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1:
Click on a sample curriculum title to find out more.
2: Roll onto the highlighted
RESOURCES menu box for more options. |
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Selection
from Building Power, Sharpening Minds Manual
This introductory power analysis
workshop examines power in our society – who has
it, who does not, and why the system is set up this way.
EXERCISE: PYRAMID OF POWER (10 minutes)
A. Show the group the Pyramid of Power drawn up on butcher
paper. Ask the participants to explain what they see in
the picture. Ask questions to help guide the conversation
if needed: how many people are on top, how many people
are on the bottom, what is the relationship between the
two groups, etc.
B. Facilitator should make sure to point out the large
number of people on the bottom, the small number on top,
and the relationship between the two is that the people
on the bottom are holding up the people on the top. The
people on the bottom are building the pyramid higher and
higher and even though they are putting in all that work,
the people on the bottom are staying on the bottom and
the people on the top are getting higher. Check for understanding
before moving on.
C. Ask the group how they think this picture relates to
our society and what we were talking about in the power
chart. Ask the question: “In this society, who is
on top and who is on the bottom?” Help the group
move towards an understanding that this is how power is
set up in our society.
D. Conclude by explaining that the great thing that we
can see from this Pyramid of Power is that the power of
those on top completely rests on our shoulders. In other
words, if we step back and let all of the bricks fall,
those in power fall also. So, even though we are at the
bottom of this period, we do have a great deal of power. |
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| Selection
from Training for Trainers Manual
EXERCISE: WHY IS POLITICAL EDUCATION IMPORTANT? (45 minutes)
A. An important question to ask as we begin is “Why
do we do this?.” “Why is education is important?”
We all have experiences with education, so we are going
to look to these experiences to help us answer these questions.
B. We will take 5 minutes to fill out this handout called
“Empowering / Disempowering Experiences”. Please
reflect and then write down (in words, pictures, etc.)
one empowering classroom experience you had and one disempowering
experience you had. Try to write something from your experiences
in either elementary school or high school in a “traditional”
learning environment (like the classroom). Just so you
know, you will be sharing your stories with at least one person.
- • Silent reflection and writing using “Empowering
/ Disempowering Experiences” handout.
C. We will now split into pairs to share our stories.
Find someone who you do not know or do not know well.
Share your stories with them – both the empowering
and disempowering experiences. We have 10 minutes total
to so each person should take about 5 minutes to share.
I will announce when 5 minutes has passed and you should
switch.
D. Now we will open up the circle for anyone who wants
to share either of their stories with the rest of us.
take
- • 3-4 of each empowering and disempowering experiences.
E. Now I would like for everyone to think of 2 words which
you will share out loud. The first word is one word to
describe how you felt as a result of the empowering experience.
The second word is about your disempowering experience.
Think about, in that experience, how you would have wanted
to feel in that situation, how you could have felt if
the situation had been handled differently.
- • Take a minute for reflection
F. We will do a go around to share our words. Please say
just your two words – no explanation. Allow them
to stand on their own.
G. Thanks to everyone for sharing. The reason we do this
is to answer the question that I initially posed to the
group – why is education important? Specifically
consider this question after the stories that we all just
shared. Why is education important?
- • Take a few thoughts from the group.
H. The way that SOUL looks at it is that education and
learning are significant and transformative experience
in our lives (weather positive or negative). So it is
important that we remember details in these experiences
– where you were sitting, what your teachers voice
sounded like, what color socks you had on, etc. These
experiences shape us both positively and negatively. Learning
and education are powerful forces. They can make us feel
stupid and hopeless and disempowered; they can make us
feel alive and passionate and empowered. This is what
is at the center of this training, what is at the center
of this question. Education is a powerful force, and it
is the responsibility of people like us – conscious
people, revolutionaries, people fighting for social justice,
organizers, activists - to be able to recreate these empowering
experiences with the people we are working with. It is
our responsibility to use education as a force of liberation.
This is why we do this.
