Transform Resources into Power – Community Organising Foundations

Understanding power is central to community organising. Power itself is neutral – it's simply the ability to act. The problem isn't power, the problem is who holds it and what agenda they work towards. This training explores what power really means, the difference between dominant power and relational power, and how to build the kind of collective power that wins change.

Through interactive exercises and proven frameworks, you'll practise power mapping, analyse where power sits in real situations, and learn how to turn the resources your community already has into the power you need to win. You'll leave with practical tools to strengthen your campaigns and build collective power.

Outcomes:

• Understand power in the context of organising.
• Practice power mapping and organising your power.
• Reflect on how you can apply these principles to your own work.

This training is part of our foundations series, designed for both new and experienced organisers who are ready to develop practical organising skills. We recommend taking the introduction training first to understand the core concepts of transformative community organising.

Meet the facilitators

Ariel Whitson has over a decade of experience as a community organiser focused on social justice issues, primarily with environmental and land justice. Before joining Act Build Change, she was the Senior Director of Community Organising and Education at TreePeople, a leading Los Angeles-based NGO, where she led a team of 40 organisers and educators supporting communities impacted by climate change and environmental injustice. Prior to TreePeople, she ran major advocacy campaigns at Ten Strands, securing significant legislative and funding victories for climate literacy. Ariel is passionate about healing the violent separation of land and people through organising.

Kate McIntosh has organised people who are sharply affected by injustice to act together, exercise power and win change. She has trained hundreds of campaigners and equipped people to lead in their communities to secure rent cuts, pay rises, and policy change. Before Act Build Change, Kate was a community organiser based at a food bank where she organised people on very low incomes to win service charge cuts and build support for social security reform. She has roots organising in students’ unions, ACORN, and grassroots neighbourhood campaigns on issues ranging from disability rights in higher education to dangerous tower block cladding.

Cost

• Free for Full Members (those with a paid membership) using the discount code below.
• £15 for everyone else.

If you would like to become a Full Member (and get access to lots of other great events, trainings and more), visit our membership page to get started.

Access

This event will be held online using Zoom. The link will be shared with registered attendees before the start of the event.

To avoid difficulties accessing the workshop, please ensure that you register for the event with the same email address that you intend to use on Zoom.

Please get in touch if there is anything we can do to support your participation in this session. This includes, but is not limited to, language, comfort, and access (physical, emotional, technological) needs.