Organizing Training and Resources Bank

Downloadable Resources

Welcome! This collection of organizing trainings, manuals, worksheets, and more is a labor of love put together by Power Shift Network members and allies.

PSN recognizes that young organizers, communities of color, low-income communities, and those most directly impacted by climate crisis need a baseline of theory and skills as a foundation for our justice movements. While capitalism perpetually suggests that competition is key, we know that to thrive, we must collaborate, pool our resources, and decentralize access to learning. So save your limited time and energy by uplifting the great work of your fellow leaders and utilizing their wonderful resources.

Want to share a tool you created with others, or know of a great resource that belongs in this bank? This is a living, evolving project, and we invite you to help us co-create it. Click here to submit a resource to the bank.

Have comments, questions, or feedback? Email us at theteam@powershift.org.

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    Multiply and Mobilize Part Two: Understanding this Political Moment

    Recording/Webinar

    In Part Two of our Webinar Series, we take stock of some of the big themes emerging under this right wing populist administration, and learn from past movements to better navigate the future. We look at two models for understanding and locating social movement responses: the Building Power model from Project South, and the 8 Stages of Movement Building model.

  • Mutual Aid

    A workshop on mutual aid, solidarity, & building grassroots power

    Recording/Webinar

    Drawing on the wisdom of participants we explore mutual aid and solidarity, and what makes it distinct from charity. We also share experiences, insights, and lessons learned doing mutual aid during disasters from Hurricane Katrina to the Coronavirus pandemic.

    Here is Kourtney's amazing Community Defense: Beginners Guide & Interactive Workbook. This is for you and your community members to go through the process of building a community defense system together. This resource includes context on mutual aid and community defense, a step by step process for generating this support in your community, as well as examples from Kourtney's own organizing experiences. 

     

  • Leadership Development

    Academics & Public Scholars Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from academics and public scholars' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

  • Digital Organizing

    Activist Tech Security

    Recording/Webinar

    As we continue to organize through the collapse of late stage capitalism and the rise of fascism, we will experience increased state surveillance.

    We need to organize in ways that strategically avoid and counter the tracking, targeting, and isolating of activists and ultimately prevent one another from being trafficked into the criminal punishment system.

    In this webinar, you will learn how to stay safe, secure, and encrypted while organizing.

  • Social Movements

    Agriculture & Food Justice Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from agriculture and food justice organizers' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

  • Climate Justice

    Angela Davis, Destiny Hodges, & Jamie Margolin in Conversation

    Recording/Webinar

    Two youth organizers speak with activist incon Angela Davis about the hopelessness organizing work can bring, how activism has changed over the years, and more.

    Destiny hodges, angela davis + jamie margolin in conversation

     

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    Anti-Protest Legislation: Implications for Social Movements

    Recording/Webinar

    Since the end of 2016, nearly 60 bills have been proposed in state legislatures which limit the right to protest or remove liability for harm caused to protesters. A panel of civil liberties experts will give an overview of all these bills, focusing in particular on so-called “Critical Infrastructure” and “Campus Free Speech” legislation. Strategies and resources for challenging these bills will be provided.

  • Climate Change Communications

    Artists and Designers Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from artists and designers' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

     

  • Narrative Building

    Authors & Journalists Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from authors and journalists alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement. You'll get to hear panelists speak on how you use your skills as a writer in the movement and more.

     

     

  • Leadership Development

    Biologists & Scientists Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from biologists and scientists' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement. 

  • Leadership Development

    BIPOC Leaders on Careers in Environmental Organizations

    Recording/Webinar

    This panel examines how young activists who are interested in working in the environmental field long term can navigate historical inequities. The panelists will discuss their own trajectories and experiences on their work from a personal and professional perspective. This conversation will include both early and seasoned professionals as they provide their reflections and advice for young activists.

  • Climate Change Communications

    Breathe This Air: Intersectional Storytelling for Power Building

    Recording/Webinar

    We talk about the anatomy of intersectional storytelling and its true power, and our panelists will talk about how to ground our intellectual / policy / legislative needs in personal lived experience--which creates power through authenticity.

  • Campaign Development

    Build More Powerful Campaigns with Social Science

    Recording/Webinar

    Watch this to learn some of the essential takeaways to improve your organizing with insights from social science.  You’ll find answers to questions like: Many people are taking political action for the first time, but how do we keep them taking action? What insights from research can help us structure volunteer programs that support leadership development and engagement with our organizations and campaigns for the long term? How do organizations facing a surge of activism after the 2016 election convert it into a long‐term base of support? The webinar focuses on examples from climate space, but we think the insights presented can be applied to organizing on other issues.

  • Allyship

    Building Power After Biden's Climate Summit: A Global South Perspective

    Recording/Webinar

    This session reflects on the outcome of the Biden Climate Summit and the needs from the Global South. It will be a roundtable discussion of the ways that youth in the US can play a role in supporting the global south, international politics, and the intersection of gender in these actions.

