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Empowerment, Justice and Practice in Community advocacy

“Organizing Sustainability: Empowerment, Justice and Practice in Community advocacy” is an 8 week course introducing the basics of community organizing for sustainability and environmental justice in the Fall and Winter semesters. It is open to students, community members, and others interested in environmental advocacy.

 

Participants will follow an experiential curriculum focused both on learning the analytical and organizational skills required for environmental advocacy, as well as fostering safety and long term relationships among participants.

This program is free, and upon completion, with an 85% participation rate, students will get a Sustainable Concordia Certificate. Additionally, Concordia Students may have it added to their transcripts on their Co-Curricular Record.

APPLY BY FILLING THIS FORM

Fall 2022 workshops will be taking place every Wednesday, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, from September 21st to November 9th (8 weeks total), on Zoom

Fall 2022 applications are now open!

In this module, participants will get to know each other, and be introduced to the concept of Sustainability within a community organizing framework through a variety of games and activities. This module will set the stage for the rest of the program and empower students to take responsibility for themselves and each other throughout the duration of the program.

This module will use activities to give participants an understanding of the ways in which the impacts of environmental degradation are disproportionate across social divisions such as race, gender, class,  geography, education, economic status, etc. We will discuss the consequences of reduced access to decision making power with regards to ecological health, and the notion of individual and community empowerment to achieve just social relations.

This module connects the understanding of power imbalances related to social hierarchies with concept of ideological roots of issues (racism, sexism, classism, etc) and the understanding of power structures to dynamics of access.

This module will re-emphasize the importance of empowerment and root cause analysis, Introduce participants to active and exemplary Environmental Justice organizations currently working on Turtle Island introduce participants to the tools and concepts for doing an environmental advocacy campaign.

This module introduces participants to tools and concepts for building a grassroots environmental justice campaign as well as concept of direct action and escalation of tactics in a campaign framework. Participants will get to work in teams to produce content for a chosen campaign.

This module builds on the campaign planning process, emphasizing the importance of crafting specific, goal oriented messaging arcs in the advocacy campaign process. Students will learn habits of effective messaging, and practice the ABC’s of staying on message.

This module aims creates a safe space to have a productive debate about what worked and didn’t work well throughout the program and explores productive conflict resolution tactics.

In the final module of the course, participants will present their work on the selected campaign, review goals and end the program with a celebration and certificates.

“It showed me how to articulate what Sustainability is and how to organize a campaign with purposeful action.”
“I would tell my friends to do it! Not only do you have the opportunity to connect with a diverse and welcoming group of people, but you also learn a lot in the process and earn an environmental certification!”
“The fruitful group discussions we had each week really helped open my eyes to how sustainability extends beyond the environment to social, cultural, economic, etc. disciplines and issues as well.”