The Transformative Organizing Initiative (TOI) is Social Justice Leadership’s signature program. It is a multi-year, multi-level program that focuses on transformation and leadership at the individual, organizational, and movement levels. The program is designed to introduce participants to the basics of Transformative Organizing, support organizations in adopting this approach, and build a foundation for the development of a more aligned and effective social justice movement.
In New York, TOI is structured at several levels of skill and proficiency, with each level offering numerous day-long trainings throughout the year, as well as coaching and peer support. Trainings are grounded in the Five Core Practices of Effective Leadership for Social Justice and support participants in developing mastery in four fundamental areas:
- Organizing and social change skills: including base building, leadership development, campaign planning and execution, and movement building skills
- Political education: including historical analysis, understanding current conditions, relationships and trends, and the development of long-term vision
- Organizational performance: including team building, strategic planning, supervision and management
- Transformation of self: including building self awareness of habitual behaviors, developing a commitment for change, and engaging in intentional practices for transformation
NY TOI launched in 2008-09 with 75 staff organizers from 15 New York City social justice organizations. The program engaged staff at four levels: Foundations of Organizing for new or newer organizers including ACTIVATE! recruits, Art of Organizing for supervisors and lead organizers, a coordinating committee which engaged directors, and Full Circle sessions which included all TOI participants together in a multi-day opening retreat and a series of day-long trainings throughout 2008-09.
In its second year, NY TOI increased in size with 124 participants including 84 staff and 40 grassroots leaders from 17 organizations. The program’s growth required new levels of training tailored to the needs of both returning and new participants and included 70 full days of training over a 35 week period. The levels in 2009-10 included Foundations of Organizing I and II, Art of Organizing I and II, Organization Building for directors, Grassroots Leaders in Organizing (GLO) for member-leaders, Support for Organizing (SOL) for administrative and other non-organizing staff and Full Circle sessions.
The third year of NY TOI intentionally reduced the breadth of the program to allow for greater depth of experimentation with TO. In 2010-11 the program included 1) broad trainings with many organizations to raise the overall skill level and quality of social change movement in New York, and 2) intensive work with a smaller number of organizations to foster transformative practice and spur the development of model transformative organizations. The broad trainings included a Full Circle opening retreat and series of full-day trainings, a GLO training program for grassroots leaders, and a new Transformative Leadership track to train organizations’ leadership development staff to lead GLO alongside SJL staff. NY TOI engaged 155 people and 17 organizations in 2010-11.
Based on its successes so far and consistent evaluation of the program, SJL and participating organizations will continue to grow and evolve NY TOI to meet the needs and opportunities of the social change movement in New York City and to develop a model of Transformative Organizing with broad applicability. Since 2008, the organizations that have engaged in NY TOI have made a long-term commitment to the program because of the unique space it has created for movement-wide dialogue and because it offers a level and consistency of staff development that was previously unavailable for organizations in NY. Using the Five Core Practices as a grounding and addressing TOI’s four fundamental areas of development--organizing and social change skills, political education, organizational performance, and transformation of self--in an integrated manner with staff from multiple organizations opens broad possibilities for refining organizing models and cultivating transformative change at scale.
Organizations that have participated in NY TOI
- ALIGN - Alliance for a Greater New York
- CAAAV - Organizing Asian Communities
- Community Voices Heard
- Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation
- Desis Rising Up and Moving
- Domestic Workers United
- FIERCE
- Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE)
- Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES)
- La Fuente
- Mothers on the Move (MOM)
- Make the Road New York
- New Settlement Apartments
- Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition
- UPROSE
- Urban Youth Collaborative
- VAMOS UNIDOS
- WE ACT for Environmental Justice
- Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice