social change.
 
During the three-workshop OSI series, we used TFC’s world-respected direct education approach to teach nonviolent movement theory, alongside practical skills of meeting facilitation, recruitment, building leadership potential, and working the press.  Each leader received 40-plus hours of training plus three hours of personalized coaching, where we matched them with an experienced activist to assist them to apply lessons from the workshop sessions.
 
The OSI wasn’t the only place where we saw how our work was helping movements to blossom.  We saw the results of our coaching and training support with groups like Philadelphia’s Coalition for Essential Services, that successfully fought back massive cuts to social service programs, and Heeding God’s Call, an interfaith coalition for gun violence prevention that shut down one of the largest local gun dealerships through a direct-action campaign. We also worked with the fledgling Earth Quaker Action Team who played a key role in a national campaign win to get PNC bank to withdraw its support for mountain top removal, an insidious practice by the coal industry.
 
That’s grassroots power – and that’s what gives us hope.
 
We support local movements but we connect nationally as well.  This year, Training for Change strengthened our relationships to groups like Greenpeace, Breast Cancer Action, and Health Global Access Project, and various groups working for immigrant rights.  We helped activists in those groups to hone their group leadership skills and sharpen their thinking about effective team-building and leadership styles.
 
At the U.S. Social Forum, a national gathering for building the left, Training for Change
teamed up with the Ruckus Society to develop a new four-hour workshop called, “No More Marches, No More Rallies: Building Power with Creative Tactics” to assist organizers to break out of the mold of rote actions and unleash their imagination to develop smart, compelling and effective tactics.
 
We also collaborated with the Wayside Center for Popular Education to offer a Spanish-language training of trainer workshop, “Sembrando poder en tu grupo.”  This Spanish-language workshop was just one of several that we offered this year, in addition to converting our website into Spanish so that our materials would be accessible to immigrant rights leaders and others working with Spanish-speaking communities.
 
We also welcomed grassroots activists from Tanzania, Thailand, the Republic of Georgia, New Zealand, Australia and Canada at our annual 17-day Super-T in Philadelphia, and led trainings for organizers in Canada and Colombia. 
 
HOPE IN GRASSROOTS?  THEN HELP US OUT
 
Training for Change has been building the capacity of local movements and working to support national organizations tackling the big issues.  We know that movement building is slow, arduous work – but we also know that it’s a reliable place to invest our hope and look for inspiration.
 
If you agree with us, please donate to help us offer our workshops at affordable rates to those on the front lines of grassroots social movements and provide scholarships for students, people of color, poor and working class participants and internationals.
 
We are grateful for your generosity and the ways it helps us thrive.  Please consider giving this year to ensure a robust future for Training for Change as we pursue our mission of standing up for peace, social justice and the environment.
 

• Printer-friendly version
• Send to friend
• PDF version