People, Power and passion

What's on top?

It's got to be time for a break! Here's hoping for well-earnt break: beach, hammocks, sleeping in, connecting with family and friends, reflecting and regrouping.

It's going to be a focused and productive 2016. We've recruited a terrific cohort for the Community Organising Fellowship and have a strong line-up of guest facilitators for the four residential workshops. And we're working in partnership on a new leadership program for women environmentalists. Expressions of interest for CUSP are open now.

On Sunday 13 March, we'll host a one-day Community Organising workshop in Sydney with David Hunt. David is a deeply experienced community organiser and educator who for many years was part of the MidWest Academy's team training community organisers. David will join us as a guest facilitator for the first workshop in our 2016 Community Organising Fellowship and stay on for this Sydney workshop. Be sure to drop us a line to register. Places are strictly limited.

Women leading in environment action | 2016 workshop series

Women environmentalists in Australia have asked for a women’s environmental leadership program and we are excited to announce that we are launching a national program in 2016 in collaboration with the Change Agency. Cooking up a Storm Program (CUSP) is designed to recognise women’s extraordinary environmental leadership in Australia and support them and their campaigns into the future at this …

Community organising for climate justice

Graduates of our Community Organising Fellowship played key leadership roles in the People’s Climate March in November. Around the world, three-quarters of a million people marched to encourage their leaders to take strong commitments to Paris. Marches were held in 50 cities and towns right around Australia. Their leadership speaks volumes about the impact of the Fellowship... and about what …

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.

New Zealand Fellowship > applications open now

First round applications close on 15 December for our first New Zealand Fellowship – an intensive skills turbo boost in advocacy and campaigning for leading changemakers. The fellowship involves five evening webinars with expert presenters, and is book-ended by two intensive 4-day retreats, and kicks off on March 17. It will bring together a diverse cohort of fellows – talented campaigners, activists, organisers, communicators and …

THE ART OF STORYTELLING, ACCORDING TO THE FOUNDERS OF STORYCORPS AND HUMANS OF NEW YORK

Engage deeply. Interrupt kindly. People aren’t very good at knowing how to tell their own stories, says Stanton, and that means that they’re often vague and imprecise. Cutting through that is part of the interviewer’s job. “Interviewing someone is a very proactive process and requires taking a lot of agency into your own hands to get past people’s general normal self-preservation …

Hahrie Han on how relationships improve mobilisation

I have shocking news for you: people are more likely to take action if a relationship exists. The are particular ideas associated with relational engagement, and using these ideas can improve mobilisation outcomes... "Responsiveness can take multiple forms, from helping partners meet goals they cannot meet along, to demonstrating enthusiasm for a partner's goals, to demonstrating interest in choices they …

Learning from the ground up: Education for change

Aziz Choudry writes: "Social movements are not only significant sites of struggle for social and political change. They also represent important – albeit contested and contradictory- spaces of learning, knowledge production and research. Acknowledged or not, social movements have made important pedagogical, theoretical and political contributions to the fields of adult education, and schooling more broadly."

Bird-dogging

Bird-dogging has nothing to do with animals and everything to do with grassroots power in action! To bird-dog is to “observe, follow, monitor and/or seek out with persistent attention.” Basically, you show up at the candidates’ events, ask them to commit and ask them questions they don’t want to answer in order to get them on the record and to educate …

Upcoming learning opportunities and events

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

SENIOR LEADERSHIP STRATEGY SESSION WITH HAHRIE HAN | 1 February, Sydney

Do you playing a leading role in a large organisation looking for growth in membership, engagement and impact? If so, don’t miss this intimate half day strategy masterclass with international visitor Hahrie Han, author of “How Organisations Develop Activists”! This will be Hahrie’s only public Australian event and places are strictly limited. Hahrie, an Associate Professor at UC Santa Barbara, is …

Community organising: issues and strategy | Sunday 13 March, Sydney

A one-day workshop with David Hunt and the Change Agency Join David Hunt and the Change Agency team for this day-long interactive adventure into advocacy and organising to build power to win. David Hunt is an internationally recognised teacher and leader in organising for social change. Using a variety of community organising techniques, David has taught the fundamentals of organising to …

Groupwork Institute 2016 training calendar

Full details of the Groupwork Institute's 2016 training calendar Facilitation Training 2 days training - March 8th & March 9th, 2016 Collaborative Leadership 2 days training - March 22nd & 23rd, 2016 Supervision and Performance Management 2 days training - April 19th & 20th, 2016 Facilitation Training 2 days training - May 24th & May 25th, 2016 Facilitation Training 2 days training - August 16th …

2015 AUSTRALIAN PROGRESS FELLOWSHIP |

Applications for 2016 Fellowships in Sydney, New Zealand and Queensland are now open. The Centre for Australian Progress Fellowship Program is a leadership course for a specific type of leader: people working to change the world through public advocacy and campaigning. Graduates of the Fellowship Program are fluent in campaign strategy and theory of change, and confident in using a full suite of campaign tactics. Most importantly, …

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