Organize BC

Organize BC offers training and capacity-building programs in engagement organizing, an organizing framework developed by Marshall Ganz, based off of experience with the United Farm Workers, and studying other social change movements such as the American civil rights movement. Sometimes referred to as ‘the snowflake model’ or ‘distributed organizing,’ engagement organizing defines organizing as “leadership that enables people to turn their resources into the power they need to make the change they want.”

Engagement organizing uses five foundational leadership practices:

Articulating shared purpose through storytelling
Building purposeful, bonded relationships
Building stable and structured leaderships teams
Ongoing and intentional strategizing
Putting strategy into practice by taking action

Core Trainings

Core Trainings provide a holistic overview of the engagement organizing framework, based on five leadership practices: Telling Stories, Building Relationships, Structuring Teams, Strategizing and Taking Action. Using a mix of lecture, small and large group discussion, activities, and role play, participants leave with the skills needed to empower people in their community to make change. Core Trainings are offered throughout BC, most frequently in the Spring and Fall.

Booster Workshops

Booster Workshops focus on one leadership practice and offer a skills boost in the form of a 2-3 hour participation-heavy workshop. Booster workshops are mainly offered in Vancouver or Victoria, and are generally posted on our Upcoming Trainings page a month in advance.

Campaign Start-Up

Campaign Start-Up is a 2-day intensive workshop for brand new campaigns or existing organizations starting a new campaign. Facilitators walk a leadership team of 5-10 people through the process of articulating a shared campaign goal, mapping of the people and organizations relevant to the campaign, and creating a clear strategy, campaign timeline, a leadership structure. Developed with support from, and based on experiences from, our friends at Ahel.

Coaching & Mentorship

The Organize BC Peer Coaching Network pairs organizers from across North America to coach and and support one another through organizing challenges. Organize BC also offers ongoing mentorship on a fee-for-service basis to campaigns needing ongoing support from experienced organizers. If you would like to be a part of the Peer Coaching Network, or would like to discuss contracting an organizing mentor, contact Peter.

Organizing 2.0

Through our Organizing 2.0 program, Organize BC runs day-long workshops and multi-day retreats that bring together experienced engagement organizers to share successes, troubleshoot challenges and help each other deepen their effectiveness as change-makers.

Custom Workshops

Organize BC is available to run custom workshops and trainings on a fee-for-service basis, from short informational webinars to multi-day trainings and facilitated retreats. Email us to have a needs assessment conversation and get a quote.

CanRoots West

Every year, political, grassroots and labour organizers from across the country meet at CanRoots to learn from each other's victories, to skill up and to get ready to make change in the year ahead. CanRoots is a 200-person conference attended by organizers from across the progressive movement.

Organize BC hosted CanRoots West in 2016 (highlights here) and 2017 (conference program here) in Vancouver. The next CanRoots West will be in Vancouver in Spring 2019.

Firelight Campaign School

Firelight Campaign School is a 5-day immersion program for up-and-coming grassroots, union, and non-profit movement builders that facilitates partnership building and the cross-pollination of goals and tactics.

Participants learn the hard skills of organizing (media savviness, field and digital organizing, strategizing and theory of change, resource mobilization and more) while exploring what it means to work towards building intersectional, inclusive, and equitable movements.

Firelight Campaign School is on June 25-29, 2018 at Camp Fircom on Gambier Island. You can find all of the info here.