* Facilitator’s note: This
exercise can be emotional, specifically as people are
sharing their “disempowering experiences”. Be
aware of this possibility. Also, be sure to take at least
an equal amount of empowering and disempowering experiences,
and try to end with an empowering experience so that the
activity ends on a positive note. |
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Selection
from the Global Justice Training Manual
This training explores how Bush’s
‘War on Terrorism’ impacts poor, people of color
and especially young people in the U.S. Issues around
policing (including detentions)
EXERCISE: THE WAR AT HOME (20 minutes)
OPENING ACTIVITY
Hand out 2 sheets of paper & something to draw with
(pens, markers or crayons).
Close your eyes, think of an interaction you’ve had
with police, teachers, welfare caseworkers, etc. when you felt you didn’t have any
power. When you felt like you were at war. What happened? Why didn’t you have power?
What did it feel like? Now, open your eyes and draw…
You could also do this exercise as a writing exercise,
or you could have the group make collages from magazine
cut-outs.
Now, I’m going to read a situation that has happened
post 9.11. I want you to listen closely and after I am
done, you will draw on a separate piece of paper.
You and your family are from Pakistan. You came to the United States sixteen years ago
when you were only two years old. You always assumed you were an American citizen
because you have lived here practically all your life. You are about to graduate from high
school and go to community college. One night while your family is sleeping, you hear a
loud knock on the door. Then, eight armed INS agents knock down your family’s door and
rush in shouting. Your entire family wakes up confused and scared. The INS agents grab
you and take you with them. When you protest, they hit you so you fall unconscious.
When you wake up, you are in jail. You can't get any information about where you are or
why you are there. You don’t know what is happening or when you will see your family.
You ask to talk to a lawyer but no lawyer comes. Your family can’t get any information
about where you are being held either.
This situation has happened to over 1200 immigrants
who have been disappeared and detained by the INS.
Most of them are detained because of minor immigration
violations (things like overstaying their visas) and
many don’t have access to lawyers or other
basic rights.
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ALTERNATE SCENARIO
You and your family are a Black family living in
New York City. One morning, while everyone was getting
ready to go to work and school, you hear a noise
outside your apartment. Before you can say anything
your door is kicked in. All of a sudden there was
a loud bang like an explosion and the whole apartment
shook. Then you saw twelve intruders rush into your
apartment and tackle your 57 year old mother to
the ground...Within minutes your entire family was
handcuffed to chairs. The 12 intruders rifled through
all of your belongings apparently looking for something.
You look over at your mom and she’s not doing
so well. She keeps saying her chest hurts. You are
scared. You yell at the intruders to untie your
mom but they don’t listen. There’s nothing
you can do. Within two hours, your mother is dead
from a heart attack. Only then do you find out that
the intruders were the New York City Police Department,
that they were looking for terrorist and drug activity
and that they got the wrong apartment.
A version of this story actually happened to Alberta
Spruill a Black woman who worked for the City of New York on May
16, 2003. |
How do you feel right now? What
are you thinking about? Draw a picture describing how
you feel.
After the participants are done drawing, put their pictures
up on the wall. Have each person describe both of their
pictures in one word.
What’s the difference between your two pictures?
These drawings will be the backdrop to our conversation
today. We should remember these feelings as we think about
how the war impacts youth, communities of color and
poor people.
Bush’s ‘War on Terrorism’ greatly impacts
young people of color. Today, we are going to understand what
those ways are. Many times, we can’t hear about them on
the news or in school – so it is up to us to find out the
information we need.
Sometimes we know our own personal wars very well. But
sometimes it is hard for us to connect our experiences to what
is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan. Today, we are going
to talk about how the War on Terrorism impacts us in the
U.S., here at home. |
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Tool from the Youth Organizing
Training Exchange*
ORGANIZATIONAL SELF-ASSESSMENT
TOOL (1 Hour)
A. The facilitator should outline each area of organizing
work as identified on the chart, making sure to define:
Base-Building: Recruiting
and retaining a large group of volunteers members from
impacted communities who participate in and help direct
and implement the work of the organization.
Leadership Development:
Developing the political analysis and practical skills
of members of your organization to enable them to build
the organization’s base, fight campaigns, and build
the organization.
Campaign Development:
Building sustained fights to win concrete policy and
institutional change on issues that impact your constituency.
