Wonderland Camp and Conference Center
Salem, Wisconsin
March 28-30, 2008

With support from:
* The A. E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change
* The Wisconsin Community Fund
* The Ira and Ineva-Reilly Baldwin bequest at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (for Environmental Justice outreach)
* The Verna Hill - Dorothy Shannon Memorial Fund
* Campaign Against Violence

Throughout the Midwest, thousands of dedicated individuals, grassroots organizations, and communities are engaged in the demanding work of struggling for progressive social change. Yet despite their numbers, many of them work in virtual isolation, with a limited sense of their connection to others or of their real potential for effecting deep and enduring systemic change. Divided by geography, race, gender, age, sexuality, ability, issue focus, strategic perspective, and/or limited resources, they frequently find themselves cut off or distanced from others engaged in the same or similar struggles, and are thus unable to benefit from the shared experiences, insights, and mutual support that are essential to building a larger, more broad-based, and more effective movement for systemic social change.

This weekend-long organizing teach-in will develop collaborative relationships and teach organizing skills, strategies, and tactics needed to break out of the "silos" that segment the social justice movement. The Teach-in is a follow-up to the United States and Midwest Social Forums for Midwest-based grassroots organizations, activists and students. The event seeks to strengthen regional organizing networks and their interconnections and to provide valuable training in certain key aspects of organizing. A primary focus will be on the challenges of building broad-based coalitions across race, gender, class, age, sexual orientation, ability, issues, and other sources of division within the movement. Organizers from novice to veteran are welcome, with different workshops geared to people with different levels of experience.

Take advantage of this rare opportunity to build connections with other groups struggling for social change and to learn from some of the top organizing training groups in the country.

Training provided by, among others:
* Campaign Against Violence
* Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
* Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
* Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
* National Training and Information Center
* Project South
* Ruckus Society
* Unidos Against Domestic Violence
* Urban Underground
* Wisconsin Apprentice Organizers Project
* Wisconsin Community Fund

Caucusing:
*Immigrant Rights
*Youth
*LGBTQ
*Environmental Justice
*College Students

Caucusing: A portion of the program will be set aside for caucusing, with the goal of developing and strengthening relationships among people and organizations working on the same or similar issues or in communities confronting common problems. Caucusing offers an opportunity for groups to determine what they have in common and how they can work together most effectively – via exchanging insights and experiences, sharing best practices and strategies, providing mutual support, and potentially engaging in joint campaigns.

Cohort Groups: Participants will also be assigned to Cohort Groups of 10 or more individuals, designed to foster relationships that cut across communities, led by a continuing facilitator for the duration of the teach-in. The objective is to encourage participants to break out of their “comfort zones” and build ties with people from other communities or working in different issue areas.

PROGRAM

FRIDAY, MARCH 28

11:00 am Registration [SHARP CENTER] [Note: lunch is not provided]

12:00 noon Conference Opening [SHARP CENTER]
Welcome, introduction of general goals and agenda of the teach-in:
* Broad-based movement- and relationship-building
* Building networks (caucusing) and cohorts
* Gaining skills for cross-community organizing

12:30 pm Plenary: Can We Win it All? [SHARP CENTER]

As conditions to create grassroots-driven social and economic justice become more difficult, how is it possible to carry out effective cross-sector work that brings all issues the attention, support, and bodies needed to effect lasting change? When communities approach organizing drives not with a view to the short-term need to win – more jobs, fewer out-of-school suspensions, improvements in housing – but with a broad vision that encompasses the needs of every community and builds on every community’s resources, highlighting relationship-building, conscious change, and strategic use of privilege, communities have the essential ingredients needed to win it all! It starts by developing consciousness and it continues by practicing that consciousness in a daily way in the context of relationships. It results in being able to have effective decision-making with shared leadership, and genuinely democratic processes for building the kind of world we want.
* Facilitators: Rose Brewer, Project South, University of Minnesota; Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society

2:30pm Relationship Building: Cohorts
(SEQUOIA 1, SEQUOIA 2, SEQUOIA 3, REDWOOD 1, REDWOOD 2, REDWOOD 3, CYPRESS,
GREAT ROOM-LODGE, BALSAM, ALDER)

4:00 pm Relationship Building: Caucusing
Youth [SEQUOIA 1]
Environmental Justice [REDWOOD 1]
Immigrant Rights [CYPRESS]
LGBT [SEQUOIA 3]
Students [REDWOOD 3]
Rootscamp [SEQUOIA 1]
Rootscamp [REDWOOD 2]

5:30 pm Dinner: one-on-one with someone you don’t know [DINING HALL]

7:00 pm Plenary: Intergenerational Fishbowl on Cross-Community Best Organizing
Practices [SHARP CENTER]

We recognize that many of the attendees of this gathering are organizers who are doing cross-community organizing every day. Some are new to the work and bring fresh approaches, while others have been working on different models for years. The variety of approaches in the room include those who struggle for state power, those who build alternative community responses to today's problems and everything in-between. We want to harvest the best knowledge of the teach-in, from every background and generation present. In order to do that, we are going to have a fishbowl, selecting representatives from the generations present and hearing from as many participants as we can what they have learned about this work.
* Facilitator: Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society

