Generation180 and Climate Advocacy Lab hosted a one-hour virtual event – “Trusted Messengers: Growing your network of climate advocates” – to discuss how organizations are mainstreaming clean energy and changing the narrative by tapping the power of local leaders and creatives.

Power mapping supports organizers in understanding the stakeholders within their campaign. This resource offers step by step instructions and tips for power mapping your campaign.

Join Maine People’s Resource Center, New Jersey Resource Project, the New Conversation Initiative, People’s Action Institute and the Climate Advocacy Lab to learn about two deep canvassing campaigns launched in 2024 to build support for offshore wind in coastal communities in Maine and New Jersey.

People’s Action Institute worked with member affiliates New Jersey Resource Project (NJRP) and Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC) to conduct two deep canvassing projects focused on building community support for offshore wind power development. In the Spring and early Summer of 2024, canvassers from these organizations held conversations with over 1,400 local residents in Lacey Township, NJ and the Midcoast region of Maine combined.

Since 2018, the Climate Advocacy Lab has distributed Climate Justice Microgrants to 25 environmental justice and climate justice organizations around the United States who are doing powerful work to protect and improve their communities.

In this episode, David talks with Matt Traldi, co-founder of Greenlight America, about the fight for clean energy at the local level. They discuss how small groups of opponents are successfully blocking renewable projects across the country, and how Matt’s organization is working to turn the tide by mobilizing local supporters and giving them the tools to advocate effectively at critical government meetings.

This resource delves into the critical role of power in achieving social change, highlighting the necessity of understanding, challenging, and transforming power dynamics. It outlines various forms of power, including "power over," "power within," "power with," and "power to," discussing their implications in movement building. Power within: to dream, believe in oneself, hope, create and solve problems. Without it, we do not speak out and step up. Sometimes we believe this is the most unstoppable form of power. Power with: finding common ground with others, building solidarity on reciprocity and love, knowing, and respecting differences, and working together for a common purpose and ideals. Power to: make change, change lives, and make a difference in the world one step at a time; even the power to think, imagine, be silent, and resist the status quo. Power for: the combined vision, values and demands that orient our work and hold the seeds of the world we seek to create. The framework underscores the importance of recognizing and addressing visible, hidden, and invisible power structures to create equitable societies. JASS provides tools and methodologies for activists to build and mobilize power effectively in their advocacy efforts.

Tactics are the activities you use to influence your (primary/ secondary) target in order to achieve your goal. Escalation tactics are sequenced in a strategic way. It is important to agree on both before you begin your campaign. Another important definition is Action. The activist and author Rinku Sen defines this as: “a face-to face confrontation between your constituency and an individual target over a specific demand.” A tactic should be simple or time-bound; that could be simple action over a period of time; lots of actions in a short period of time. Effective tactics that have been used by local groups in the past include: posting contradictions or inconsistencies in course materials or textbooks on social media; walk-outs; boycotts; marches; and more. Unfortunately, no matter how well-planned our tactics are, it might be that the decision-maker still doesn’t make the change that you want. In that case, it’s important to ‘escalate’ our activities.

This resource can equip activists with the skills necessary to map and comprehend power structures effectively. The training emphasizes visualizing relationships among stakeholders, identifying key influencers, and developing strategic approaches to engage them. Participants learn to clearly define their campaign goals and navigate complex power dynamics, which is crucial for effective advocacy. This structured approach to power analysis aims to enhance the impact and success of social change initiatives. Power mapping is a method which visualizes how power is exercised across the whole playing field, allowing you to target key players and forward plan tactics for maximum impact. Determine who is anchoring decision-makers against you, how you can weaken this hold to sustain the change you are working to achieve.

When developing and carrying out a nonviolent campaign for social change, organizers need to consider steps for increasing the pressure on those whose actions or decisions are opposed. There are lots of ways a movement can escalate a conflict while remaining nonviolent. In Ebert's model, the first stage of a nonviolent campaign emphasizes bringing an issue into the public sphere. In the second stage, the campaign increases public pressure by staging legal forms of non-cooperation (strikes, consumer boycotts, slow-downs) as well as innovative lawful activities (fair trade initiatives, alternative economy structures, nonviolent intervention). The third stage of escalation uses nonviolent civil disobedience as both a protest and as a form of civil usurpation. Of course, there are more ways to escalate a campaign than increasing the level of non-cooperation or developing constructive alternatives. Perhaps the most common are escalation through increasing numbers of participants, increased length of public protests (think of people occupying a public square to protest against a repressive regime for many weeks) or a wider variety of participants.