Training Activists-Beeliar & beyond

My name is Nicola and I am passionate about supporting communities to train, organise, and take nonviolent action together.

"I found the workshop informative and gave me the knowledge I needed to make an educated decision on protesting. Nicola was also present during a number of mass action events and other times I saw her visibly monitoring people on site during demonstrations. I found Nicola had precise address in public speaking and her ability to direct the crowd to be aware of their own safety and the safety of others."

This is from a participant of the campaign where I recently spent the better part of two months providing critical training support to people protecting the beautiful Beeliar Wetlands, in WA, from an unnecessary, polluting highway extension.

I headed back to Fremantle, my old hometown, in the final stages of the election campaign, and this funding supported me for 4 weeks - supporting communities to take strategic nonviolent action to defend the environment, and stand for social justice.Photo: Renee Pettitt-Schipp

A generous sponsor supported me to work part time for a month in January, for which I am incredibly grateful. In truth I spent at least double or triple that amount of time.

During that time I provided strategic advice, mentoring and support for the Wetlands defenders. I ran more than 20 training workshops and meetings. I supported the establishment of the legal observer team doing vital work documenting human rights violations. I provided legal information and public briefings - and much more.

The Beeliar Wetlands defenders showed me once again the bravery and determination of West Australia's community of grassroots environmental and human rights defenders. But I also know that WA is traditionally under-served by training and advocacy support.

That's why I'm asking you to help me support and build on incredible social change skills of the passionate and wonderful folk on this side of the country for another 4-6 weeks.

What I will focus on:

* Frontline work and strategic media actions during the final weeks of election campaign
* Police accountability work to provide strategic advice and support for compiling of a detailed complaint regarding the human rights breaches and police violence
* Advise, mentor, train, debrief and support key campaigners
* Continue to shine a national spotlight on the campaign, sharing stories on social media - such as this powerful
story, which was viewed 20, 000 times
* Additional training for climate campaigners if time allows.

COST OVERVIEW
* Economy airfare return from Melbourne - $500
* Travel costs in Perth - $150
* Lightweight laptop - $700
  (lugging a computer to the frontlines means it takes quite the beating)
*  Phone / Internet costs - $100
*  Sponsorship of 4 weeks of part-time work - $4080
Total amount - $5530

Any additional resources will cover more time and more thoroughly support expenses.

ADDITIONAL FUNDING SOUGHT

Hi lovely community,

I have updated to extend the target to cover some more necessary work. So far I have been away from home for four months, and have extended one more time to finish the police accountability project.

I initially fundraised for 4 weeks of part time work – 100 hours.

So far I have been here for 6 weeks and done 200+ hours. I’d estimate the project will take at least another 60/70 hours over 2 weeks. For a total of 9 weeks.

If I donate the 100 hours, and get paid just for 70 additional hours, plus some of the internet downloads for the collation of videos, that would mean adding

$2800 in time

$150 in phone/internet costs

$2950 to support 4 weeks of work

Any additional money would go towards covering more of my time!

** FINAL UPDATE** I was here for 10 weeks total this time... and it was suggested to me that I should ask for help covering some more hours work. So, if my total time here was 400 hours... probably more than that as just the last week was probably 70 hours :) ... if I asked to just cover 35 more hours - for a total of $1400

So that means if I reach this final target I would have donated 200+ hours, and been supported for 200 hours - THANKS EVERYONE!

PLUS REVISED BUDGET = $9880


A few kind words from the Beeliar community:

"Nicola supported our community's development from a group of concerned but disempowered citizens into a non-violent direct action force that has brought about policy change and made Roe 8 a key election issue."

"Savvy advice on NVDA. Highly recommended."

I'm truly grateful for any support you can provide, and was absolutely inspired by the strength and passion of the community that was built over this campaign - I look forward to getting back to supporting more of this work.

*****

I’ve been working to support communities for many years - much of that in a voluntary capacity. This has included volunteering on Sea Shepherd for several years, the winning campaign to defend James Price Point, the Leard coal mine blockade in NSW, as well as numerous environmental, social justice and climate change focused events and convergences.

I’m aware that many people have been working on the Beeliar campaign for many years, and in some cases decades. Please only support this work if you are comfortable with it.

Contributions will not be tax deductible, however if you would like to make a sustainable, ongoing (and tax deductible) donation you can support CounterAct.