Introduction
A report about developing strategic capacity across grassroots groups, and cultivating practices of collective care as an integral component of movement culture. This report explores insights and recommendations from a needs assessment with organisers and is specific to the climate justice movement in Canada | Turtle Island but the wisdom and learning can also be applied to other movements around the world.
About the Memo
In 2023, Canada’s Climate Justice Organizing HUB (the HUB), a project of the Small Change Fund, carried out a needs-assessment process with grassroots organizers across what’s colonially called Canada. In August 2024, they convened for their annual team retreat on “building deeper and wider”, to analyze movement challenges in a more intimate setting.
This memo includes a summary of key themes and insights that emerged from their collective discussion. They concluded, with examples throughout the memo, that building long-term power in the climate justice movement requires developing strategic capacity across grassroots groups, and cultivating practices of collective care as an integral component of our movement culture.
The main author of this report, Amanda Harvey-Sánchez, Amanda Harvey-Sánchez, (she/her) is a Latina organizer, activist-researcher, and educator. Amanda was supported by current and former HUB team members whose insights and feedback helped clarify and sharpen its analysis: Sara Adams, Jacqueline Lee-Tam, Jaouad Laaroussi, Zaël Gourd, Jacob Pirro, Kenzie Harris, Tess Cameron, Mackenzie Burnett, Ayo Ogunremi, Florence Lorimier Dugas, and Tom Liacas. Report design was provided by Mackenzie Burnett.
Collective Care
The term is used to highlight the importance of moving beyond individualism and towards relational, holistic, and collaborative approaches to integrating care into our movement culture. While collective care does not discount the importance of self-care, the focus is on the norms, assumptions, and rituals enacted at a group and movement level that encourage (or discourage) healthy and accessible organizing practices for all, while also recognizing our interdependence as foundational to the success of our movement.
Challenges
Strategic Capacity
Organizing in response to complex and dynamic political challenges such as the climate crisis requires that organizations and organizers develop strategic capacity.
The focus on strategic capacity rather than strategy is meant to highlight that strategizing is a verb, it is an iterative and dynamic process, and it requires a skill set that can only be honed through practice and real-world engagement in social struggle.
Strategic Focus, Collaboration, and Scale
Many groups in the climate justice movement are struggling with finding their strategic focus or niche within the broader movement, leading to disorganized or chaotic attempts at social change that lack a coherent theory of change and power. In some instances, difficulties with aligning on a shared project or campaign have resulted in groups fizzling out entirely.
There are also issues with fragmentation, with more and more small groups forming that are not intentionally building a broad base of people that can function at scale.
Relatedly, collaborations across groups, including between grassroots groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), are rare.
NGOs typically lack the skills and knowledge to be able to effectively work with the grassroots and there is a notable absence of mediators or “middle groups” that can navigate both worlds, meaning that we are missing opportunities to leverage the power and resources of larger organizations towards more radical social change.
Sometimes, competition between groups or attempts to appear more politically virtuous can also inhibit fruitful collaboration, and groups frequently lack a nuanced understanding of how different tactics and strategies can complement one another and form part of a broader movement ecology.
These challenges are also at times influenced by broader attitudes of moral absolutism. Finally, solidarity efforts can sometimes be shallow or superficial, lacking the foundations of long-term relationship building and material support.
Ambition, Creativity, and Imagination
Many of the strategic difficulties noted above are underpinned by broader challenges pertaining to ambition, creativity, and imagination. Many groups lack what our francophone colleagues call “les moyens de nos ambitions”, namely picking battles that are big enough to matter and small enough to win.
This is compounded by the fact that for many of us, we lack real-world examples and a deep understanding of how winning happens in practice, including factors such as power analysis and finding points of leverage against an opponent.
While there is often a tacit understanding of what groups do not want to do (e.g. pure advocacy, lobbying) and a broad desire to build “people power”, without an explicit understanding of the specific mechanisms involved many groups get trapped into not knowing where to start, sometimes with paralyzing consequences.
