About us

"People don't burnout of well-structured teams." Effective teams give us agency and refill our cups, even through struggle and setbacks. But poorly structured teams drain us and keep us locked in ineffective patterns, leading quickly to burnout. The fight for democracy requires us to sustain ourselves for the long haul, and that means learning how to structure our volunteer democracy teams as sources of joy and inspiration -- with clear shared purpose, strong team norms and agreements, and well-defined roles. We can all learn to build effective teams with some training, coaching, and practice.

The Democracy Teams Initiative is a new collaboration of organizing trainers (led by Jake Schlachter of We Own It) and grassroots groups working to save our democracy: Democracy Renewal Group, Federal Workers Against DOGE, Resistance Rangers, USAID alumni, We Own It, and more. Our trainers are experienced in both doing the work and teaching the organizing framework of:

• leadership development,

• developing relationships and recruitment strategies to bring in new people,

• structuring effective teams as sources of inspiration and joy to keep our cups full,

• developing proactive strategies by choosing issues and goals based on the needs of your community and utilizing people's unique gifts and local knowledge,

• holding commitment and follow-through, and

• mobilizing people into collective action.

This training curriculum was developed by Marshall Ganz (the legendary organizer behind the Farmworkers' Movement, the 2008 Obama campaign, and more) and has been taught around the world over the past 17+ years. We are a team of 47 (and counting!) highly experienced coaches and trainers who have practiced both these skills and this pedagogy of organizing, who are united and committed to strengthening the pro-democracy movement in the US through sharing our resources in organizing, training, and coaching.

With friends at USAID, Federal Workers Against DOGE, and other fediverse organizing initiatives, we led a pilot program the week of July 28th. learning how best to support widespread leadership development. That is how we build strong, powerful movements -- by developing a lot of strong, powerful people who practice leadership!

We're now starting a second, 4-week iteration of the program from Nov 17th to Dec 20th - but we can't do it without you.

You can join us by signing up for an upcoming Introduction to Organizing workshop. Or if you'd like more information first, please join us for a free, one hour Zoom webinar for an overview of the program.

Who Should Come?

Anyone who wants to up-skill in effective team-building (crucial skills for all kinds of work, not just democracy organizing!) We offer a certificate for completion of the five Base workshops, and an additional certificate for completion of the full course with the seven Advance workshops.

Interested?

• The second pilot program kicks off the week of November 17th — Join the growing movement of pro-democracy organizers and activists committed to building better teams.

• Free overview sessions the week of November 10th — Register above — to meet the team and other organizers, learn more about the program, and sign up.

• Each 2-hour online training workshop is one of the full Ganz/LCN Public Narrative and Community Organizing curriculum - see https://i.weown.it/pntraining_arlo for more information. Participants will work in small groups of 4-8, each group supported by its own dedicated coach. Workshops are offered at 10a, 2p, 7p, and 9p ET most days between Nov 17th and Dec 20th.

• Costs are $50/workshop so that we can pay coaches, and scholarships are available to anyone for whom the cost would be a barrier to participating. (We are also seeking donations to our scholarship fund - thank you!)

Questions? Email Jake, Lacey, and the team at training@weown.it.