Issue: From Webinar

On Thursday, September 15, the Climate Advocacy Lab hosted the second training in our North East Training Arc, Elements of a successful campaign strategy. This training focused on the importance of building a strong campaign strategy, understanding the componants that makeup a strategy that builds power, and looked at case studies of campaigns that we can learn from to bring key strategic vision to our organizations and communities. 
 

This workshop on combating apathy and powerlessness for the RE-AMP Network’s current peer learning circle covered what social science is telling us about the root causes of apathy and ways to move people toward hope, and how to combat sentiments among supporters like “My actions don’t matter.”        

The Lab hosted the first training in our Narrative and Communications Training Arc. The Developing Your Narrative Strategy training will focus on defining why a narrative is so important for change and what role it plays in the movement, how to develop a narrative strategy for yourself and your organization, and make space to think through how we can bring back these learnings to your organization to grow your collective narrative! This session provided an overview of narrative work and allowed for members to connect via breakout rooms. Join our future sessions to continue strengthening your evidence-based work.

Learn about an evidence-backed framework to engage your key audiences and build buy-in from your supporters. In 2021, we kicked off a round of research project collaborations to study how climate advocates can leverage the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) to better organize and mobilize their bases. SIMCA predicts that people participate in activism when they feel that their social group is experiencing injustice, when they strongly identify with that group, and/or when they feel that acting together could have an impact (that is, a sense of collective efficacy). These collaborations helped us unpack SIMCA and provided a better understanding of how and when to use this model. We found that SIMCA-informed messaging tended to perform as well as or better than existing approaches, though the specific context of each implementation was important for determining exactly how this played out. In part 2 of this report-out, we feature research done in collaboration with three climate justice organizations: Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Alianza for Progress, and Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts. (Also see our practical guide for integrating SIMCA into climate engagement programs and check out the projects from our SIMCA Part 1 webinar)