Activist Training Websites
Activism Websites
The websites below are dedicated to training activists, giving them the tools and strategies they need, in order to recognize inequality and work towards social justice.
Training for Change
Training for Change was founded on Martin Luther King's birthday in 1992, a carefully chosen birthday for a group that spreads the skills of democratic, nonviolent social change.
Since then they've led hundreds of workshops for nonviolent activists around the world with a unique direct education approach that utilizes experiential learning. They've included direct action workshops for Mohawks, strategic planning retreats for Greenpeace, civil disobedience workshops for nursing-home workers, strike trainings for steelworkers and civil disobedience classes for ACT-UP.
Based in Philadelphia, Training for Change offers intensive trainings in facilitation, non-violent direct action, strategic planning and many other crucial skill sets.
Follow this link to find twelve exercises to be used during Diversity and Anti-Oppression workshops. [1]
School of Unity and Liberation
SOUL's mission is to serve as a training center to develop a new multi-racial generation of young organizers - especially young women, young people of color, queer youth and low-income youth - who will have the skills and the vision they need to struggle for the liberation of all oppressed people. These young leaders need to be trained in nuts-and-bolts organizing skills to mobilize their communities, and they need to develop visions for social change. SOUL strives to support the growing youth movement - designing political education, organizing skills trainings and technical assistance programs to meet the special needs of our generation.
Ruckus Society
The Ruckus Society provides environmental, human rights, and social justice organizers with the tools, training, and support needed to achieve their goals. Working with a broad range of communities, organizations, and movements from high school students to professional organizations Ruckus facilitates the sharing of information and expertise that strengthen the capacity to change our relationship with the environment and each other.
The Ruckus Society sees itself as a toolbox of experience, training, and skills. We provide instruction on the application of tactical and strategic tools to a growing number of organizations and individuals from around the world in skill shares and trainings that are designed to move a campaign forward. We do this work in strong collaboration with our partner organizations, working together to define and create the training agenda.
Paul Kivel - Violence Prevention Educator
Paul Kivel's work covers a wide range of issues, including how to eradicate racism, prevent male violence, avert youth violence, promote progressive parenting, halt homophobia, uproot class and gender discrimination, and promote social justice by helping people get together to form productive alliances. Many of his workshops are founded on books and curricula developed specifically for grassroots activists and others working for social justice. My titles include Uprooting Racism, Men's Work, Young Men's Work, Young Women's Lives, and Making the Peace.
Using this link, browse the exercises, videographies, bibliographies and additional tools designed by Paul Kivel to address inequality and promote alliances. [2]
Project South
Project South is a leadership development organization based in the US South creating spaces for movement building. We work with communities pushed forward by the struggle to strengthen leadership and provide popular political & economic education for personal & social transformation. We build relationships with organizations and networks across the US and global South to inform our local work and to engage in bottom-up movement building for social & economic justice.
Project South creates opportunities for organizing, movement-building, and leadership development through the Grassroots Popular Education Project on the local, national, and international levels.
We build strategic thinking and planning capacity of grassroots and community groups to organize around local/regional issues by using popular education techniques;
We develop leaders in these organizations who are indigenous – who know and understand the issues within their communities through lived experience; and We connect community issues to the “bigger picture” of building a new movement for social and economic justice.
The Highlander Center
The Highlander Center was founded in 1932 to serve as an adult education center for community workers involved in social and economic justice movements. The goal of Highlander was and is to provide education and support to poor and working people fighting economic injustice, poverty, prejudice, and environmental destruction. We help grassroots leaders create the tools necessary for building broad-based movements for change.
The founding principle and guiding philosophy of Highlander is that the answers to the problems facing society lie in the experiences of ordinary people. Those experiences, so often belittled and denigrated in our society, are the keys to grassroots power. Highlander helps activists to become more effective community educators and organizers, informed about the important issues driving conditions in communities today.
People's Institute for Survival and Beyond
The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), is a national and international collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation. The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, affectionately known in the community as The People’s Institute, considers racism the primary barrier preventing communities from building effective coalitions and overcoming institutionalized oppression and inequities. Through Undoing Racism™/Community Organizing Workshops, technical assistance and consultations, PISAB helps individuals, communities, organizations and institutions move beyond addressing the symptoms of racism to undoing the causes of racism so as to create a more just and equitable society.
Founded in 1980 by long-time community organizers Ron Chisom of New Orleans, and Dr. Jim Dunn of Yellow Springs, Ohio, The People’s Institute has impacted the lives of nearly 130,000 people both nationally and internationally. Through this process, it supports a cadre of anti-racist organizers who build leadership in and account to the constituencies where they are organizing.