The SVA and Blueprint Power Building Cohort is underway! We held our kick-off in October, creating a space for the 14 base-building organizations in the cohort to learn about each other and forecast the year ahead. In November, many of the cohort members traveled to Asheville and met in person at the Blueprint Convergence. Organizations ranged from regional to statewide, to deeply place-based formations throughout rural North Carolina.
One of our biggest learnings from the first year of our power building cohort was that we needed to spend less time “training” members and create more space for leaders to learn from one another. Many in our cohort have decades of experience organizing and running campaigns to win real gains for their communities. These movement leaders have so much to teach. Our leaders help us ground our current political moment, reminding us that we are the ones we need, showing us how to resist authoritarianism while building our collective power.
Ashaki Binta & Mac Ledgerton first met while organizing in the early 1980s in rural eastern North Carolina – and they’re still at it! Photo edit: Everett
But learning doesn’t move in one direction. Emerging leaders and organizers teach us new tactics to build our base of people and deepen relationships through new media paired with tried-and-true tactics. With SVA’s commitment to building leaderful movements, we know that new leaders keep us fresh, always learning, and growing. As we stood in the cohort meet-up in Asheville, with organizers across the state, we saw the intergenerational space we envisioned become a reality.
Photo caption: Mac Ledgerton & Adonis Lewis at the Power Building Meet up in Asheville
Photo credit: Everett
To foster the community of practice we want to create, we developed a Power Building Learning Committee, comprised of members who will help shape the curriculum and touch points. We are now meeting with each cohort organization to conduct power-building assessments, whose goal is to build a state-wide, place-based plan for building stronger, deeper, and wider organizations.
From Asheville to Richmond County, to Alamance and Robeson – we cannot imagine spending time with our cohort and not feeling excited about the potential to build a “Bigger We” together.
This intergenerational group reflects leaders strengthening their communities and strengthening each other, working on everything from criminal justice reform to environmental justice to workers rights and trans rights. Mass movement work is not just more people; it is more people working toward a collective vision, holding each other up, and holding each other accountable. SVA and Blueprint are ready to dig in, keep learning, and keep building alongside this powerful group.
Photo Caption: Leaders from Black, Indigenous, and Immigrant-led groups meet in Asheville to discuss strategies to build their base and engage in campaigns that build and win power for their communities.
Photo Credit: Everett
