Issue: Organizational Development

Every day climate advocates and organizations make dozens of decisions about how to allocate time and resources most effectively– from high-level questions about campaign strategy* to weighing the trade-offs of policymaker contact tactics* to the phrasing of a canvass script. We believe that the climate movement shouldn’t waste time or money doing things destined to fail or backfire. This is why the Lab exists to equip the US climate movement with the evidence-based insights, skills, and connections needed to build durable power and win equitable solutions.

Relational organizing is a crucial aspect of building strong coalitions and sustained community power. On Thursday, September 29th, the Climate Advocacy Lab is hosting the third session in our Northeast regional training arc, Power of Relational Organizing. This hour-long training will focus on how to relationally organize to build transformative relationships, transactional organizing mistakes to avoid, relational organizing do’s and don’ts, and best practices for 1:1’s and building long-standing community.

Climate activism can serve as a pathway for young people to develop as civic actors, leading to voting and to other forms of participation. There are opportunities to increase access for some youth—rates of taking climate action are lower for some groups, even after accounting for the skills that they bring to climate action. The youngest respondents (ages 14-19) were more likely than their slightly older peers (ages 20-24) to sign petitions, plan events, and use social media to inform and engage. All youth of color are more likely than white youth to plan events on climate and environmental issues. Liberals are most likely to sign petitions, have conversations, contact elected officials, and use social media compared to conservatives, moderate youth, and youth who don’t know their political ideology. Respondents living in rural areas are less likely to have conversations. There are opportunities to strengthen skills for some youth—including the ability to present and discuss information, and to inspire others to do actions (“readiness”), having the knowledge, skills, and availability to do the action (“efficacy”), and having the reasons and the support to do the action (“motivation”).