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Principles of Community Organizing

principles of community organizing

Principles of Community Organizing

WORC’s Principles of Community Organizing training develops the skills of leaders and staff to build powerful organizations and launch winning issue campaigns. The hands-on workshop covers the basics of leadership, fundraising, organizational development, and community organizing.

Based on ongoing pandemic conditions and restricted regional travel, we will again offer an online training series this year.  The online training series will include a mix of weekday evening and Saturday morning sessions over the course of several weeks beginning in July.

As with our face-to-face training, the sessions will be interactive and build on one another. The training is strengthened with everyone’s full participation. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend the entire training series.

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POCO Information

Online Training Series – Principles of Community Organizing

The training will be conducted via Zoom and, as with our in-person training, it will be participatory and interactive. Once your application has been approved, we will email you a registration form. A training packet will be circulated prior to the training.  You can expect some take-home assignments to complete between sessions, so please plan accordingly.  

“Just a few days after returning from the workshop, I had the opportunity to do my first large-donor ask. The result was a $750 donation to Dakota Rural Action.

Because of my experience at this workshop, I feel I will be able to continue my fundraising work for DRA with this same level of comfort and confidence.”

   – Wyatt Urlacher, member

Schedule – all times mountain

Saturday Sessions will be held from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm* and will include a lunch break.

Wednesday sessions will be held from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm and will include a break

Training Content

Session 1: Saturday, August 7*

This first session will be held from 10:00 am – 2:30 pm

  • Introductions, Training Overview
  • Why Organize, Power & Conflict
  • Characteristics of Community Organizations

Session 2: Wednesday, August 11

  • Self Interest & one-on-one relational meetings

Session 3: Wednesday, August 18 

  • Leadership Development

Session 4:  Wednesday, August 25

  • Identifying & Picking an Issue, Part 1   

Session 5: Saturday, August 28

  • Identifying & Picking an Issue, Part 2
  • Developing an Issue Campaign

Session 6: Wednesday, September 22

  • Membership Systems & Recruitment

Session 7: Wednesday, September 29

  • Meaningful Meetings

Session 8: Saturday, October 2

  • Grassroots Fundraising & Organizing (Sisters in the Struggle)
  • Training Evaluation & Closure

Tuition

Tuition fees are reduced as we will not be offering the full curriculum. Fees for the full series are:

$40 for members

$200 for non-members

Please contact the staff director of your WORC member group to make sure you have the director’s support to apply and that you qualify for the reduced tuition.

Once you have received the staff director’s approval to apply, complete the application and submit it, along with a brief explanation of why you want to participate.