The Little Handbook on Recruitment and Integration in Climate Grassroots Groups

Contents

Introduction

This handbook from We Do Democracy is a place to get nerdy, get better and reflect on the craft of grassroots organising. It includes three main types of slides:

Theory: Concepts, ideas, tools, and strategies.
Act: Use this slide together with other activists from your group to develop and work on your craft together.
Case: Examples from other activist and volunteer groups.

The handbook gathers insights and examples from five Nordic climate action groups:

Den Grønne Ungdomsbevægelse (The Green Youth Movement, Denmark)
Lærlinge for Bæredygtighed (Apprentices for sustainability, Denmark)
Elokapina (Extinction Rebellion Finland, Finland)
Extinction Rebellion Norway and XR Ung (Norway)
Nordic Climate Justice Coalition (NCJC, a cross Nordic alliance)

Proposals for core activists and introductions
Findings from interviews and workshops
Part I: Collective Climate Action
Part II: Recruitment and mobilisation
Part III: Integration
Background and literature

Excerpt

Grassroots Grow Power Through (the Right) People

If grassroots groups want to sustain themselves, grow, and build collective power, they need to succeed in three things:

Recruitment – Making (the necessary) people show up and take on meaningful action towards our goal
Integration – Supporting new volunteers in taking on greater responsibility over time and moving up the pyramid of engagement.
Leadership development – Developing new leaders who can recruit, integrate, and build the leadership of others.

Four Proposals for Core Activists

Since 2018 climate activist groups have been visible and active in most European and all Nordic countries. The past seven to eight years have seen the birth of many new climate activist groups (at least 19 across the Nordics), many of these youth-led or with a high number of young activists.

1. Recruitment is a leadership task

Natural and elected activists in leadership positions should take part in the recruitment and integration efforts that are currently necessary for the group.

Culture can trickle down – if the activists that are respected and admired spend time distributing responsibility or participating in phone banking new members – then this becomes a more respectable and ”high value” task.

2. Organise people instead of events

Groups should focus less on organising events and more on organising people and concrete tasks. Instead of only focusing on planning activities like a poster storm, shift focus to what needs to get done, why it matters, and how people can take part
in a meaningful way.

Many climate groups struggle to involve people who cannot commit to a working group or spend many hours volunteering every week. So, ask yourself: What meaningful tasks can people help with if they only have a few hours each month? How can those smaller contributions help them learn new skills and become more involved over time?

3. Help the new people become part of your group

There is a lot to gain if committed activists prioritize building personal relationships with new members.

When integrating new activists, task integration is important: That people have a chance to influence, take responsibility and reflect on the tasks that they get, with clear opportunity to ask questions and get mentoring.

It also requires social integration: Learn people’s names, remember what they do, have social gatherings. And finally, integration relies on gaining shared knowledge and beliefs. Why do we use the tactics we do? What are we trying to change? What do we believe in?

Telling stories about who we are, and engaging people in setting long- and short-term goals for the group, is important for people to start saying “we” instead of “you” about your group.

4. Be intentional when mobilizing

Who specifically are you trying to recruit, and what are you recruiting them to? One way to work with this, is to define your target group before starting to have e.g. intro meetings. This also means framing your messaging according to the context and what people are actually motivated by – not just that “climate should concern us all”.

Download Resource

The Little Handbook on Recruitment and Integration in Climate Grassroots Groups- PDF

Read more excerpts from The Little Handbook on The Commons Library: Recruitment and Integration Streams for New Members.

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