The Time is Now: A Democratic & Spiritual Revival

By PICO California

Across the country, we are witnessing a profound moral crisis. Families are being stripped of health care. Foos assistance is being cut. Our social safety net is being dismantled – not because we lack resources, but because our politics have abandoned care, community, and compassion.

In moments like this, we must ask: What would it take to spark a mass-based democratic revival? One rooted not only in strategy, but in spirit. One where our faith traditions, moral convictions, and collective imagination can summon the power to resist and rebuild.

Join PICO California for an urgent conversation and call to moral action with three visionary leaders from across the movement and faith landscape.

REGISTER HERE

This event is part of PICO California’s Spiritual Home initative – a growing effort to recleaim the moral narrative in public life and harness the collective power of our faith communities to act.

You’ll hear from trailblazing leaders in organizing, faith, and movement building – voices who’ve been on the frontlines of change and know what it takes to face injustice and fight back with love and collective power.

Marshall Ganz, Movement trainer, researcher and author

Marshall Ganz is a longtime organizer, Harvard lecturer, and author whose six decades of work—from the farmworker movement with César Chávez to the Obama campaign have shaped the field of grassroots leadership and social change. His new book, People, Power, Change, offers a practical framework for revitalizing democracy through collective action, narrative, and organizing.

Rabbi Susan Goldberg, Founding Rabbi of Nefesh and leader with LA Voice

Rabbi Susan Goldberg is the founder of Nefesh, a progressive spiritual community in East Los Angeles, and a longtime advocate for cross-cultural dialogue and social justice. A fourth-generation Angeleno and former choreographer, she has led efforts to revitalize Jewish life in LA while supporting interfaith partnerships and foster youth through community-based programs.

Bishop Dwayne Royster, Executive Director of Faith in Action

Bishop Dwayne D. Royster is the Executive Director of Faith in Action, the largest global faith-based grassroots organizing network, and a national leader in faith-rooted activism. With over 30 years in pastoral ministry and a history of leading transformative campaigns for racial and economic justice, he brings a deep spiritual commitment to equity, grace, and community renewal.

This event is organized by PICO California.

More about Marshall Ganz and the Leading Change Network 

In 1964, a year before he was due to graduate, Marshall Ganz left Harvard University to volunteer for the Mississippi Summer Project, an effort to support the work of African American organizers fighting for the right to vote across the U.S. South. There, he learned about race, power, and politics in America—and that change won’t come unless the people facing problems can author change. Such authorship depends on turning existing resources into the power needed to win change. For a community to act together with such solidarity, however, there needs to be trained leadership—not just one person, but many. This is organizing. It is about justice; not charity. In Mississippi, it became Marshall’s calling. Marshall returned home to Bakersfield, California, where Cesar Chavez had launched his campaign to organize the United Farm Workers union. Although he had grown up in the world of the farm worker, Marshall had been oblivious to it. It took his new ‘Mississippi eyes’ to see another community of people of color who also lacked political rights and economic protection—evidence of California’s own rich history of racial discrimination. Mississippi turned out not to be an exception in America, but an aspect of America that needed to change. After a 28-year ‘leave of absence’ organizing communities, unions, and electoral campaigns, Marshall returned to Harvard to complete his undergraduate degree, earn an MPA at the Kennedy School, and a PhD in sociology. While working on his doctorate, he was asked to develop a course on organizing. In this way, he had the opportunity to integrate his life experience with social science in a pedagogical engagement: it was an opportunity for a conversation with the future.

The Leading Change Network (LCN) grew from the organizing journey of Marshall Ganz, who began his work in the 1960s civil rights movement and later helped build the United Farm Workers alongside Cesar Chavez. After decades of organizing, Ganz returned to Harvard and developed a pedagogy that wove together theory and practice—planting the seeds for a global community of change leaders. In 2012, LCN emerged from a shared need for connection, learning, and community among organizers worldwide. Since then, LCN has hosted global gatherings, trained thousands of leaders, and supported campaigns in over 30 countries. Relaunched in 2018 to address rising challenges to justice and democracy, LCN is now the home base for organizing—offering training, resources, coaching, and a vibrant community of practice to build people power and foster transformative leadership rooted in justice, equity, and collective action. We are a global community of changemakers who are relentlessly fighting for justice and committed to strengthening the capacity of leaders, organizations, and movements to build real power and drive locally rooted change. Join us!