Organizational Development:
Building the staff, resources and infrastructure capacity
to sustain healthy and effective base-building, leadership
and campaigns.
The facilitator should stress the inter-relationship
between these fours arenas in the
organizing process.
B. The organization should start the self-assessment
by determining their current capacity (low, medium or
high), utilizing their own internal capacity measures.
The organizations should color in the chart up to their
current capacity level. (Make sure this is done with
judgment since all organizations need to go through
growth processes.) If the group needs an example, use
the following “Base-Building example”
NO CAPACITY: Intention to
build base, but no formal membership structure or recruitment.
Can only mobilize and involve active core.
LOW CAPACITY: Small volunteer
membership and able to mobilize and involve close associates
and ally organizations. Developing membership structure
with staff-based recruitment.
MEDIUM CAPACITY: Medium
volunteer membership and able to consistently mobilize
some previously unorganized people from your constituency.
Developed membership structure with youth-led recruitment.
HIGH CAPACITY: Large volunteer
membership and able to consistently mobilize a significant
proportion of your constituency. Developed membership
structure with youth-led recruitment and active volunteer
youth leadership.
C. Next the organization should talk about how they
want to develop their capacity in the next year in each
of these areas, recognizing that it’s unrealistic
to get to high capacity in all arenas in one year. They
should set realistic capacity-building goals, using
another color to fill in the chart up to the level they
want to achieve in the next year. The colors will be
a great visual representation of biggest strength areas
and biggest growth areas.
D. After using this tool, the organization should set
specific numerical goals for capacity-building and develop
a plan for achieving each of those goals.
* This tool was developed by SOUL
and the Movement Strategy Center in preparation for the
first Youth Organizers Training Exchange. Please credit
these organizations if you use it.
Thank you! |
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Selection
from Movement 101 Curriculum
EXERCISE: THE INTERSECTIONS OF
OPPRESSION (30 minutes)
A. Break the large group down into small groups of 3-6
people. Give each group a piece of butcher paper with
the power grid (drawn according to the chart). Ask the
groups to identify the relationships between each oppression,
writing the relationship between the systems on the line
that connects each oppression. They can describe the relationship
by talking about the generalized / abstract relationship
(Example: There’s a relationship between capitalism
and white supremacy based on the capitalist drive to super-exploit
people of color.) or by giving an example (Example: One
example of the relationship between white supremacy and
patriarchy is that women of color are held to racist beauty
standards and taught to hate their bodies.). Give them
15-20 minutes to do this.
B. Have the small groups report back. Ask for any comments
at the end of each presentation.
C. Finally, draw a circle on top of the "X"
which marks the intersection of all four systems of oppression.
Lead the group in a discussion about the connection between
all four systems of oppression. Help the group to draw
out answers like "Money" and "Power,”
and write these answers inpside the circle. |
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Selection
from Organizing 101 Curriculum
EXERCISE: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE
OF THE ORGANIZER (30 minutes)
A. Break people into pairs to complete a matching exercise
to introduce people to the different terms used to describe
the different roles that people play in the organizing
process, using the following definitions:
ORGANIZER: a person who
is responsible for ensuring the growth of the organization
by developing members to lead the process of building
the base, developing campaigns and build the organization.
LEADER: a member of an organization
who takes initiative in analyzing problems and thinking
through solutions, gains the loyalty and trust of other
members of the organization and shows commitment by being
actively involved in the planning and execution of campaigns.
MEMBER: a person who is
part of the organization’ constituency who meets
the organizations’ criteria for membership (e.g.
pays dues, completes organizational orientation, participates
in actions or activities).
BASE: the people from the
constituency that an organization can readily mobilize
for events, actions and meetings although they may not
be formal members.
CONSTITUENCY: a group or
class served by an organization or institution, specifically
the people impacted by the issues that the organization
works. This can also be thought of as an organizations’
potential base or as the “community” to be organized.
B. In the report-back, have each pair put out the definition
for at least one term. Check for understanding at the
end of the exercise. Stress that (in an organizing model)
the base, members and leadership need to come from the
specific constituency (i.e. the people impacted by the
issue). People who are down with your cause but aren’t
from your base should be seen as “allies.” Ask
the group for an example. You can also utilize this example:
A youth organization is organizing
against the expansion of the juvenile hall in their town.
