Powerful social movements

What's on top?

This year's Community Organising Fellowship kicked off late February with a 10 day residential workshop on Sydney harbour. The facilitation team included James, Fee and Kate. We were joined by Dave and Suzanne from the Sierra Club and a line-up of fabulous guest speakers and facilitators. We're especially grateful to Amanda Tattersall who led a participatory workshop on relational meetings and Joan Staples who shared reflections on her thirty years of environmental campaigning. Thanks everyone for making the workshop a powerful learning experience (and fun).

This month's enews includes a profile of one of our 2014 Fellowship graduates, links to some great new resources for activists and organisers, and updates about learning opportunities including the Progress 2015 civil society gathering in Melbourne. See you there?

Community Organising Graduate Profile: Millie Telford

Millie Telford (at left in this photo) is a graduate of the 2014 Fellowship program and is currently the Director of the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network. Why is community organising an important part of the solution in my community? People are our most valuable resource as a movement. I truly believe that if we can organise ourselves in the face of a …

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.

Axioms for organisers

Axioms for Organizers by Fred Ross, Sr., Trailblazer for Social Justice is a collection of organizing wisdom from decades of fighting for social justice and equality throughout the United States and around the world. Download from iBooks for $2.99.

Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: an organizing guide

Daniel Hunter's accessible organizing guide puts tools in your hands to help you and your group understand how to make meaningful, effective change. Learn about your role in movement-building and how to pick and build campaigns that contribute towards a bigger mass movement against the largest penal system in the world. This important new resource offers examples from this and other …

The New Now: Working Together for Social Change

The recent victories related to the rights of LGBT people have been astounding. The success on LGBT issues, especially marriage equality, is often attributed to a coordinated, unwavering, laser-sharp focus on changing policy at both the state and federal levels. So it is interesting that a different approach is also evolving where LGBT advocates and organizations are working to address …

Nonviolent Struggle: 50 crucial points

This book is a primer on applying strategic nonviolent action in real campaigns. The techniques outlined in the following 15 chapters have been used successfully in many parts of the world. Contained in the book are lessons learned from many long and difficult nonviolent struggles against nondemocratic regimes and other opponents of basic human freedoms. The book is written for …

Upcoming learning opportunities and events

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

Progress 2015 | Melbourne, May 7-9

At Progress we’ll discuss new and bold ideas for our country’s future – and, more importantly, explore how we can strengthen our organisations and movements to make them happen. Progress 2015 will convene a who’s who of Australia’s leading campaigners and change-makers. You’ll hear from Australian and world-leading experts on the latest approaches to campaigning and behaviorial change, attend panels and workshops …

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.

Changeology | Melbourne, 28-29 April

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 …

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