Send a Black Baltimore Organizer to BOLD
We are raising funds to send a local organizer to Blacks Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD), a national training focused on transforming the practice of Black organizers in the US to increase their alignment, impact and sustainability to win progressive change.
This person applied and was accepted to participate in BOLD's Directors and Lead Organizers' Training, a more comprehensive series of 5-day trainings that will last throughout the year, with coaching in between.
The tuition is $5,000, which includes room and board during the retreats (travel is an added expense). The organizer has received a scholarship and some other funding from his workplace; we are aiming to raise the remaining balance.
Here is why this Directors and Lead Organizers' Training is important to the organizer, in their own words:
"BOLD is (one of) the only leadership training and capacity building institute that specifically focuses on the development of BLACK Executive Directors and Lead Organizers. As a BLACK Direct-Action Practitioner, a student of Ella Baker, and an BLACK Organizing Director I believe BLACK liberation is the key to dismantling white supremacy. The organizational frame work I represent is centered around building and developing authentic power in BLACK communities specifically by centering the leadership of the BLACK people most directly impacted by issue we organize around. BOLD will equip me with tools and skills that will further my development as a BLACK organizing director in the following areas:
-Organizing Campaign Development and Implementation
-Strategy Development
-Political Education Development
-Staff Management
-Staff Development
-Organizational Development
-Program Planning
-Fundraising
-Financial Management."
We hope you will join us in contributing, because everyone in Baltimore benefits from strong organizing.
This fundraiser was put together by members of Showing Up for Racial Justice's Baltimore chapter, including Betty Robinson, Sarah Tooley, and Sandy Robson. Feel free to get in touch with any questions. In the event that we raise more money than is needed, we will use the funds to send other Black organizers to BOLD trainings in the future. Earlier this year we raised funds for one organizer to attend the BOLD Amandla! gathering in May.