Their constituency is young working-class people of color
form their town, particularly
youth who have been involved in the juvenile justice system
already. When they have
actions, they turn out their youth base; they also turn
out their allies, including teachers,
prison activists, and other progressive people.
C. Utilize the “Role of the Organizer chart as a
visual method to help people understand the continuum
of participation. The ORGANIZER is responsible for making
this process move forward: recruiting people from the
CONSTITUENCY to get involved in organizational activities
(join the BASE), become MEMBERS and then to develop as
LEADERS.
D. Utilize both the pyramid version of the chart to show
the process of development over time (e.g. there are fewer
people in each category as you go up the pyramid because
everyone goes through a process of development that takes
time and work) and the circle version to show that leaders
must remain accountable to the base and the membership
and connected with the constituency overall. |
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Selection
from Support & Accountability: SOUL's Organizational
Development & Supervision
Model Curriculum
SELF-CRITICISM CHECK-LIST
You will not share this sheet. This is a tool to aid in
your self-reflection.
Reflect on your performance in the organization. We encourage
jotting or journaling during reflection.
Please rate yourself in the following areas:
(5 is the highest and 1 is the lowest)
ORIENTATION & ORGANIZATIONAL
CONDUCT
| High
level of discipline, with strong work ethic |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Reliability:
Follow through with responsibilities and commitments |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Openly
engage in the practice of criticism/self-criticism |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Patiently,
consistently, and constructively oppose manifestations
of class elitism, heterosexism, male supremacy,
white supremacy, and other forms of bigotry in interactions
with SOUL staff, movement activists and with folks
in trainings. |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Work
in a democratic fashion |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Work
with a problem-solving orientation |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Take
initiative/ self-starter in the work |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Actively
work to build the organization |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Long
term visioning and strategic planning orientation |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| High
expectations for quality and quantity of work |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Implement
work plan effectively |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Always
trying to improve self |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Take
initiative about your own political development |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Organized:
store information effectively |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Confidence
in skills and abilities to lead |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Sense
of humor - warm spirit |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Utilize
creativity |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Punctuality:
Be on time! |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Focused |
5 4 3 2 1 |
ANALYSIS
| Have
a radical/ left political analysis |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Hold
a strong desire to help build a broader social justice
movement |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Passionate
about the role of young people in fighting for liberation |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Understand
role of your program’s impact on individuals
and broader movement |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Knowledge
of curriculum that is trained |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| High
level of facilitation skill |
5 4 3 2 1 |
COMMUNICATION
| Direct,
honest communication (both internal and external
to the organization) |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Offer
support to co-workers & ask for support when
needed |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Treat
co-workers with respect and patience |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Listen
well |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Represent
the organization in a positive way |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Lead
with humility and openness |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Deal
with conflict in a principled way – honest,
constructive, direct, work towards solution |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Try
to share skills and strength |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Ability
to make genuine connections with people |
5 4 3 2 1 |
RELATIONSHIPS
| Actively
engage in the organization and movement in a principled
way – honest, constructive, direct, work toward
solutions |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Participate
in collective process within the organization |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Accountability
to the organization, not just to individuals in
or outside the organization |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Think
about impact of your actions on the organization
and the broader movement |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Grounded
in movement building |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Build
relationships with movement organizations |
5 4 3 2 1 |
| Participate
in relevant movement activities, as is appropriate
|
5 4 3 2 1 |
Self-Criticism Worksheet
Reviewing my job description, do I fulfill my responsibilities?
What are my overall strengths?
What are 3 specific goals I want to set to maximize my
strengths?
What are my overall weaknesses and areas of development?
What are 3 specific goals I want to set to improve my
weaknesses? What is my proposed plan and timeline to achieve
this growth?
What support and accountability do I need from your co-workers
and supervisor in that process?
Be concrete.
(“Call me on -----”, “Encourage me to
-----”, “When you see me doing -------, I
need you to -----“)
Key contributions I want to make to SOUL this next year?
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