Header

What's on top?

 As you read this month's enews, we'll be kicking off the first of four residential workshops in our Community Organising Fellowship. We've recruited a cohort of campaign leaders from around the country and look forward to the six month program together: learning, sharing and connecting.

Enjoy these links, resources and events. And don't be a stranger... drop us a line to share in next month's edition.

---
What do community organisers DO

What do community organisers DO?

Organisers are sometimes described as 'Jack of all trades'. It can be a complex and demanding role. To make sense of the role, the Change Agency synthesised recent position descriptions developed by social movement groups. We then cross-referenced that with education and training programs to identify eleven key attributes and skills associated with powerful organising work: Establish organising objectives, priorities, strategy …

Read more.

---
education vs training

Education or training? What's the difference and why does it matter?

Training prepares people to do simple tasks reliably. It's generally very practical and focuses on the competent completion of tasks. Education develops skills and knowledge. It involves forming and communicating ideas, developing and challenging understandings and learning to conceptualise and solve problems. Community organising and campaigning are not basic skills or competencies that can be learnt through training. Certainly some of the …

Read more.

---
Community organising graduate profile: Ellen Roberts

Community organising graduate profile: Ellen Roberts

Ellen is a graduate of the 2014 Fellowship program and is currently a coordinator with the Mackay Conservation Group. Why are you passionate about Community Organising? Why is organising an important part of the solution in your community?  Central Queensland has been feeling the impacts of coal and coal seam gas for decades, with thousands of gas wells and huge coal …

Read more.

---
Martin Luther King Jr

Education and social action... inexplicably intertwined

'Education without social action is a one-sided value because it has no true power potential. Social action with education is a weak expression of pure energy. Deeds uninformed by educated thought can take false directions. When we go into action and confront our adversaries, we must be armed with knowledge as they. Our policies should have the strength of deep …

Read more.

---

Great online resources

Enews subscribers regularly share with us the websites and online resources they’re developing, discovering and learning from in their community organising. Enjoy this month’s batch and be sure to drop us a line to suggest links for the next enews.

global learning

Global learning: leadership & teams training

Successful leadership relies on finely-honed skills of listening, questioning (including oneself) and asserting. Our innovative workshops and coaching sessions develop these skills through shared understanding and openness in groups.

Read more.

---
Fed up with politics? Join the club - and try to change the status quo

Fed up with politics? Join the club - and try to change the status quo

Amanda Tattersall writes: "That's how we get our democracy back – it starts with hundreds of thousands of one-to-one conversations. When we share where we have come from, and our aspirations, then we make change. That is the road to a civilised society."

Read more.

---
pathways

Transformative Scale: The future of growing what works

Jeffrey Bradach and Abe Grindle describe nine strategies to deliver impact at a scale that truly meets needs... nine approaches that hold real promise for addressing at a transformative scale a number of major social problems: Distribute through existing platforms Recruit (and train) others to deliver the solution Unbundle and scale up the parts that have the greatest impact Use technology to reach a …

Read more.

---

Upcoming learning opportunities and events

For details of other workshops and learning opportunities, visit our calendar.

board builder

Board builder conference | Melbourne, 23 February

Refresh. Renew. Reinvigorate. Board work means hard graft under difficult conditions. It also means immense satisfaction and reward when the pay-off comes. But getting to that point requires renewal along the way. You can't continue the journey if the tank is empty. The country needs visionary leaders as it's never needed them before. It needs your talent, your time and …

Read more.

---
peace teams

Sharing wisdom and inspiring deeper peace team practice | 27 February, Melbourne

Symposium: How peace team work can challenge colonialism and oppression. Share key learnings across teams. All welcome. $50 suggested donation, including lunch. Register please. The symposium will be preceded by a public information night 'The role of peace teams in global solidarity and anti militarism movements' from 6-9pm on Friday 26 February. Hear from returned peace team members and leaders in peace team organisations. $10 …

Read more.

---
Training for Transformation | Melbourne, 2 March

Training for Transformation | Melbourne, 2 March

A Popular Education Model for Community Change - based on the methodology of Paolo Freire What is popular eduction? What are the goals and methodologies of popular education that can bring about the transformation of people’s lives? Paulo Freire conceived the idea of popular education (often described as ‘education for critical consciousness’) as a teaching methodology. It is a process …

Read more.

---
Changeology | Melbourne, 28-29 April

Changeology | Melbourne, 28-29 April

This expert class in program design focuses on achieving change in complex social environments. You'll get the concepts, tools, and systematic approach you need to design interventions that make a difference to seemingly intractable health, environmental and social problems. And along the way you'll get the secrets to enable populations or groups to adopt new behaviours. Full workshop details.

Read more.

---
Changeology | Sydney, 5-6 May

Changeology | Sydney, 5-6 May

This expert class in program design focuses on achieving change in complex social environments. You'll get the concepts, tools, and systematic approach you need to design interventions that make a difference to seemingly intractable health, environmental and social problems. And along the way you'll get the secrets to enable populations or groups to adopt new behaviours. Full workshop details.

Read more.

---
Fletcher Summer Institute

Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict | Boston, 7-12 June

Civil resistance campaigns for rights, freedom, and justice are capturing the world’s attention as never before. Campaigns to protect democracy in Hong Kong, for women’s rights in India, for indigenous rights in Latin America, for police accountability in the United States, against violence in Mexico, against corruption in Cambodia, against growing autocracy in Ukraine and against dictatorship in Burkina Faso …

Read more.

---
books

Graduate Certificate in Community Advocacy 2015

Enrolments are open for the 2015 Graduate Certificate in Community Advocacy. This is an excellent opportunity for change agents to deepen their skills and knowledge through a unique accredited course. The Graduate Certificate draws on the latest knowledge about effective campaigning as well as established theoretical frameworks for understanding and promoting social justice and ecological sustainability. Participants will be supported to …

Read more.

---

VCOSS training calendar: Our Community

Upcoming training opportunities on grant writing, successful boards, effective meetings, governance, media, online essentials, campaigns that sizzle, and being an effective spokesperson. Our Community has developed a suite of affordable, practical training to help community sector staff, volunteers and supporters keep abreast of their responsibilities and learn how to lift their organisation from ordinary to extraordinary All training is delivered by …

Read more.

---

Join tCA'S Facebook group

One way to connect with other social movement educators and researchers. Click the icon below.

---

We acknowledge that we live on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s country.