9:00 pm Drumming Session: Cecilio Negrón [SHARP CENTER]

SATURDAY, MARCH 29

8:00 am Breakfast [DINING HALL]

8:50 am Opening – Introduction to workshops and overview of day

The goals of the workshops are to:
* Break down silos and focus on coalition building
* Get at the inter-connectedness of various struggles and sources of oppression
* Offer training in concrete organizing skills and tactics

Note: workshops marked with an asterisk (*) are particularly suited to beginner organizers

9 – 10:30 am Organizing Workshops I

Conflict Resolution Training [GREAT ROOM – LODGE]
This training curriculum is specifically tailored to deal with the problems facing today's youth and adults. More than just your average workshop, the Campaign Against Violence engages youth and adults in "real talk" and encourages them to discuss aloud many of the problems that they face in their neighborhoods and lives.
* Facilitators: Kwabena Nixon and Muhibb Dyer, Campaign Against Violence

An Introduction to Community Organizing: The Basics* [CYPRESS]
Learn about how organizing is different from other forms of community engagement and explore some key organizing concepts. Participants will learn about the difference between "problems" and "issues," and how to "cut an issue" from their own personal set of concerns to fit the realities of their local context. Designed for people who are brand new to organizing for social action.
* Facilitators: Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Facilitation 101* [SEQUOIA 1]
Facilitating a good gathering, coalition/alliance meeting, or strategy session is truly an art to be honed over time. While there are many approaches, this session will focus on popular education based models that can help any organizer or activist to increase their facilitation prowess and bring out the best in the participants of any gathering. Come to learn, share and experience best and worst facilitation practices with Facilitation Evangelist Adrienne Maree Brown.
* Facilitator: Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society

Developing Strategies for Organizing across Communities for Immigrant Rights [REDWOOD 1]
In the spring of 2006, millions of people throughout the country marched together to demand justice for undocumented immigrants. And there were not only Latinos who marched. African Americans, Hmong, LGBT activists, Faith Communities and Worker Unions stood side by side in a quest for civil rights and justice for immigrants whose lives and well-being were being attacked by the conservative right. In 2008, it appears that many of the coalitions that were forged then are dwindling. The rhetoric from the right seems to be having a very real impact on these coalitions. The aim of this workshop is to share experiences and strategies that can counteract the rhetoric and misconceptions against immigrants and can identify actions that can bring back and create strong coalitions across boundaries.
* Facilitators: Isabel Anadon, Coalition of African, Arab, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois; Salvador Carranza, Latinos United for Change and Advancement; Teresa Ortiz, Workers’ Interfaith Network; Carlos Rios, Iowa Immigrant Rights Network

10:45 am – 12:15 pm Organizing Workshops II

Strategic Campaign Planning* [SEQUOIA 1]
A campaign is a powerful framework to help a base of people win concrete improvements in their lives. Learn the basics of developing a strategic campaign with a clear target and goals, and gain tools for identifying allies, developing a timeline for your campaign work and evaluating your campaign.
* Facilitator: Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society

Developing Leaders for the Long Haul* [GREAT ROOM – LODGE]
Powerful grassroots leadership is the heart and soul of community organizing and building social movements. Groups across the country struggle with not only building new leadership and expanding their base, but keeping leaders for the long haul. This session focuses on the art of developing leaders and what keeps leaders involved for the long term.
* Facilitator: Kari Carney and Erica Palmer, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement

Antiracist movement building in the era of Neo-liberalism [CYPRESS]
This workshop focuses on the key question: How do we build a global antiracist movement in the era of neo-liberalism? Central here is the necessity of incorporating a critique of trade and transnational capital into our struggles against racism. So how do we build solidarities in this country and across borders to organize an antiracist movement? Why have struggles against racism waned in the neo-liberal moment? Our challenge then is to understand the common roots and persistence of racism today and build across our multiple organizing efforts to fight white supremacy.
* Facilitators: Rose Brewer, Project South and University of Minnesota; and Shannon Gibney, Minneapolis Technical and Community College

Building a Queer Left in the Midwest [REDWOOD 3]
This workshop will serve as a follow-up to the Building the Queer Left event at the U.S. Social Forum. This space is open to anyone interested in building a stronger regional connection, coalition, and movement toward an organized and powerful queer left. Some of the questions we will discuss are: How do we define the region we live in? What are some of the key issues in our region that should be addressed? Of these issues/areas, where do we need to build our analysis? How do we connect LGBT and queer organizing with broader racial and economic justice work? Where can we build coalitions to do multi-issue, multi-racial, multi-classed organizing within and across communities? How do we “get on the map” in terms of an organized queer left movement, one that is not solely rooted in and defined by the coasts. What is our vision for a Queer Left in the Midwest?
* Facilitator: Brandon Lacy Campos, Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution

12:15 pm Lunch [DINING HALL]