    The session makes space for a critical discussion of the implications of US policy on climate change on a global level. We also want to offer opportunities for participants to get involved in international campaigns, like the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and Earth Power. We will introduce the Treaty and Earth Power as a solution on how to localize international coordination to achieve a 1.5 goal. We will be tying the moral obligation the US has to take this on to the Biden Climate Summit, and critiquing the summit on what implementation has traditionally looked like.
     

  • Digital Organizing

    Building Your Twitter Following - Tools Update

    Recording/Webinar

    You can grow your Twitter account for organizing by up to 250 followers per week. Using an effective tool for that is critical. Many groups use Tweepi, but recently started seeing their Twitter accounts blocked. Tweepi has now re-worked its approach. This webinar walks through tips for using the new version of Tweepi and want to learn about how such a tool can be helpful.

  • Campaign Development

    Campaign Strategy 101

    Recording/Webinar

    This training provides an overview of the campaign strategy methodology used by Beyond the Bomb and taught at the Maryland Institute College of Arts Center for Social Design. This is a field developed and tested methodology which incorporates best practices and lessons learned from decades of movement history into a framework for modern campaigning. This session is designed to provide all participants with the skills needed to build strategic, targeted campaigns that maximize the impact of resources, build sustained power for the long term, and unite campaigners across issue areas to achieve systemic change.

  • AntiOppression

    CIRCLE: Ableism and Our Movements 9.21.20

    Recording/Webinar

    To acknowledge what true liberation looks like, we have to acknowledge that most people that are impacted by the systems we talk about are disabled. 

  • Political Education

    Climate Change Negotiations: How Domestic Policy and International Policy Intersect

    Recording/Webinar

    The Paris Agreement provides a framework for how countries are supposed to work together to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius warming on average. Each country makes a pledge to commiting to its fair share of climate action. Our international, youth-led coalition pushed for ambitious targets and climate justice and equity leading up to the US climate pledge (Biden Leaders Summit on Climate), as well as in pledges around the world. It is important that we understand what decisions are being made and have the resources to demand just, equitable solutions from our leaders. We want participants to understand the international policy conversations around climate change that are happening, deepen knowledge around the role that the US plays in the conversation, and identify ways to build collective power on just implementation of the US pledge. 

  • Community Engagement

    Climate Resilience & Religion: Where Do Places of Worship Fit In?

    Recording/Webinar

    Climate Resilience & Religion explores the ways different places of worship incorporate sustainability into their spaces, a topic especially appropriate for youth who seek the spiritual support of religious communities as they confront the extreme urgency of taking action in our current climate crisis. This session includes an interfaith discussion about how places of worship can and do integrate sustainable strategies into their spaces, through the lens of climate justice and community care. 

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    College Climate Activism 101

    Recording/Webinar

    Join us as we talk with current student organizers about their current college activism, what they think is uniquely powerful about student organizing, and how you may get started on your campus

  • Climate Justice

    Demystifying Renewable Energy Development and Green Jobs

    Recording/Webinar

    This workshop will educate participants on how the electricity sector works (the largest contributor to climate change), and how everyone can be part of changing that system. Our goal as an organization is to provide access to all the benefits of cleantech and solar energy to youth activists via flexible paid remote jobs, and to utility ratepayers by offering an opportunity to divest from fossil fuels and save on their monthly bill. Far too often youth labor is taken for granted and discredited. Yet, there is immense knowledge, skill, and power within our community. This workshop will empower young activists with the knowledge that there is an opportunity to utilize our passion and people skills in green jobs. 

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    Do we need a global treaty to manage a just transition?

    Recording/Webinar

    This session introduces the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is a general session walking through the concept of a Treaty featuring the voices from our global network, including leaders from the Global South, youth, journalists, and activists.

    We make a case for why a Treaty specifically focused on fossil fuels is required to compliment the Paris Agreement and to ensure an equitable transition away from coal, oil, and gas. 

  • Campaign Development

    Don't Wait Until a Crisis Hits: Get Your Organization Ready for a Rapid Response Campaign

    Recording/Webinar

    Watch this recorded webinar to 1- learn the ins and outs of rapid-response campaigning 2- get the inside story of Equality North Carolina's powerful rapid response campaign against the dangerous anti-LGBTQ legislation in the state 3- learn the steps to integrate rapid-response infrastructure into your workflow so next time major news breaks in your issue area you’ll be ready

  • Community Engagement

    Energy Democracy - what is it and radical steps moving forward

    Recording/Webinar

    Green Neighbor Challenge and Power Shift Network co-hosted an introductory conversation on Energy Democracy including

    - what it is

    - why it matters (in general & in the climate justice movement)

    - the radical steps to take towards a just, clean future for all

  • Community Engagement

    Energy Democracy in Action: Youth participation in Rural Electric Cooperatives

    Recording/Webinar

    Rural Electric Cooperatives serve more than 40 million people whose households have an ownership stake and a right to vote on the governing Boards of their utility. Young people can get involved in many ways, whether or not the utility has specific programs for youth, and democratic participation can make a difference! Three member-owner all-stars in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia host this session office hours to talk about ways to get involved in good governance and accelerate investment in local clean energy upgrades that create local jobs. 

