B
elow are listed a whole series of training materials from the Ella Baker School of Transformative Organising. These materials are designed to initiate discussion and you do not need to be an expert to facilitate a session. The materials include a presentation and workshop and facilitator notes. There is also an information/evaluation sheet we would like you to share with participants. Each session is about 90minutes long but can be extended or shortened as you see fit. Training materials are free to use (and amend to your needs) but we do ask you to please credit the School. Click here for more information and to join the Ella Baker School of Transformative Organising.
For more information or to make offers of help (we are always looking for new training materials to share) please contact ellabakerschooloforganising@gmail.com
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1. The training session will take a look at the East London Federation of Suffragettes, and it will raise a number of interesting questions about struggles that are taking place today––in particular, the intersection between class and gender.
2. The aim of this training session will be to consider the circumstances and influences that gave rise to the election of Britain’s first black Labour MP, Shapurji Saklatvala, in 1922. It then allows for consideration of what we can learn from the community organising that took place then can be relevant to communities today.
3. The aim of these training materials to introduce the background to the Bristol Bus Boycott and the questions that it gives rise to in relations to challenging and fighting racism today, but also in building support for issues in local communities.
4. The aim of this session is to build participants’ confidence in delivering the School’s training materials, and their appreciation of the theory of learning that we deploy at the school.
5. This is a fun ice breaker session designed to get participants warmed up and starting to get to know each other and the facilitators.
6. The aim of this session is to introduce a planning tool ‘Critical Path Analysis’ that can help participants to develop their approach to planning. It is designed to shift participants to focus on outcomes rather than tactics through developing the steps in their campaigns, defining clear objectives and developing an understanding on how change happens.
7. The aim of this session is to help participants understand intersectionality and to navigate the competing and occasionally polarised narratives of organising around and identity and/or class. At the end of this sessions participants will be able to feel comfortable discussing the organising potential of identity and class and the overlapping concepts of oppression and exploitation. It will also discuss that while narratives of identity and class are often polarised, there are insights from both standpoints that can enhance our ability to win. Participants should be able to use the concepts of intersectionality to increase the effectiveness of their organising and to do so among diverse groups of people.
8. The aim of this session is to consider the roots of organising theory, and in particular to
show that there are several different traditions. At the end of this session participants will be able to feel confident to playfully reinvent organising to meet specific circumstances, rather
than feel the need to apply rigid ‘formulas’ and to know that what we refer to as ‘organising’ is contested, and there are multiple roots and branches of organising, some of which are more likely than others to stress the role of agency.
9. This group of materials on how to challenge the ‘Far Right’ (5 sessions) is designed as a day-long course but each of the modules can be run as ‘stand alone’ sessions.
The first session is designed to unpack the history of the Battle of Cable street, and use it as a starting point for a discussion about how we challenge the far right today.
The second session explores the objective context in which narratives of division, or ‘othering’ have grown within the working class movement and to consider how we can effectively challenge these narratives.
The third session explores strategic approaches to far right interventions, rather than relying on simply recycling familiar tactics.
The fourth session considers the transformative role of story (narrative) and how it can be applied to create ‘bridging’ rather than ‘breaking’ narratives.
The final session allows participants to reflect on how we can successfully engage with ‘difficult’ conversations with people who do not share either our values or our moral frames.
10. The aim of this 4-part session is called winning elections before they are called. It is designed as a one day course but each of the modules an be run as a 90 minute ‘stand alone’ session.
This is the first session which will explore the difference between a mobilising and an organising approach when engaging with a community when seeking to win an election.
The aim of the second session is for participants to develop methods for analysing different players and potential allies within a constituency; assessing their power and influence and begin analysing the ability to shift support bases.
The aim of this third session is to consider the transformative role of story (narrative) and how it can be applied to assist in building a sense of community, an inclusive ‘us’.
The aim of this forth session is to allow participants to reflect on how we can successfully engage with ‘target’ community activists who do not yet believe they share either our values or our moral frames.
