Challenge:
Conference attendees had extensive experience working to make media available and responsive to the needs of people in their communities, but had minimal exposure to the basics of grassroots organizing as a tool to advocate for the protection of community media at the local, state, and federal levels.
Solution:
grassroots solutions, in collaboration with the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), designed and delivered a customized training for the conference. The training focused on the fundamentals of grassroots organizing within a community media context. To engage and energize the attendees, the training included a mix of lecture, activity, and discussion. The first part of the training explored basic concepts and the philosophy behind grassroots organizing. The second half of the training covered more specific organizing strategies and tactics to engage constituencies around the importance of protecting localism and diversity in media, address skepticism and cynicism about having a tangible policy impact, and develop a comfort with relationship and power building within the communities they serve.
Results:
- More than fifteen key community media practitioners from all over the country attended the training and learned valuable concepts for organizing around their issues.
- Each attendee received a take-home Mini-Toolbox. The ten-section packet contained materials which complemented the themes of the training and also offered extended resources and helpful tips.
- Participant feedback on the training, gathered in person and in written form, was overwhelmingly positive on all accounts. For many, it was the first grassroots organizing training they had ever attended.