  • Community Defense

    Engaging Your Lawmakers on Climate Action

    Recording/Webinar

    This session will provide young people the tools they need to meet with their lawmakers on the important issues they care about. The session will be led by Defend Our Future and Our Climate student leaders who are working on climate justice and clean energy. They take participants through an arc of engagement - from how to request your meeting, dos and don'ts during an office visit, and steps for remaining engaged with your lawmaker and their office. 

    Too often, people of color - and their communities - are not at the decision-making table. We want to help change that by providing our experience and opportunities so that others can raise their voices on the issues that will impact us all.

  • Climate Justice

    Engineers & Architects Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from engineers and architects' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

  • Climate Justice

    Environmental Justice & Energy Democracy: The Wow and the Real

    Recording/Webinar

    Presenters Bob Blake, Janiece Watts, Marcus Mills and Timothy DenHerder-Thomas engage in a hard-hitting conversation about the many elements of navigating, achieving and changing lives for the better, in the real world of Energy Democracy and Environmental Justice innovation in the midst of the dense, ever shifting and complex landscapes of Minnesota’s massive environmental movement.

  • Digital Organizing

    Facebook-Optimized Videos for Organizers

    Recording/Webinar

    Learn how organizers are using short Facebook-optimized videos to mobilize audiences. You’ll learn the secret formula for creating videos that get watched and shared. You'll also pick up the skills needed to film, edit, and launch your videos on Facebook and other platforms.

  • Community Accountability

    Failures of Human-Centered Design Thinking the Future of Ecosystemic Design

    Recording/Webinar

    Failures of Human-Centered Design Thinking the Future of Ecosystemic Design

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    Fight Against Industry-Generated Misinformation

    Recording/Webinar

    Since 2010, petrochemical industries have used false/misleading messages developed for a “debunk Cancer Alley Myth” campaign to deny and downplay health risks, avoid environmental regulation, and influence public opinion. This session will provide specific examples showing how continued promotion and use of the industry-generated misinformation by facility spokespersons, elected representatives, and government health and environmental officials exacerbate health and economic disparities. Affected Cancer Alley residents will give personal accounts of the resulting range of devastating health impacts. Presentations will be followed by a facilitated discussion and session participants will be invited to join a new initiative employing evidence-based practices designed to neutralize industry-generated disinformation and promote meaningful progress on Environmental Justice and climate change.

  • Community Engagement

    Freedom Dreaming 4 Collective Liberation

    Recording/Webinar

    In this session organizers from Youth Vs Apocalypse ground folks in the reality of what we are up against, which is a society built upon the belief and practice that people are disposable. This is the true cause of the climate crisis. Because of this, climate justice has to be about dismantling all of the foundational systems of oppression that perpetuate that practice and belief. But, how can we get there if we can't envision what it will look, feel, smell, taste, sound like? In this workshop we will freedom dream so we can win!
     

  • AntiOppression

    From Roots to Fruits: El Paso's colonial tradition and how to break free from it

    Recording/Webinar

    A look into the history of colonialism in the El Paso region and how the combination of capitalist conditions will motivate new liberation struggles. In this presentation, the influences of imperialist interventions and insurrectionary revolts are compared to the modern problems faced in and around the El Paso-Juarez metropolis, with the hopes of charting a way beyond the colonial organization of labor and power

  • Community Building

    From Wildfire Crisis to Community Resilience - Charting a Just Transition

    Recording/Webinar

    This video is about the devastating wildfires across the west that happened during the summer of 2020. Despite the odds, impacted communities at the frontlines of this season’s wildfires are banding together, building inspiring networks of mutual aid and stepping up hand-in-hand to create solutions to protect lives and homes. In this discussion, you will hear from the voices of those who have been most impacted, and explore effective, community-centered solutions towards future wildfire safety.

  • Fundraising

    Funders Panel and Q & A

    Recording/Webinar

    A panel of program officers from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Solutions Project and the Compton Foundation answered previosuly-submitted questions about foundation-based fundraising in the youth climate movement.

  • Fundraising

    Fundraising 101 with Lydia

    Recording/Webinar

    Lydia Avila, PSN's ex-ED, goes through the basics of fundraising through private foundations: the typical process for building a relationship with the foundation and applying for a grant. She also covers the basic parts of a proposal and shares best practices for follow up and reporting.

  • Social Movements

    Gender and Climate Action

    Recording/Webinar

    Gender identification can impact how the climate crisis affects communities and individuals. In order to understand these effects, we need to understand and recognize the different ways in which gender plays a role in combating the climate crises and can act as a barrier for some individuals. This discussion will allow the audience to reflect on how gender is an important part of climate change discussions. 

  • Leadership Development

    Getting a job in the climate & environmental movements

    Recording/Webinar

    Join PSN's ED Dany as she walks through best practices and demystifies the hiring process for young professionals looking for full-time, salaried work in the climate and environmental movements.
     

