This curriculum is intended to be a starting point for training(s) you may be delivering to your community in moments of rapid response. This curriculum was developed with love and adapted from years of direct action training in and out of the Ruckus Community. During a training, provide a rapid overview to participants of what to do to prepare for mass action. Pay attention to verbal and nonverbal communication. Prepare an action pack. Protect your data. This guide provides many specific steps to use during a training and during action preparation and planning.

Know your role before, during, and after social movement actions. Roles might include activist/organizer/coordinator/campaigner, fundraiser, researcher, scout, artist, etc. During an action, people might be: risking arrest, directing supporting, liaising with police, peacekeeping, talking to or reaching out to media, etc. This guide describes all these types of roles and actions. After an action, some roles that might be needed include lawyer, documentarian, fundraiser, letter writer, etc.

Learn how to become an activist, plan a political campaign strategy, and start a grassroots movement -- all while not burning out. This guide includes chapters on organizing, campaign strategy, action tactics, wellbeing, communication, digital tools, legal rights, and theory of change. Learn how to set up an inclusive movement, how to make decisions democratically and how to mobilize people and keep them engaged. There are different types of strategies depending on local political and social contexts. Find tools for editing videos, designing graphics, managing social media, developing websites and much more. Even though you might not refer to yourself as an ‘activist’, this handbook can be useful for anyone who would like to achieve societal change.

The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest. However, police and other government officials are allowed to place certain narrow restrictions on the exercise of speech rights. This guide describes specific protest rights, including the following. Your rights are strongest in what are known as “traditional public forums,” such as streets, sidewalks, and parks. You don’t need a permit to march in the streets or on sidewalks, as long as marchers don’t obstruct car or pedestrian traffic. Shutting down a protest through a dispersal order must be law enforcement’s last resort. When you are lawfully present in any public space, you have the right to photograph anything in plain view, including federal buildings and the police. When you can, write down everything you remember, including the officers' badge and patrol car numbers and the agency they work for.

One-on-ones are how to invite people into organizing work, encourage people to step into leadership, uncover barriers to campaigns, and so much more. To build the power needed to stop unending war, climate chaos, and inequality across race, class, and gender, it’s critical that new people come into movement organizations, are given meaningful roles, and ultimately stick around—instead of marshaling the same, small group of people who already know and agree. One-on-ones are a key vehicle for how that happens. Here’s a 6-step model to use to help plan one-on-one conversations. Whether following this model, adapt it, or use a different one, having a clear sequence of steps to learn and practice helps prepare and meet goals in your organizing conversations. Here are the 6 steps of a one-on-one: introduction, issues and stake, agitation, educate and plan to win, the ask, and next steps.

Polling 201: utilizing public opinion research in your communications ca

Here are 5 insights for climate activists from the science of well-being. Your mental health matters for saving the planet; protect yourself and your team by fighting burnout; learn to embrace and allow negative emotions; give yourself the gift of self-compassion; embrace skeptical hope to gain energy and agency. In this video, psychology professor Dr. Laurie Santos discussed how the climate community can apply these strategies to work more effectively and avoid burnout. Two distinct methods are described. First, the RAIN method (by Tara Brach): recognize what is happening; allow feeling to be just as it is; investigate with interest & care; nurture with self-compassion. Second, the steps of self-compassion (by Kristin Neff): mindfulness (“I’m struggling”, “this is hard right now”); common humanity (“this is something everyone deals with”, “I’m only human”); self-kindness (“what do I need right now?”, “what can I take off my plate?”).

A new climate campaign is testing whether relentless civil disobedience can stop Citi from backing the fossil fuel industry. It is an experiment: Can sustained disruption play a major role in toppling support for the fossil fuel industry from a big bank like Citi? First of all, it’s about a wide range of constituencies being disruptive. Also, to sustain disruption, we need more people, period, which requires many recruitment methods. Specifically, this campaign has partnered with community-based organizations to activate existing membership bases, and with grassroots groups and NGOs small and large to send email blasts to recruit supporters into mass calls and meetings. The campaign has also hired campaign fellows and activated volunteers to phone, text bank and flier, sticker and put up posters. This campaign is an organizing project that seeks to recruit and empower many more people and groups to step into escalated risk and disruption.

Here are practices based in the science of motivation, performance and well-being to improve the quality of political organizing trainings. Connect the activity to its impact on other people or the world. Present goals and timelines as valuable information that is necessary for achieving a shared goal. Be clear about any requirements, guidelines, or boundaries. Provide a meaningful rationale for requests and requirements. Acknowledge and accept negative feelings and affect. Provide appropriate scaffolding (training, shadowing, role-plays, etc.).

There is a large gap between people’s interest in climate activism and their self-reported actions. Social norms are linked with increased follow-through. First, there is a big difference between those who say that they “definitely” or “probably” would take an action. Americans who follow through on climate activism tend to feel more social pressure to do so.