Resource Library

This webinar is a 90-minute overview of the organizing model pioneered by the retail workers organization United for Respect. It was presented by O2O Strategies, a sister organization of UFR dedicated to helping other people-powered organizations use what they’ve learned to help them build the power they need to win. This interactive session features the historical context surrounding the development of this model, the strategic reasons to lead with digital tools, case studies on organizing campaigns and victories achieved using this model, and an in-depth explanation of how the model works, from supporter recruitment to members leading campaigns to victory.             

Multiracial organizing (MRO) can easily be siloed in culture, but it needs to be integrated in all parts of your DNA: story, strategy, structure and culture. MRO is hard work, and if your movement or organization is struggling to navigate how to do it well, you are in the majority. Representation and tokenization are easy traps to fall into. If your movement cannot clearly articulate why building multi-racial movement is important for winning, you may find it hard to organize with integrity, and conflicts will arise in your organization about who is leading and who is in your base. “Ideological grounding” is an important first step. Different kinds of MRO will be best in different kinds of contexts: majority white spaces, majority Black spaces, versus majority POC, non-Black spaces. Historic organizational memory matters, and there are different “levels of intervention” that can help strengthen MRO organizing. This report details those kinds of interventions and other aspects of successful MRO.

In this webinar, the Lab team is joined by the Regulatory Assistance Project to explore recommendations from the new report Energy Infrastructure: Sources of Inequities and Policy Solutions for Improving Community Health and Wellbeing.
In addition to the report, participants also learn from advocates across the country fighting for an equitable clean energy future. Contributing speakers shared their reflections and lessons learned from a variety of perspectives on what it takes to achieve energy equity, including how they’re financing low-income solar, how they’re growing solar through state-level policy, and how to work in strong coalition.
Contributing speakers include: Donna Brutkoski, Communications Associate, Regulatory Assistance Project; Yesenia Rivera, Director of Energy Equity and Inclusion, Solar United Neighbors; and Jacqueline Hutchinson, Vice President of Operations, People’s Community Action Corporation.

American’s external political efficacy – the belief that one can influence government decisions – has been on the decline over the last several decades. Greater involvement in civic associations may help to reverse this. Analyzing a panel dataset of several hundred environmental association members, this study found that as members got to know their association’s chapter leaders, external efficacy increased.