  • Digital Organizing

    Getting Started with Facebook Live

    Recording/Webinar

    Watch this webinar to learn how you can use Facebook Live to amplify your next action and bring people into the movement. This webinar covers: 1- The basics of Facebook Live - how to broadcast, how to build an audience, and how to interact with viewers 2- How to move people from Facebook spectators to movement participants 3- The gear that will improve the quality of your broadcast.

  • Community Accountability

    Government & Policy Making Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from government and policy makers' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

  • Narrative Building

    Graphic Design Using Canva

    Recording/Webinar

    This is a Canva 101 training for organizers who are looking to expand their graphic design skills to build a brand for their movement. 

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    Hearing from Successful Divestment Campaigns

    Recording/Webinar

    In this webinar, we will hear answers to these questions and more from a panel of organizers from divestment campaigns that won. No two campaigns are alike, but we aim to equip current student organizers with skills, strategy, and wisdom that they can use to move decision-makers and their campuses.

  • Narrative Building

    How to use story-based strategy to win campaigns, build movements and change the world

    Recording/Webinar

    As the resistance fights back in the era of “alternative facts,” making meaning through effective framing has never been more important. Progressive movements face threats in every arena, and we must remember that while the facts may be on our side, we need to tell our stories in ways that are strategic, compelling, and actionable. 1- Learn about narrative power analysis and the elements of a winning campaign story; 2- Reflect on inspiring examples of effective framing and storytelling from contemporary movements like #BlackLivesMatter, climate justice, anti-war and migrant justice; 3-Get tools to strengthen your own narrative strategies.

  • Immigration/Migration/Refugee

    Immigration + Climate Justice

    Recording/Webinar

    We are witnessing modern day low-intensity war zones in areas like the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. treats migrants and immigrants as enemies by blurring lines between security, policing, and war. The U.S. and Global North’s emissions of greenhouse gases force many to leave their home to find more stable environments where they can expect to find food, water, and relative safety compared to the home they’re fleeing. As the climate crisis worsens, the more militarized borders and climate related protests become. PSN's 2nd discussion for our fall webinar series dove into the U.S. immigration system and its impact on our movement for climate justice and collective liberation.

  • AntiOppression

    Imperialism and International Solidarity

    Recording/Webinar

    The Phoenix Environmental Justice Coalition tells the story of colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism and its effects on the land and people. They identify the military-industrial complex/prison industrial complex as the enforcers of these systems and connects it to the nationwide and international Black Lives Matter movement. This is an educational presentation calling for international solidarity, migrant justice, environmental justice, climate justice, and prison/military abolition.

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    International cooperation for a just transition

    Recording/Webinar

    This session is a discussion on the need to go beyond divestment strategies with global leaders and scientists, flagging that market shifts alone will cause inequity and humanitarian disasters, and identifying the need for governments to agree on an equitable global framework to manage the just transition away from fossil fuels to ensure energy access for all.

    The purpose of this session is to create space for a critical strategy discussion on how to end the harmful extractive practices around the world through a fossil fuel phase out. After this session, you will be able to create local action, urging your governmental bodies to act by endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, and not continue to talk exclusively about divestment and finance strategies.

  • Climate Justice

    Intersectional Organizing: Fair Trade, Climate & Racial Justice

    Recording/Webinar

    This session will explore Fair Trade Campaigns' model of organizing for Fair Trade on college campuses and in communities across the U.S., one that is based on collaboration, education, inclusion and stakeholder engagement. We will also explore the intersections that can be drawn between Fair Trade advocacy and climate & racial justice. The session will provide tips and best practices for effective organizing and engage attendees as thought partners around intersectionality across movements.

  • Climate Justice

    Intersectionalities of Racism (Climate & Environmental Justice)

    Recording/Webinar

    This session highlights the interconnecting through-lines between racism, colonialism, class/racial caste warfare and the climate / EJ movement, and enrich participants' historical contextual knowledge of where the roots of structural racism connect even the most innocuous nad ubiquitous aspects of everyday life, especially those where the EJ movement is struggling to succeed.

  • Mutual Aid

    Introduction to Mutual Aid and Community Defense

    Recording/Webinar

    We talk with 3 organizers about their experience doing community defense work in various settings. We’ll also offer a brief introduction to an interactive Community Defense Beginners Guide & Interactive Workbook created by PSN’s very own social media lead, Kourtney Dunning.
     

  • Community Defense

    Lawyers Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from biologists and scientists' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    Mapping the Right: Reflections and Resistance

    Recording/Webinar

    This two-hour webinar features movement leaders and organizers on the ground as they examine the rise of the conservative right and the failure of neo-liberalism, the impact of Trump trans-nationally, emerging global trends and alliances, and specific case studies of opportunites and threats, existing organizing infrastructures, paths of resistance and support for new economies in the south and rural U.S. Speakers brainstorm with each other and the audience to strategize around the critical role of the legal community in this political moment.

  • Community Engagement

    Mary Heglar & Amy Westervelt: "Taking Back The Climate Narrative"

    Recording/Webinar

    Power Shift 2021 Convergence, Taking Back The Climate Narrative, Mary Heglar, Amy Westervelt

     

    Watch the recording of the session here. 