Relatedly, there is frequently a timidness in the movement when attempting to devise campaigns, and many groups struggle to find the confidence to step into their roles as worthy protagonists in the climate justice movement. Many groups also struggle to move beyond a defensive posture towards offensive agenda-setting campaigns.
Finally, there can often be a broad feeling in the movement that we have “tried everything” and still failed, leading to disillusionment and a lack of creativity and imagination when experimenting with new tactics and strategies.
Read Case Studies
- Driver’s Licenses for All, Movimiento Cosecha, New Jersey, p 6
- Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaigns, Canada, p 7
Relational Skills
Many groups struggle with relational skills both internally within their own groups and when seeking to work with other groups. While there is a broad discourse in the climate justice movement around the importance of building cultures of care, the way that this manifests in practice can sometimes be superficial or individualistic in nature.
This is unfortunate given that there are real and pervasive issues of accessibility in the climate movement that are not being effectively addressed when the concept of care becomes more about “feeling good” than creating truly accessible, inclusive, and empowering spaces for the most marginalized.
As with strategic challenges noted above, part of the difficulty stems from lack of experience. We are steeped in a broader culture of overwork, hyperproductivity, and individualism, meaning that for so many of us, we do not even know what alternative modes of structuring our work look and feel like.
Finally, fear and suspicion within the climate justice movement contributes in manyinstances to a culture of silence and avoidance rather than open discussion and honest engagement with difficult topics, posing challenges to relationship building, trust, and healthy conflict transformation.
Awareness that these relational skills are lacking without clear avenues to build them also means that organizers sometimes resort to gossiping and infighting (destructive conflict) rather than generative conflict and repair.
Read Case Study
- Disability and Access – Case Study, p 9
Burnout and Emotional Challenges
Burnout is a pervasive issue in social movements, including the climate justice movement, but there is often a lack of understanding of what contributes to burnout. Burnout is usually seen as an individual problem that can be addressed through small changes by the person experiencing it, rather than an indication (and invitation) to change collective work practices, structures, and norms to the benefit of everyone in the organization.
A culture of urgency, prevalent in both broader society and in some climate campaigns emphasizing the “end of the world”, can pose challenges to slowing down enough to make the necessary changes for sustainable and resilient organizing practices to flourish.
In some cases, negative experiences with burnout (such as during the 2019 climate strikes) without viable strategies to address them have led to fear and paralysis when engaging in organizing.
Read Case Study
- Anger and Rage as Motivating New Stories of Climate Action, Quebec, p 10
Grief, Anxiety, Heavy Emotions
Finally, grief, anxiety, and other heavy emotions are pervasive amidst the multiple overlapping crises we are living through (not only the climate crisis), but the climate justice movement has not yet found effective ways to attend to them collectively.
Creating space for organizers to collectively process these emotions is important for relationship building, trust and mutual support, uncovering shared values, exploring new ideas for action, and learning about resources within activist groups that could be leveraged in new ways towards building collective power.
Still, some organizers have found that groups and spaces that grapple with heavy emotions amidst the climate crisis may do so in ways that fail to harness the full potential of sharing deep feelings in a group setting.
For instance, some of these venues wind up directing people towards strategies for individually coping with feelings that “we are not going to win” rather than channeling shared experiences of grief, anger, and despair towards collective action and building campaigns that can win.
This is especially unfortunate given that many far right groups are effectively channeling anxiety about the state of the world towards hate, xenophobia, and racism.
Read Case Studies
- Anger and Rage as Motivating New Stories of Climate Action, Quebec, p 12
- Collective Grief and Anxiety as Impetus for Legal Action, Saskatchewan, p 13
Moving Forward
If organizers take seriously the implications of the adage that our power comes from people, dichotomies between “doing” and “being”, or developing strategic capacity and cultivating collective care will increasingly disintegrate.
In order to build the power to win material action on climate justice, organizers in our movement need to be building organizations, campaigns, and projects that foster a sense of purpose, belonging, and empowerment.
