Every month People’s Action shares the latest victories,
campaigns and events from our member groups
What is courage? How do you learn it?
Courage, like organizing, is something you learn by doing. It’s a strength you find deep inside yourself, in places of hurt and hope, that you share with others. It’s also something that when you put it into practice, you learn to do better.
That’s why training has always been a big part of People’s Action’s approach to good organizing. Training is where we create the shared spaces we need to learn and discover. Training is where we invest in one other, so we can grow as people, organizers, and as organizations.
“Training builds the bridge,” says LaTanya Lane, one of our senior trainers. “People can build resilience, practice skills and become strategic, so they can become people who are actually making the change they want to see.”
Indeed, we believe so much in the value of training that when People’s Action was founded fifty years ago by Gale Cincotta and Shel Trapp to fight discrimination in Chicago, they first called it the Housing Training and Information Center.
This investment in one another is essential to our work, and it is what builds strong and powerful organizations. It’s the foundation of our Organizing Revival, because sharing and sharpening the most effective skills of community organizing is the only way we can expand our base to achieve the scale we need to confront the unprecedented challenges we face.
That’s why People’s Action is working hard to expand and offer training programs to more people than ever before, both in-person and online, and in multiple languages. This summer, many of you participated in our virtual National Volunteer phone banks and Fundamentals of Organizing trainings, our in-person Training for Trainers courses, or our 13-week Organizers Bootcamp. And many of you are starting and strengthening your own training programs. This month, we’ll share some of your stories.
And many of you put the lessons you learned at these trainings directly into action – such as at our DC fly-in this month, where People’s Action members went to Capitol Hill to let Members of Congress know that the Trump administration’s deep cuts to housing and health care will harm us all.
As organizers, we challenge each other to see ourselves and the world as honestly as we can, then take action together to improve our lives. We take risks as we try to make the world a better place.
In organizing, it’s good to know you’re never alone. You are part of a family of those who came before, who entrusted you with the skills you need to find and build your own power, so you can in turn pass these skills on to others.
We will need each other more than ever before in the uncertain days to come, as attacks on immigrants, the unhoused and working people escalate. So we will continue to offer more training, with more opportunities to build, grow and take action together.
Juntos podemos. Together we can, and together, we will.
in solidarity,
Amanda Weaver
Lead Story
Building Stronger Organizations with Training for Trainers
Nearly a hundred organizers from across the People’s Action and People’s Action Institute networks of community groups and allies are participating in Training for Trainers intensive sessions this summer, as a way to deepen their own understanding of the best practices of community organizing, and preparing to create or expand training programs where they live. Read more
Organizing Stories
Organizers Bootcamp: A Right to Be Seen in this World
What is power, and where can we find it? What is it for? These are some of the thorny questions People’s Action’s Organizer Bootcamp tackles head-on. This 13-week training distills, in one place, the best lessons and tools for community organizing. Read more
CUFA’s “Training Blitz”: Building Members, Building Community in Cincinnati
The idea is simple: identify an issue that affects a community, empower members to go out and engage effectively with their neighbors about how this affects them all, and build common ground. For Communities United for Action (CUFA) in Cincinnati, this issue is price gouging by utility companies, who take advantage of their monopoly status and influence over local and state governments to demand more than many low-income communities can afford or pay. Read more
People’s Action Members Tell Lawmakers “Housing Cuts Kill” on Capitol Hill
“Housing Cuts Kill!” This was the message more than two dozen People’s Action and People’s Action Institute members – from Washington State, Illinois, New York, Kentucky, Texas and Maryland – shared with their Members of Congress over three days of action on Capitol Hill. Read more
PASU, All Eyes On Yass Coalition Turn Up Heat on PA Billionaire, Budget Cuts
“What does Pennsylvania’s richest man have to do with you?” A lot, say Pennsylvania Stands Up (PASU) and other members of the All Eyes On Yass coalition. They’ve been turning up the heat on the local billionaire, who uses his $59 billion in personal wealth to bend the state’s legislature to support his interests. Read more
Duluth Tenants Advance Right-to-Repair Ballot Measure
It shouldn’t take landlords months or years to complete simple repairs. That’s why Duluth Tenants, a project of People’s Action member group Take Action Minnesota (TAMN), have advanced a ballot initiative to hold landlords to a 14-day window to get repairs done by a licensed professional. Read more
PLAN Joins Culinary Workers, Rep. Horsford to Denounce Big Ugly Budget in Las Vegas
As Republicans hosted what they thought would be an easy win – a fly-in photo op “field hearing” in Las Vegas for the Ways and Means Committee to celebrate the passage of the Trump budget – the People’s Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) joined Culinary Workers and U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford to denounce the administration’s plans for deep cuts to essential services to fund tax breaks for the rich. Read more
Recent Media
Will Tanzman, executive director of The People’s Lobby, explains how a hardscrabble coalition came together over six years to force Uber to allow drivers in Illinois to unionize and bargain to improve pay and working conditions in the rideshare industry.
WATCH: Accountability August Livestream
Sulma Arias from People’s Action joins U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Tex.), Alex Lawson from Social Security Works, Trisha Maharaj from Indivisible and Cat Rowland from the Progressive Caucus Action Fund for a frank conversation
REGISTER: The Big Betrayal and How We Fight Forward Livestream
More than twenty national organizations will join this frank discussion with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal about the impacts of Trump’s Big Ugly Budget on working families, and what we can do together to respond. Join us!