  • Political Education

    Militarism 101

    Recording/Webinar

    This is an interactive workshop that grounds participants in a shared analysis of what we understand as “the problem” of militarism we are fighting against. What's covered in this workshop is the root causes of militarism and global policing, its intersections as climate justice, police abolition, gender justice issue, and more. We offer some paths forward for building a justice anti-militarist movement ecosystem that defunds war, policing, and invests in a regenerative and life-sustaining economy.

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    Moving Our States Off Fossil Fuels Webinar

    Recording/Webinar

    100% Renewable Energy bills are working their way through statehouses in CO, MD, NJ, NY and VA. These bills are incredibly important not only for their impact on our air, water, and climate but because they will set the standard for renewable energy legislation to come. States are often considered the "Laboratories of Democracy" and we have an opportunity in the coming months to make our case to the rest of the country. To help kickstart these efforts FWW hosts a Climate and Energy Webinar to look into state level renewable energy campaigns.

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    Multiply and Mobilize Part One: Narratives and Strategies for Resisting Divide and Conquer Tactics

    Recording/Webinar

    In Part One of our Webinar Series, we break down Divide & Conquer tactics and outline resistance strategies, utilizing storytelling as a way of better understanding how these tactics can impact our communities.

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    Multiply and Mobilize Part Three: When We Fight We Win – Building the Rebel Alliance

    Recording/Webinar

    In the third and final chapter of our Multiply and Mobilize webinar series, we dig deep into how we can be leveraging this political moment to build strong and effective alliances across difference for collective liberation.

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    No New Wine in Old Bottles Replacing FERC with FREC

    Recording/Webinar

     

    Beyond Extreme Energy and 250 other groups support replacing FERC, the fossil fuel rubber-stamping Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, with FREC, the Federal Renewable Energy Commission. FREC would have a mandate to help lead a justice-grounded, community-involving, urgent shift away from fossil fuels to renewables, battery storage, and efficiency. This session explains why this campaign emerged in connection with the Green New Deal initiative, what has happened in those two years, and how legislation in Congress combined with grassroots organizing can move this forward, and why it is so essential for major changes with FERC.

  • Climate Justice

    No Warming, No War: How militarism fuels the climate crisis and vice versa

    Recording/Webinar

    This interactive workshop is climate and militarism 101. This session will explore the relationship between climate change and militarism. Militarism directly contributes to climate change, and it represents one of the more alarming responses to climate threats and climate-related migration. But the U.S. war economy also presents an opportunity to redirect significant military resources, including money, infrastructure, and people, toward implementing solutions to climate change. Rooted in the strategy framework for a just transition, this interactive workshop will illustrate the role of militarism in the extractive economy and guide participants towards an articulation of climate justice that includes demilitarization.  

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    Non-Profit Work & Community Organizing Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from non-profit and community organizers' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

  • Facilitation and Running a Good Meeting

    Online Meeting Facilitation Tips & Resources

    Recording/Webinar

    Here is the Online Meeting Facilitation training recording and a quick 2-page summary of the tips shared. We know that we will need to continue growing our (virtual) facilitation skills to keep organizing for our communities no matter what. 

    We also encourage anyone looking to deepen their facilitation practice to check out the resources at Trainings for Change.

  • Climate Change Communications

    Online Youth Exchange

    Recording/Webinar

    Recordings of our Youth-led webinar trainings to discuss Issues, Solutions or Strategies related to climate change as it related to youth around the world. Connect & brainstorm with youth activists to develop replicable solutions to be implemented in your own community. 

  • Leadership Development

    Physical & Mental Health Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from physical and mental health professionals' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

     

  • Allyship

    Plant Medicine of Bvlbancha

    Recording/Webinar

    Learn about late summer blooms and about how to build relationships with the medicinal plants that grow around you. You'll even learn about some of the plants that will be around when you (hopefully) join us and thousands of young folks in Bvlbvncha for the Power Shift 2023 convergence.

  • Allyship

    Presentation on Allyship - QTPOC Advocacy Talk

    Recording/Webinar

    Speaker goes into detail of what it means to be a good ally, with a particular focus on Indigenous communities. Particularly good examples exist at 7:30-12:23 and 40:45-43:25.

  • Climate Justice

    Real Crisis, False Solutions

    Recording/Webinar

     This session dives into how some industry-backed climate solutions perpetuate harm.

  • AntiOppression

    Reproductive Justice & Climate Justice

    Recording/Webinar

    During this webinar, our Network Engagement Director, Eriqah Vincent, is in conversation with Ash Williams and Edith Valle where they discuss exactly what reproductive justice is, how decisions in politics and law are currently affecting us, tools and resources available as we navigate this war on our bodies together, and the not so obvious but ever present connections between reproductive justice and climate justice.

