Introduction

At LCN, our mission is to build people power for justice, sustainability, and democracy.
We believe that by equipping each other with essential leadership practices and fostering a supportive environment that inspires our diverse visions for a just society and holds us accountable, we can achieve this mission. This is why we created the LCN Hubs! 
From our global experience with hubs, we’ve found that success starts with a foundation of meaningful relationships and two key areas of effort: 1) taking collective action, and 2) experiencing learning and growth as a community. Our Hubs’ Action Learning Circles program collaborates with leaders to enhance our collective impact by centering action and learning.

What are LCN Hubs?

LCN Hubs are member-led spaces dedicated to enabling organized action and learning. Hubs contribute to the popular movement of liberating practices we urgently need as justice practitioners to confront today’s intersecting crises.
Some hubs are geographic like the Australia and UK Hubs and others are thematic like Organizers for Health Justice and Climate Justice Hub.
A hub begins when an LCN member takes the initiative to gather people from their community to learn and practice public narrative and community organizing in action. This can be part of their ongoing voluntary or professional work. Hubs grow stronger with stable leadership teams that plan and take action to build capacity for change.
LCN Affiliate organizations can partner with hubs to strengthen and expand organizing practices within their constituencies and be connected to a global movement of practitioners. 
While some hubs may choose to raise funds to cover activity costs, they are never profit-driven. We believe money should not be a barrier to learning and taking action toward social change; we’re happy to explore ways to help you find resources necessary to run your hub. If you’re interested in growing your hub into a training and capacity-building organization and need support in getting there let us know.

How to use lenses in your Action Learning Circle

Action Learning Circles are a powerful tactic for introducing organizing principles to your constituency. These circles provide a dynamic space for both learning and action, followed by intentional reflection on the results.  Using models and case studies offers clear learning moments, while reflecting on your own collective actions deepens your understanding of organizing. This approach combines theory and practice, leading to a more comprehensive grasp of effective organizing strategies.

Lenses: Powerful tools for organizing work

Think of a lens as a mental model – a way of looking at information that shapes how we understand and organize it. These models give us structure and focus as we work on our organizing and help us create more intentionality and purpose. Each of the leadership practices below can have multiple lenses to offer diverse perspectives, which together bring a deeper understanding of the essence of each practice.  

• Storytelling (public narrative) to inspire action
• Relationship building to grow our team and constituency
• Designing team structures that shape movements and enable us to reach our goals
• Strategizing to clarify our goals, targets, and how we’ll build power to win
• Launching actions that get commitments and build people power in our movement