The Change Agency team support effective community action is by designing and facilitating workshops. Generally, these are tailored to the priorities and circumstances of our project partners. From time to time, we also run workshops that are promoted widely and open to campaigners from diverse progressive social movements.
We have facilitated workshops with hundreds of groups, organisations and networks, representing most social movements: human rights activists, environmentalists, indigenous activists, queers, disability advocates, unionists and union educators, feminists, people working for economic justice… Click here for a list of organisations we’ve worked with since 2005.
What workshop themes do we offer?
Becoming an effective change agent or creating an effective community organisation requires continual learning and a very wide range of skills, understandings and capacities. Activist educators have theorised about what and how effective activists learn. We’re guided by the priorities of our partners and the social movements we work most closely with. We aim to complement rather than duplicate other education, training and facilitation opportunities that are available in the Asia Pacific region.
The themes we most regularly run workshops on include:
community organising: mobilising for change
Community organising builds power in workplaces and communities by facilitating effective grassroots participation. In the USA and UK, this approach has built the power among networks and alliances of active and informed communities. Community organising differs from...
facilitation
This experiential workshop helps participants facilitate meetings that address both the task and maintenance dimensions of group life – meetings that achieve results and build groups that are sustainable and enjoyable. Participants develop a shared understanding of...
learning organisations and evaluation
Saul Alinksy noted that some of the most effective organisers and activists use campaigns and social movements as learning opportunities. This workshop explores opportunities and strategies to more consciously capture learnings we acquire through social action, and...
movement action plan
U.S. activist-educator Bill Moyer conceived Movement Action Plan (MAP) to explain and explore the stages and advocacy roles evident in successful social movements. The model’s apparent simplicity may hold the key to its appeal and practical application to...
nonviolent direct action (NvDA) and civil disobedience
Violence is often viewed as the ultimate revolutionary means: the gun-wielding guerrilla, the brick- throwing student and the militant terrorist are all common images of the struggle against authority. This workshop unpacks that assumption and explores how to respond...
scenario based campaigning workshop
This workshop throws participants into a realistic campaign scenario where they build alliances, identify and lobby decision-makers, convene public meetings, issue media releases and develop strategy on the run. New trigger events keep coming, forcing players to...
social movement educate the educator ed2
Activist education is conducted by and with activists, is openly interested in the processes of change, and utilises educational methods that bring about change toward social justice. Activist education builds a sense of personal agency in the learning environment. We...
Strategising for change
This workshop introduces a suite of practical tools for developing and evaluating campaign strategy. Workshop participants apply these tools to real-life problems to develop realistic strategies and tactics. The tools are suitable for both small grassroots groups and...
sustaining activism
Activist energy is a precious resource. Activism can be incredibly stressful and emotionally demanding, and many activists keep ‘running on empty’ without taking the time to replenish their reserves. Resulting burn-out harms the individual as well as the campaigns and...