  • Community Accountability

    Shifting the Plastic Pollution Narrative: Holding corporations accountable and reclaiming zero waste

    Recording/Webinar

    For years, many of us have been told an incomplete, misleading story of plastic pollution. One that relies on individual behavior changes and consumer choices, like recycling and buying a reusable water bottle, to mitigate the problem. But to truly solve the plastic pollution crisis requires a far more radical approach to redesign the system at the source. It requires centering the voices of those most impacted by the problem, and holding accountable those most responsible for creating the problem in the first place.


    In this workshop, Break Free From Plastic movement organizers Melissa Aguayo and Sybil Bullock will share the real story of plastic pollution, highlighting the social and environmental justice elements at the core of this crisis.

  • Digital Organizing

    Snapchat for Organizers

    Recording/Webinar

    Organizers of all ages are using Snapchat to pressure targets, build community, and invigorate creative campaigns. Half of Snapchat’s growing user base is over 25. This webinar covers 1- What is Snapchat? Using Geofilters, understanding key terms, and the anatomy of an effective Snapchat account 2- The history of Snapchat, and its growing 25 and older audience 3- Why and how to use Snapchat in organizing 4- Examples of effective Snapchat campaigns and key takeaways for including Snapchat in your next campaign

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    Social Media & Communications Strategy

    Recording/Webinar

    On this call, organizers from divestment campaigns will share their social media and communications strategy and tactics for promoting actions, escalations, and their campaign in general. We will cover how to use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Slack, and other tools to promote divestment on campus.

  • Digital Organizing

    Social Media Strategy and Building Online to Offline Communities

    Recording/Webinar

    This training will explore the power and tactics of building community with individual activists online and how to strengthen coalitions with other organizations on social media to amplify content and help organizers reach their goals.

    Young people, across race and place, must make our voices heard and build the popular, multi-racial movement for social change, centering climate, racial, and economic justice. One important way to do so is by having a strategic organic social media program that helps build the narrative of what we are for and pressures those in power to take action on our demands. 

    Through this pandemic, young organizers and the organizations that support them have an opportunity to cultivate online communities that can support each other online and offline. Just like in person / traditional organizing, we will train on social media strategies that center connecting with individuals and organizations, creating engaging content and creating pathways to crowdsource content creation, and importantly how to build coalitions/organizations that can drive action beyond social media. This must be rooted in art, culture, and determination to build our interconnectedness across movements for social change.

    Participants will leave the session with a greater understanding of how to leverage social media to build community, online coalitions, and engaging content that is tied to organizing goals on and offline. This is not, however, a graphic design training, but rather a social media strategy training.

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    Stopping Line 3: Youth Power & Treaties

    Recording/Webinar

    Come learn about the movements to stop Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and Canadian Corporation Enbridge’s Line 3! Hear from movement activists and Indigenous youth about the current urgency of shutting down these pipeline projects, and the unity of both fights. In addition, you'll learn from tribal treaty expert Dale Greene about how treaties with the Anishinaabe people relate to protecting water and reversing an extractive relationship with the land -- we are all treaty people. The youth completed a trip to DC in 2021 to demand that Biden respect treaty rights and shut down the DAPL pipeline and Line 3 construction while key appeals move through the courts, and are asking for support through action during this key time. After the planned program we’ll have space to take action and ask questions for those who wish to participate.  

  • Coalition Building

    Strengthening our Connections to Build Collective Action in the Fight for Climate Justice

    Recording/Webinar

     

    This panel features presentations from three environmental justice organizations - American Forests, WE ACT for Environmental Justice and Intersectional Environmentalist - on their groundbreaking work and distinct approaches to collective action in climate justice through long-term career building, education and education policy, and coalition building.

  • Community Defense

    Students' Rights: Speech, Walkouts, & Other Protests

    Recording/Webinar

    Information for public school students when protesting.

  • Digital Organizing

    Targeting Corporations Through Digital Campaigning

    Recording/Webinar

    This training covers the basics of online campaigning applied to targeting corporations. We cover the strategies, tactics and tools tried and tested by SumOfUs over the years to achieve impact and create change.
     

  • Leadership Development

    Teachers and Educators Career Panel

    Recording/Webinar

    This Career Panel is an opportunity for young people to learn from teachers and educators' alignment with movement values to talk about their journeys and their advice - especially in regards to the environmentalism movement.

     

  • Volunteer Engagement

    Team Internet: What We Learned Organizing to Save Net Neutrality

    Recording/Webinar

    Watch this webinar recording to learn how the Team Internet coalition: 1- Provided support for volunteers 2- Used peer-to-peer texting to turn people out for over 1,300 events 3- Centered race in the campaign.

  • Digital Organizing

    Text Messaging for Organizers

    Recording/Webinar

    You'll learn how organizers are using text messaging to: 1- Recruit new supporters at actions and rallies with text opt-ins 2- Mobilize supporters to attend events, contact decision makers or donate 3- Reach likely supporters via texting people from the voter file, commercial databases and other sources.

  • Climate Justice

    The Climate Collapse: Changing the Narrative for Frontline Communities of the Americas

    Recording/Webinar

    Through this workshop there is an introductory conversation about the foundations of the Environmental Justice movement and the principles it abides to with a particular focus on the climate collapse, climate migration, and the continuous exposure to toxins communities face— such as trash incinerators, factory farms, and metal foundries— once they arrive to Minnesota, and ways in which we can change the narrative for BIPOC communities in the state.

