Want to learn about all kinds of change making, building relationships and people power, and leadership development? Access the recordings and slides from the ChangeMakers Organising School as well as details of upcoming sessions.
Introduction
ChangeMakers Organising School seeks to strengthen the leadership, knowledge, skills and relationships between the hundreds of thousands of social movement members and organisational volunteers across Australia (and our broader region) who want to take the crises created and exacerbated by the pandemic and make deep real change.
Our core weekly training is a space for ongoing learning. Unlike a short-term training course, it has a broadcast quality – where you can tune in every week for new content that is responsive to what is going and building on a core set of organising conceptual principles. We do this because we believe Saul Alinsky when he says that people build their ambition for change based on the power that they believe they possess. This training is designed to help mass movement and organisational participants across Australia reimagine their power while they work on specific movements and campaigns.
We began our training under the original name – Organising in a Pandemic – in March 2020 as a weekly training ‘touch point’ for people making change at the start of the pandemic. The participants were mostly members of social movements or organisations. They used the training to connect and deepen their knowledge to organise for social change.
Our training is based on organising. We value leadership development and seek to explore and understand concepts like power, action, organisations, narrative, relationships and action as the bedrock for building a democratic public life. While anchored in the practice of the Industrial Areas Foundation, this training has an open and agnostic approach to its content. We seek to bring in new ideas that agitate the organising cannon to make it stronger.
To join the free live training register for the full season or join the ChangeMaker Chats Facebook group for the weekly event registration details.
Access the previous season’s recordings and resources:
- ChangeMakers Organising School – Season One: Organising in a Pandemic
- ChangeMakers Organising School – Season Two
Session 1: Theory of Change
Oct 15 2020
To kick off season three we discussed the concept of theory of change. Theory of change is a broadly used term to describe the process by which movements or organisations conceive how they will achieve the change they mean. In the first half, Isabella Morand broke this down by using the ‘Strategies of People Power’ that has been presented earlier (playing by the rules, mobilising, organising, prefigurative and parties).
In the second half there are three presenters that dig into the ‘organising’ theory of change (after all, we are an organising school!).
- A presenter on union organising (which focuses on members in workplaces)
- A presenter from Sydney Alliance looking at organising through institutions (and the work of broad based organising)
- An organiser who works with small group strategies (like distributed networks).
Then we looked at the similarities and differences between them.
Session Slides
Session Recording
Session Two: Organising in the US Election
22 Oct 2020
The US Elections are happening under the most dire of circumstances and the stakes couldn’t be higher. What are organisers and change makers doing to make a difference?
In the first half we will hear from James Slezak – a long time US resident who works in communications and digital technology. As changemakers, we want to change hearts and minds – and what we say, and who we say it to, matters. James will share lessons on how communications are shaping the election, and what we can learn from tech and testing.
In the second half we will dive into the peer-to-peer organising practices being used in the elections, in particular Deep Canvassing and Relational Organising. We have a brilliant video message from Hahrie Han explaining how relational organising works, and then Amanda Tattersall will take us through Deep Canvassing showing a conversation on the door.
Further resources on the two organising tactics we explored:
Session Slides
Session Recording
Session Three: How to Organise Around Economics and the Budget?
29 Oct 2020
In the midst of economic collapse the capacity to organise economic need and economic principles is higher that ever. But the language of economics often leaves people feeling like they don’t know what is going on or how to contribute. This session features two of Australia’s leading progressive economic thinkers, who will talk about how to organise around economics – followed by case studies of people who have done that well. They are:
- Emma Dawson, Executive Director Per Capita
- Gareth Bryant, Political Economy, University of Sydney and Real Deal Coalition.
The presentations are still being finalised, but the presentation on the Real Deal will include an outline about how that project came about, what it is arguing for and what a long term economic transformation might involve.
Session Slides
Session Recording
Session Four: Creative Action Planning
5 Nov 2022
Creative tactics that grab people’s attention and tell your story clearly are an important element of a winning campaign.
Holly Hammond from the Commons Library shares a model for planning a great action – a tactic to further your campaign strategy. Check out the resources:
- 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action – Gene Sharp
- Tactic Star and Action Star – Beyond the Choir and Beautiful Trouble (includes Holly’s 12 minute video explaining the tools)
- Tactics in a time of physical distancing: Examples from around the world
- Arts & Creativity Topic on the Commons Library
During the second half of the training artists and troublemakers share about how they’ve pulled off creative actions.
- Lauren Mellor will share her story of DIY drilling a fracking well outside NT parliament
- Charles Firth from The Chaser will reflect on how he’s used creative stunts to get the public’s attention
- Nadia Montague from Victorian Trades Hall Council will present on their incredible virtual pickett earlier this year which, with nearly 40,000 attendees, showing you can still mobilise in a pandemic!
Session Slides
Session Recording
Session 5: Anti-racism in Organising
12 Nov 2020
Introduction to the key concepts around structural racism and what you need to practice to be an effective ally/accomplice. How racism shows up in progressive spaces and the challenges this presents. Plus practical tips on how you can be an effective anti-racist accomplice both in your own life and your social change work.
Session Recording
Session 6: Coaching: An Organising & change making practice
19 Nov 2020
This training video, led by Carly Willoughby-Rolls, makes explicit the role of coaching as a fundamental practice in organising and as an important practice within social changemaker organisations. The video aims to simplify and clarify the basics of coaching as a practice and explore how to establish coaching relationships and begin coaching. Viewers will leave with a better understanding of what coaching is; how it fits as a practice within the organising framework, why it’s important to build coaching cultures within their organisations and; how they can begin to introduce coaching into their work to better develop agency, power and leadership in their organising and organisations.
Session Recording
Session 7: Sustainable Activism
26 Nov 2020
This week we are looking at cultivating sustainable activism in activist groups and teams. Burnout is rife in the social change space – what are the factors that lead to it? And what interventions can we make to help people practice sustainable activism? We’ll look at this important issue using both a personal and systemic lens. Our Program Manager Isabella Morand looks at identifying burnout and the structural interventions that Organisers can make to help their groups operate sustainably. Then Julian Atchison shares his inspiring work helping Australian Conservation Foundation groups to unpack and improve their own group health and sustainability. Our chair is Sukalpa Goldflam, ‘kalpa’ on Djiringanj Country country of the Yuin people, member of the Bega Valley Climate Action Mobilisation group.
Session Recording
Session 8: Relating, Reflecting and Changing
3 Dec 2020
This final session will connect the skills of relational meetings and public narrative with the art of reflection. It begins by returning to the question of public narrative (season 1, week 6). This time, the work is practical. After a quick recap of our earlier session – the focus is on providing opportunity for people to work on their political autobiography, identifying the experiences (particularly the social change experiences) that have shaped why you do what you do.
In the second half, we take that question of political narrative and apply it to relational conversations. Amanda explores how we learn through conversation (building off the previous session on mentoring and coaching) then conducts a fishbowl with a participant about learning from social change. Participants then all have a 1-1 discussion exploring what they have learnt through this session, before we finish up for 2020.
Keen to learn more?
To join the free live training register for the full season or join the ChangeMaker Chats Facebook group for the weekly event registration details.
- ChangeMakers Organising School – Season One: Organising in a Pandemic
- ChangeMakers Organising School – Season Two
- So, what is organising? by ChangeMakers host Amanda Tattersall
- Activist Inspiration and Learning in Lockdown
- Changemakers Podcasts
- Organising: Start Here – a guide to many more organising resources in the Commons Library
