Audience: Environmental 'Base'

Earlier this month, I traveled to Lumberton, NC for the North Carolina Climate Justice Collective (NCCJC)’s quarterly convening of Resiliency Organizing Hub leaders. The Lumberton area was hit by devastating floods from back-to-back hurricanes in 2017 and 2018, displacing thousands and prompting critical conversations about how to build both more resilient infrastructure and more resilient communities.
In the face of worsening, climate-fueled extreme weather and the ongoing threat of extractive industries, local organizations like the Robeson County Cooperative for Sustainable Development (RCCSD) are providing direct relief, pushing for a more “just recovery,” and organizing people to “fight the bad” and “build the good.” (Bonus content: Check out RCCSD’s climate justice microgrant project, detailing lessons learned from the successful campaign to stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline*!)
NCCJC is one of the Lab’s newest strategic partners, and we’ve had the privilege of working closely together over the past year in support of their place-based organizing work! In this week’s newsletter, we’re excited to share more information about NCCJC’s Resiliency Organizing Hub and anchor organizations, as well as some reflections and early learnings from our partnership work so far.

In a rapidly changing social and political landscape, having a solid strategy for engaging and growing your base is essential. The Lab’s Organizing 201 training is designed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively recruit and retain members and volunteers for your campaign or advocacy work.

The world of organizing can seem overwhelming, with various strategies and approaches to consider. But understanding the core principles of organizing is the first step in building strong, impactful movements. Join us at The Lab for Organizing 101, a dynamic training designed to equip you with the tools to transform your ideas into action.

With only 60 days until the election, voter registration and GOTV efforts are in full swing across the country, and in my own social media feed I see photos of community groups at the library or at people’s dining room tables writing letters, textbanking, and phonebanking to get out the vote. Individual and collective GOTV action is foundational to the democratic process, and that’s got us thinking about the force multiplier of allocating institutional resources to the effort. In this week’s newsletter we gather GOTV resources from the Lab, and our partners and colleagues across the climate and democracy spaces, that may help you and your organization ramp up, or build out your own GOTV work.

With the IRA’s 2nd anniversary, we’ve seen the positive ripples of the IRA spread across the nation. The Climate Jobs National Resource Center announced that over 6,200 IRA-eligible clean energy projects are planned, in development or already complete. CJNRC estimates the sum of all projects across the country will create over 3 million jobs that can boost pay and job quality by meeting IRA labor provisions, and generate over 1 million megawatts of clean power.