    There is a direct connection between the climate crisis, conflict over diminishing natural resources, and internally displaced people in Latin America who are forced to migrate or flee conflict as a result. This session aims to give an international perspective of the climate crisis as it relates to migrant communities. We want to encourage others to think globally, but act locally, so everyone is given the opportunity to participate at the table. We want to ensure environmental policies are inclusive of immigrant and frontline communities, seek to establish a green regenerative economy, build renewable energy alternatives, and implement better commercial regulations to not concentrate pollution in historically underserved communities.

  • Fundraising

    The Fundraising Process / Pitching to Funders

    Recording/Webinar

    Here you will find a recording and PDF document of the fundraising training. The training includes: The fundraising process, how to pitch your work, key parts of a proposal, planning your time, and more! 

  • Climate Justice

    There's Lead in the Water: Environmental Racism & Reproductive Justice

    Recording/Webinar

    Presenter, JV, shares findings and reflections on the intersections of Environmental Racism and Sexual Reproductive Justice as a Sexuality Educator based out of Newark, NJ. This is a mix of qualitative knowledge sharing as well as a historical and present-day look at anti-Black violence perpetrated by the state. We invite the fleet of young people entering the world of the nonprofit industrial complex and Sexual Reproductive Justice to consider the lived experiences of BIPOC living in present-day red-lining. We urge young people to de-centralize the messages of white feminism and instead find solidarity in communities with shared struggles and visions of the future. There is a corporate source of violence we can name and plenty of unspoken stories woven into the fight to dismantle oppressive systems. This session is intended for people interested in sexual reproductive justice (educators, social workers, etc). 

  • Narrative Building

    Trump vs. the Truth: Winning the Battle of the Story

    Recording/Webinar

    Watch this webinar with the authors of "Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements and Change the World" to: 1. Learn about narrative power analysis and the elements of a winning campaign story. 2. Reflect on inspiring examples of effective framing and storytelling from contemporary movements like #BlackLivesMatter, climate justice, anti-war and migrant justice. 3. Get tools to strengthen your own narrative strategies.

  • Climate Justice

    U.S. Militarism + Climate Justice

    Recording/Webinar

    During fall 2020, Power Shift Network launched a series of critical conversations that will strengthen the collective power and impact of the climate movement. Aiming to unravel the realities of state violence and how those systems impact our movement for climate justice, each conversation will examine the intractable links between systems of U.S. sanctioned state violence, such as U.S. Militarism, Immigration Systems, White Nationalism, and their impacts on our movement for climate justice. This conversation is about the ways that U.S. Militarism emboldens the climate crisis and reduces our ability to build resilient communities capable of weathering the impacts of climate catastrophes, and the foundational issues connecting the struggle to reduce military spending with our work to mitigate the climate crisis.

  • Climate Justice

    Using Regenerative Economic Development to Re-Indigenize

    Recording/Webinar

    This session is about David Cobb from Cooperation Humboldt and Michelle Vassel from the Wiyot Tribe working with impact investors to create an indigenous-owned and led Community Land Trust to buy land, build cooperative housing, and support worker-owned businesses. No development will take place that does not have the support and approval of the Wiyot people. Whenever possible the land itself would be owned by the Wiyot, and the improvements/buildings would be owned by cooperative structures that enter into long-term leases with the Wiyot. They are developing concrete projects that meet people's material needs while explicitly using a solidarity economics framework. Their approach incorporates a 12-week curriculum where they study/grapple with the intersection of settler colonialism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism. They want participants to learn about a concrete policy that can be replicated in their community. 

  • Community Engagement

    Voices from New Orleans - Storytelling Night

    Recording/Webinar

    This panel was a night filled with centering Bvlbancha's (so-called New Orlean) art and culture. Dance performances, poetry readings, and story sharing by folks from New Orleans was part of this special themed night during Power Shift 2021 Convergence. 

  • Mutual Aid

    Weaponizing Empathy: A Guide to Creating a Radical, Free Community Center

    Recording/Webinar

    We discuss what free community spaces are, the steps to creating one, and their role in countering institutions. 

  • Fossil Fuel Divestment

    Webinar: Learning from Divest Middlebury's victory!

    Recording/Webinar

    On January 29th, Divest Middlebury won direct fossil fuel divestment with the announcement of a ten-year plan called “Energy 2028”! As the birthplace of 350.org and a 7-year-long campaign, Middlebury’s divestment comes as a huge boost to the movement. In this webinar hosted by Divest Ed, we will hear from Divest Middlebury student organizers about how their campaign went from rejection and uncertainty last year to a huge victory!

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    What Makes Nonviolent Movements Succeed

    Recording/Webinar

    An interview with Dr. Erica Chenoweth, author of “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.” We ask her questions about what her research reveals are the best strategies and tactics from movements around the world that have succeeded and failed in taking on oppressive regimes.

