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tCA news - july 2009
what's on top
Australian activists this week join with the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee to celebrate NAIDOC Week. The week of cultural events July 5-12 raises community awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Indigenous Australians, celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and provides an opportunity to recognise the contributions of Indigenous Australians in various fields.
Since our last enews, the Change Agency team have worked with community groups in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane on projects including:
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 | campaign strategy and planning with members of the Australia Tibet Council in Sydney | |
a community organising workshop with a mixed group of thirty Perth activists | |
facilitating the 'Climate Change Dialogue' with the Conservation Council of Western Australia and Murdoch University | |
leading a one-day facilitation workshop with 55 members of the United Nations Youth Association in Brisbane |
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We're focusing a lot of energy on preparing for our two workshops for social movement educators and facilitators in September. If you're thinking of registering for either or both of these intensive workshops, now's the time. We aim to finalise registrations by Friday 8th August. For workshop details, follow the link to the right of this article or contact James >
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evaluation and learning in the climate movement
Structured evaluation and critical reflection are an important part of social movement learning... but don't always happen. It's easy to get swept in up in the momentum, urgency and excitement of a campaign. Ben Courtice's 'biopsy' of the June 13 climate emergency rally in Melbourne offers some useful insights, and a guide for people considering campaign evaluation. Ben examines the effectiveness of the alliance that coordinated the mobilisation, the tactics employed on the day, and media and political outcomes. He also discusses how the organising leading up to June 13 and results on the day position the movement for the protests and actions planned between now and the Copenhagen conference in December, and during 2010.
If you're aware of interesting campaign evaluations, if you're working on evaluation processes and tools or keen to learn, we'd love to hear from you.
Check out our advocacy evaluation action research project, dip into the Innovation Network's excellent Advocacy Evaluation resources or contact James >
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what's new on www.thechangeagency.org
... Speaking of campaign evaluation, we're pleased to share the latest in a series of papers by Justin Whelan, one of tCA's associates. Justin's previous papers included a review of the literature on advocacy evaluation and evaluations of Uniting Justice's Work Justice campaign and the Australian movement to reconcile human rights and counter-terrorism (available from our case studies and articles and papers pages.
Building from these, Justin's most recent paper analyses the campaign against Australia's involvement in the Iraq war, providing an insider's reflections on the efforts of anti-war coalitions and the broader movement. Justin draws on social movement theories including Bill Moyer's Movement Action Plan.
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great online resources
 | Check out Ethical Jobs now - or join the facebook group.
| | Center for the Study of Strategic Nonviolent Defense - A virtual center that represents an international network of researchers, educators, translators, writers and activists with the common goal of promoting the education of nonviolent action as the most effective method of causing social change. Resources in both Farsi and English.
| | Tactical technology collective - Tactical Tech works to advance the skills, tools and techniques of rights advocates, empowering them to utilise information and communications as a critical asset in helping marginalised communities understand and affect progressive social, environmental and political change.
| | TPM Cafe: Bookclub - An online discussion group - during June it focused on 'Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement' by Marshall Ganz. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the starting article.
| | Farmworker Movement Documentation Project - This project seeks to compile and publish primary source accounts from the volunteers who worked with Cesar Chavez to build his farmworker movement during the period, 1962-1993. Si Se Puede! (Yes, we can!)
| | Reclaiming community legal centres - Nicole Rich discusses why it is so important that Community Legal Centres (CLCs) engage in more than individual service work (direct legal advice, assistance and representation), in particular policy and law reform work, even with the large amount of unmet legal need in the Australian community. The report analyses several interesting developments in the US that could perhaps be adapted for use by Australian CLCs, including leveraging individual casework, strategic campaign planning, and law and organising.
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upcoming learning opportunities
Our online calendar has details of many more events and opportunities. Contact us if you have something to add to the calendar.
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 | Communities with power: Advocating for human rights in war and conflict #4 > July 25 - This introduction to humanitarian protection will look at mechanisms used for increasing the safety of civilians and the roles of different actors working in wars and conflicts, such as local communities, local NGOs, international humanitarian agencies, the UN and others. It will explore how to build relationships with these actors. 11am-4pm. (This is the first of a series of workshops. Check tCA's calendar for further details).
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Printable version
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