1:30 – 3:00 pm Organizing Workshops III

Student Power! Democratizing Your Campus [REDWOOD 3]
What power, beyond numbers, do students have on the college campus? How can we plan our organizing to win permanent power for students that will last for generations? This workshop will provide concrete skills for understanding and maximizing student power. We'll discuss your current organizing efforts, outline traditional relations of power on the college campus and build on organizing examples from across North America to help you envision a strategy within your campaigns that: creates grassroots decision-making within our organizing; builds sustainable, autonomous, democratic structures on our campuses that win permanent power for students; and, ultimately, democratizes higher education.
* Facilitators: Taylour Johnson and Ashok Kumar, Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution; Sam Daly, Campus Anti-war Network

Hustling for Change: Youth Organizing* [SEQUOIA 3]
This is a "how-to" workshop for young people interested in building a campaign around an issue in their schools or community. This interactive workshop takes young people through step-by-step strategies for community organizing. Objectives: 1) to understand what organizing is and how to do it; 2) to understand the steps to building a campaign and to get practice at it by going through those steps.
* Facilitators: David Crowley, Urban Underground

Direct Action Training* [GREAT ROOM – LODGE]
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to dramatize the issue so that it can no longer be ignored.” The Direct Action Workshop is designed to give leaders an understanding of the different types of direct action, why direct action is sometimes necessary, and how direct actions can build their organizations. Participants will also go through the step by step process of how to plan and execute a successful direct action.
* Facilitator: DeAngelo Bester and Kelley Ford, National Training and Information Center

Money and Organizing in Social Movements [CYPRESS]
What is the role of money and fundraising in social movements and social change organizations? Is it a tool of the organizing or is the organizing shaped by the source of the funds? Are funding issues creating "turf battles" among movement allies instead of cooperation? Are funders setting your organization's agenda? This workshop will discuss the pitfalls of money and funding as it is connected to social change work and important principles for maintaining integrity in a funding strategy. Participants will also generate ideas for building a grassroots fundraising strategy that serves the social movement goals of your organizations.
* Facilitators: Julie Andersen, Unidos Against Domestic Violence; Cynthia Lin, Wisconsin Community Fund; Jen Sandler, Wisconsin Apprentice Organizers Project

3:15 – 4:45 pm Cohort group discussion
(SEQUOIA 1, SEQUOIA 2, SEQUOIA 3, REDWOOD 1, REDWOOD 2, REDWOOD 3,
CYPRESS, GREAT ROOM-LODGE, BALSAM, ALDER)

4:45 – 6:00 pm Free time

6:00 pm Dinner: One-on-One with someone you don’t know [DINING HALL]

7:30 pm Plenary: Building Power by Building Bridges [SHARP CENTER]
This interactive session looks at the challenges and barriers to building real power by bringing diverse people and groups together. It explores what ties us all together and discusses the possibilities and best practices for addressing the challenges to building real power.
* Facilitators: Kari Carney and Erica Palmer, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement; Kim Wasserman Nieto, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization

9:00 pm DJ [SHARP CENTER]

SUNDAY, MARCH 30

8:00 am Breakfast [DINING HALL]

8:50 am Opening – A brief introduction and overview of the morning

9:00 am Organizing Workshops IV

An Introduction to Community Organizing: The Basics* [CYPRESS]
Learn about how organizing is different from other forms of community engagement and explore some key organizing concepts. Participants will learn about the difference between "problems" and "issues," and how to "cut an issue" from their own personal set of concerns to fit the realities of their local context. Designed for people who are brand new to organizing for social action.
* Facilitators: Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Strategic Campaign Planning* [SEQUOIA 1]
A campaign is a powerful framework to help a base of people win concrete improvements in their lives. Learn the basics of developing a strategic campaign with a clear target and goals, and gain tools for identifying allies, developing a timeline for your campaign work and evaluating your campaign.
* Facilitator: Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society

Developing Leaders for the Long Haul* [REDWOOD 3]
Powerful grassroots leadership is the heart and soul of community organizing and building social movements. Groups across the country struggle with not only building new leadership and expanding their base, but keeping leaders for the long haul. This session focuses on the art of developing leaders and what keeps leaders involved for the long term.
* Facilitators: Kari Carney and Erica Palmer, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement

Hustling for Change: Youth Organizing* [SEQUOIA 3]
This is a "how-to" workshop for young people interested in building a campaign around an issue in their schools or community. This interactive workshop takes young people through step-by-step strategies for community organizing. Objectives: 1) to understand what organizing is and how to do it; 2) to understand the steps to building a campaign and to get practice at it by going through those steps.
F* acilitator: David Crowley, Urban Underground

10:45 am Caucus Group Meetings
Youth [SEQUOIA 1]
Environmental Justice [REDWOOD 1]
Immigrant Rights [CYPRESS]
LGBT [SEQUOIA 3]
Students [REDWOOD 3]
Rootscamp [SEQUOIA 2]
Rootscamp [REDWOOD 2]

11:30 am Plenary [SHARP CENTER]
Tying the threads of the teach-in together and moving forward:
Broad-based movement- and relationship-building
Building networks and cohorts
Gaining skills for cross-community organizing

12:30 pm Lunch [DINING HALL]

2:00 pm Teach-in Ends