  • Digital Organizing

    When Wildfire Hits: Climate justice, mutual aid, and organizing in crisis

    Recording/Webinar

    Rogue Climate is a grassroots climate justice organization that builds youth leadership and mobilizes for clean energy, sustainable jobs, and a healthy environment across Southern Oregon. In September 2020, their community was overrun with climate-exacerbated wildfires that burned more than 2,600 homes, disproportionately impacting low-income, elderly, and Latinx community members, many who do not have citizenship so are not eligible for federal disaster support. This is the story of creating mutual aid networks in the midst of the Almeda and Obenchain fires, and sharing the skills and tools that were helpful when facing climate disasters at home.

    They were able to respond to wildfires by using horizontal, distributed, and diverse networks of community members to set up multiple mutual aid relief sites within 24 hours of the fire. We can meet our needs. Climate change will impact marginalized communities first and worst as we've seen in Hurricane Katrina, and every major disaster before and after, and is true again in the case of Oregon's 2020 wildfires. In 2020 and beyond, climate justice organizing must include disaster response, and the skills we use to mobilize for climate justice also come in handy when responding to climate disaster.

    Rogue Climate's office also burned in the fires.

  • Climate Justice

    Where Climate Justice Meets The Movement For Black Lives

    Recording/Webinar

    Colette Pichon Battle, the Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy and Valencia Gunder, organizer and Organizing Lead at RBG New Deal discuss the intersections of The Movement for Black Lives and Climate Justice.

     

    Where Climate Justice Meets The Movement For Black Lives

     

  • AntiOppression

    White Nationalism + Climate Justice Webinar

    Recording/Webinar

    The past decade has illustrated for many of us the role of organized white nationalists in pushing political narratives. From the Birtherism movement that launched Trump's national political platform to QAnon to the protests in Charlottesville, we're seeing dog whistling and virtue signaling across our political discourse to hold space for organized white nationalists at arms reach. When we talk about climate change and environmental policy, we see this play out in the ways that Indigenous land across the west is sold off to the highest bidder to drill for oil, and eco-facist rhetoric that protects immediate financial interests over the future of people on this planet. PSN's last discussion in our fall webinar series dove into White Nationalism and its impact on our movement for climate justice and collective liberation.

  • Immigration/Migration/Refugee

    Why Do Refugee Caravans Exist? A Lesson in Geo-Political History of Central America

    Recording/Webinar

    This webinar addresses the geo-political and colonial history that led to the conditions that are causing people to risk everything to travel by the thousands to seek safety in the United States. It also discusses the current status of the caravan, as well as humanitarian crisis conditions and the immediate need for assistance. Finally, the webinar suggests ways for Guild members to offer support—whether by Legal Observing, volunteering with Tijuana-based Al Otro Lado, or by donating to a locally-based relief organization.

  • Organizing & Mobilizing

    YES! ForEquity

    Recording/Webinar

    This session introduces YES! For Equity, an initiative with the Partnership for Southern Equity, and walks through a basic youth leader training with sections on advocacy, youth empowerment, and racial equity. The goal is to give young people tangible skills in advocacy, action planning, policy change, and organizing. YES! For Equity focuses on educating young people on the intersectionality of race/racism and youth empowerment/advocacy, providing them with the tools to successfully advocate for their issue of interest.

  • AntiOppression

    Young Workers and Just Transition

    Recording/Webinar

    This discussion conveys the sentiments of young workers in a just transition. We highlight the Just transition listening project and the upcoming young worker listening project.

  • Collective Liberation

    Youth and the THRIVE Agenda

    Recording/Webinar

    This is an educational session about the THRIVE agenda (Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy), put forth by the Green New Deal Network - a network of grassroots organizations, labor, and climate and environmental justice organizations. We provide some basic education on the pillars of the THRIVE agenda, lead a discussion on how the THRIVE agenda impacts youth and their communities, and discuss how to advance the THRIVE agenda to fight for environmental, economic, and social justice from grassroots community solutions to the federal policy level.

    The THRIVE agenda provides a platform to call for solutions that address interlocking crises of climate change, racial injustice, public health, and economic inequity. Many of the pillars of the THRIVE agenda are informed by and building off of the organizing and liberation work across movements led by Black, Indigenous, and Communities of color - from ensuring all people have access to clean air and water to strengthening tribal sovereignty and enforcing treaty rights, to prioritizing resources like healthy food, quality education and health care for Black and Brown communities. We will use the pillars of the THRIVE agenda as an educational tool to discuss how systems like racism, colonialism, and capitalism are interconnected and have led to the injustices we face today - climate change, economic inequality, worker exploitation and so much more.

  • Coalition Building

    Youth Climate Activism in the Global South: Allyship, Solidarity, and Coalition-Building

    Recording/Webinar

    This session is designed to inform participants of the circumstances faced by Global South climate activists and how those of us in the Global North can show solidarity and allyship. Furthermore, viewers will understand the importance of coalition-building as well as the logistics of building and sustaining one, especially on an international level.