PICTURE THIS: You, your organization, and your allies continue what you are
doing now for another 10 years of hard work. The real question is: Can you see this
work leading to the kind of changes in society that you dream of? How about in 20
years? 50 years?

Looking at your work today,
• Does your own organizing and that of your organization reach the high levels of
performance needed to change society?
• Are your daily actions driven by a clear purpose and a transformative vision?
• Is your contribution to the struggle life-giving and sustainable?
• Are you intentional and proactive? Do you bring your best self to your work?
• Is your organizing grounded in deep interdependent relationships that align your work with that of other people and organizations?

Do you want to help build a more visionary, powerful, and transformative grassroots social justice movement?

The Transformative Organizing Initiative is a movement-building training program run by Social Justice
Leadership and a dozen grassroots social justice organizations in New York City. It works to transform
individual and organizational leadership, capacity, and performance, and to build alignment between
organizations in the social justice movement as a whole. TOI is developing a model for transformative
organizing – a model that is based on the belief that transforming ourselves (by aligning our
behaviors/actions with our values and beliefs) and the way we do social change work can lay the
foundation for the long-term transformation of society.
The organizations involved in TOI seek to make fundamental changes to improve how they do their
work. At the most basic level, TOI is a collective training program for the staff of a dozen NYC social
justice organizations. At a broader level, its goals are more ambitious. To build the foundations of a
renewed social justice movement, TOI seeks to increase self awareness and develop personal
grounding that gives clarity to purpose, vision, and strategic insight. It builds shared high standards
for organizational development and performance across organizations. It develops common skills and
competencies among staff and leaders across organizations for more effective of coalition organizing.
It deepens cross-organizational trust and relationships for a stronger social justice movement. And it
works to define and demonstrate a new model of organizing with the potential to deepen, strengthen,
and reshape the culture of social justice organizing, and to enable it to affect changes not only in local
conditions and policies, but eventually in the structure of society.

TOI trains staff in four areas: organizing and social change skills, organizational performance, political
education, and transformation of self. Learning takes place through several programs, all of which
involve training, homework assignments, and regular practices to embody learning. For 2008, we are
offering 2 programs:

Foundations of Organizing: This program is for people who want to develop a solid grounding in social
change practices. It focuses on helping participants gain proficiency in the foundational skills of
organizing and organizational performance, including base building and leadership development,
campaign planning, media work, effective planning tools, and others. It is limited to 25 participants,
including new recruits interested in becoming organizers. The program consists of 23 full-day sessions
(opening and closing sessions are 3-day retreats). By the end of the program, participants will:

1. Understand dynamics of oppression historically and currently in US, and be able to contextualize their
work/issues in the local and broader political economy and movement history.

2. Understand and competently perform the basics of organizing; understand the importance of vision and practice being visionary; and have the ability to connect local fights to larger issues.

3. Be able to plan, perform, evaluate, and adjust their work according to high standards.

4. Develop practices for self-awareness, centering, and sustainability; and identify fears, anxieties, and other barriers to their own growth and development.

Art of Organizing: This program is for people who have already demonstrated experience and proficiency
at the skills, qualities, and knowledge in the Foundations of Organizing program. At this level,
participants are ready to move into the realm of mastery of the organizing basics, as well as developing
competence in supervisory and organizational management skills and systems. It is limited to 25
participants, and will include 9 sessions (all sessions are full day, with the opening and closing sessions
being 3-day retreats). By the end of the program, participants will:

1. Have a deeper understanding of major social movements of 20th century US, an understanding of the different models of organizing, and an introduction to alternative political economic systems.

2. Demonstrate mastery of basic organizing skills; be able to develop and grow leadership teams, and lead
successful campaigns.

3. Be able to set up systems for managing small staff, know the basics of coaching, and be able to effectively
supervise staff people.

4. Deepen and fully incorporate practices for self-awareness and centering, and begin to develop practices for selfgenerated change.

The Foundations of Organizing and Art of Organizing programs will meet as separate groups every other
month. In addition, the two groups will be joined in the intervening months by additional staff from
participating organizations in Full Circle Sessions. These full day sessions involve all participating staff
(100 - 120 people) and focus on Political Education and Transformation of Self.

Each of these programs will last for one year. After that time, successful graduates of the Foundations of
Organizing and the Art of Organizing will continue in a “practice-oriented” phase, in which they will receive
support in more deeply integrating into their field work the skills and knowledge they acquired in the
trainings. When they demonstrate full competency in these areas (after at least one year in this practiceoriented phase) they will be invited to apply to the next program. In future years, TOI will offer two
advanced programs, Organization Building and Movement Building.

Participation is largely limited to the staff of member organizations of the Transformative Organizing
Initiative, although a limited number of slots will be available to the staff of non-member organizations.
Applicants must complete an individual application; candidates for the programs must also complete a
personal interview. Applicants will be placed based on their application and an evaluation by SJL and
their organization. For info, please email info@sojustlead.org or call 212-939-9770.

UPDATE: We are no longer accepting applications for the 2008/2009 cycle of TOI.