In mainstream Western society, the skills of working effectively as a collective unit are not broadly understood or practiced, and so developing these capacities in an organizing context requires intention, practice, and a willingness to “fail forward”.
Addressing the above challenges in the climate justice movement will require continued efforts in skill development, mutually beneficial collaboration, and emotional resilience.
Developing strategic capacity and cultivating collective care requires gaining practice in strategic thinking, building collaborative team and work practices that can function at scale, and fostering genuine solidarity across groups in the broader movement ecosystem, all while building a strong relational and emotional fabric to sustain long-term organizing efforts.
While it is beyond the scope of the Climate Justice Organizing HUB to meet all of these challenges, some considerations and recommendations that may be useful to the HUB and other movement partners follow below.
Recommendations for Organizers, Leaders, and Movement Support Structures
Reimagining Organizing Training
Multicomponent packages
Just as climate justice organizers increasingly seek to frame the climate crisis as a multi-dimensional problem requiring holistic and systemic solutions, organizing trainers should also work to offer trainings that treat organizing skills not as discrete but rather as interdependent and forming a complex whole.
For instance, maintaining a sound team structure is only possible with strong relationships, developing strong relationships requires a willingness to explore personal stories, and exploring personal stories can often lead to more creative and innovative strategizing.
Organizing trainings would benefit from multicomponent packages that illustrate both interdependence and holism.
Experiential learning
Learning to organize requires actually organizing!
Organizing is an ambiguous and creative art more than a precise and rigid science, and no training, manual, or guidebook will ever offer all the solutions. There is no substitute for the experience of working, struggling, failing, improving, and iterating on the go.
Experienced organizers, leaders, and support structures should take care to lovingly remind newer organizers of this point.
Continuous and Just-in-time Support
Coaching
Coaching that is different from consulting, mentoring, or training – is something that all organizers can offer one another to enable learning, problem solving, and growth. Where and when it is desired, organizers can also seek coaching from support structures such as the HUB.
Mentorship
Cultivating relationships with movement elders and mentors can help organizers to develop a longer-term understanding of movement history, learn from the experiences of others, and develop emotional resilience.
Peer-to-peer communities of practice
Formal or informal communities of practice can be used to discuss and experiment with new strategic interventions and tactics while also offering a supportive community space for organizers.
Attending to Diverse Participation in the Climate Justice Movement
Care labour
As in broader society, the mental load of attending to care needs in organizing often falls disproportionately on women and especially women of colour. Disrupting these inequitable patterns requires practice, opportunities for feedback, intentionality, and humility. It also requires developing the capacity to where and when shifts in work practices may be needed.
Climate emotions
While emotional responses to the climate crisis may be experienced by all, they are often shaped by differing historical, social, and cultural contexts, leading to varied experiences across racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.
Organizers can consider how identity based caucuses for Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) and other identity-based groups may offer generative spaces to process and discuss the emotional toll of the climate crisis. Organizations with access to funding can also consider options for dedicated funds set aside to support BIPOC members to access culturally competent mental health support.
Tailored Capacity Building
In comparison to the United States, access to organizing training in Canada is limited. Where training, fellowships, and programs do exist, it is typically more privileged groups who gain access first, and it is largelytheir stories and experiences that are centred. Thus, there is a need to develop capacity-building training tailored to the specific needs of BIPOC, low-income, and other marginalized groups
Excerpts
Here is sneak peek into the Memo.



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Explore Further
- Building cultures of care, Climate Justice Organizing Hub Wiki
- A Framework for Conflict Transformation In Movement-Building Groups
- Coaching Cheat Sheet, March For Our Lives
- How do you Build a Coalition despite Frictions?
- Right-Sized Belonging: Six Practices For Organizers
- Burnout isn’t a personal problem, it’s an organizational problem, PowerLabs
- Tool – Conflict Navigation: A Guide Towards Transformation, Tamarack Institute
- Movement Power: A Toolkit for Building People Power in a Time of Crisis (Zine)