Leaders building power at LCN’s Community Organizing Workshop

Over November 8-9 and 15-16, 32 leaders, 6 coaches, and 8 trainers came together for LCN’s Full Community Organizing Global Workshop—and what a journey it’s been! Participants from advocacy groups, grassroots campaigns, unions, and several other leadership spaces showed up ready to learn organizing skills. This cohort represented 12 organizations and 13 countries from across the world!

Participants practiced the five core leadership practices of community organizing: Public Narrative & Storytelling, Building Relationships, Structuring Leadership Teams, Strategizing, and Action. They told stories that moved others. They built teams that asked the fundamental questions of change. They strategized how to bring others into a vision that is local, contextual, and community-led.

And our coaches? They were committed to leading their small groups and supporting the participants to articulate the purpose of their calling, facilitating group learning, and setting them up to deepen their leadership practice.

Led by the brilliant Sadie Dean, alongside our thoughtful coordinator Amna Tufail, this workshop’s energy was dynamic, collaborative, and enriching. Marshall Ganz joined us as a guest lecturer and engaged with the participants, listening to their leadership curiosities and questions that kept them up at night.  

The Story of Us reminded us why we gather and why we lead. Participants named the feelings and values that brought them together, the chat echoed with “hope,” “we have a larger community,” “we are in it together,” “we can go the distance!”

Here’s what was reinforced for us: the headlines may be full of crisis, but beneath the surface, something powerful is stirring. People across the globe are coming together, dreaming and working towards justice for their communities, showing the world why people-driven leadership is urgent and important, and taking their learnings back to build the power they need to turn their dreams into reality.

And these 30+ leaders are the protagonists of this story. They’re creating the NOW we all rightfully deserve and want. We can’t wait to see what they build next. 

Massive gratitude to each and every participant for their commitment to learning, and to our teaching team for holding space with such care.