vision. learning. integration. transformation.
Movement Matters' Organizing Institute was a major shift for me, both personally and for the direction of my work. A year later, I still keep their 'organizing framework' manual on my desk to fashion my own popular education programming and to use as a guiding roadmap. And that really just scratches the surface.
The Organizing Institute introduced me to an amazing, diverse cohort of organizers whose relationships continue to push me forward in my personal and professional growth. I really can’t say enough good things.
Patrick Gregoire,
2019 Organizing Institute Participant.
2019 Organizing Institute Participant.
Community Organizing Institutes
Movement Matters offers a variety of comprehensive Community Organizing and Popular Education Institutes (OIs) that provide both theory and practical skills around relationship building, constituency building, and power building—MM's organizing framework.
These Organizing Institutes are designed to be of maximum utility to partner organizations: they are tailored to meet the cultural and organizational needs of participants, they build a learning community that continues to apply lessons learned well beyond the Institute, and they can be offered in English and/or Spanish.
These Organizing Institutes are designed to be of maximum utility to partner organizations: they are tailored to meet the cultural and organizational needs of participants, they build a learning community that continues to apply lessons learned well beyond the Institute, and they can be offered in English and/or Spanish.
There aren't many spaces to openly share the toll the fight for liberation takes on our mind, body, and spirit. At the weeklong Movement Matters' Organizing Institute, I found not only community and healing but tools and strategies to deepen my organization's effectiveness as we continue to empower our communities.
Thank you to the incredible Movement Matters team for creating such an intentionally beautiful and spiritual learning experience.
Charlyn Anderson, 2020 Organizing Institute Participant.
Community Organizing and Popular Education Institute
Monday, January 27th - Friday, January 31st, 2025
10:00 AM - 5:30 PM*Pre-Institute virtual Learning & Action Circle: Thursday, January 9th
*Post-Institute virtual Learning & Action Circle: Thursday, February 27thMovement Matters holds its annual comprehensive *weeklong training institute* in Washington, DC. This institute is designed for:
- new and seasoned organizers (1-3 years on-the-ground experience),
- popular educators and facilitators, and
- community leaders and advocates (that have moved beyond leadership development into organizing).
Based on Movement Matters' unique field-developed curriculum and nationally recognized training and facilitation style, the Organizing Institute provides an instructive, challenging learning and action space that deepens participants' vision, skills, and capacity.
Our training approach is grounded in somatics, expressive arts, story-sharing, ritual, and cultural practices that engage participants' bodies and minds so that they can more fully experience the training content. In addition, these approaches model ways to more deeply ground community members in a lived experience of our collective values. We view these approaches as integral to allow us to embody the world we are trying to create within our organizing practice.
We use three interdependent modules (relationship building, constituency building, and power building) to ground each participant's unique community context in a process of unpacking, analyzing, building, and assessing successful organizing and campaign work. Central to this approach is the development of visionary, dedicated members, leaders, and allies.Movement Matters is committed to the use of a values-based approach to organizing and movement building that is intersectional, anti-oppression, anti-colonial, and anti-racist. Our educational approach and capacity building framework are firmly based in popular education, cultural organizing, and other liberatory pedagogies with the ultimate goal of transforming not only the outcome of our work but also the process by which we do it.
We ask that each participant come prepared to re-examine and move past their own discomfort to fully participate in our liberatory, creative/arts-based, non-linear, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, transformational learning and action spaces.
To the best of our abilities, we gladly work on a sliding scale with individuals and groups that need the support.Youth Organizing Institute
Movement Matters works closely with youth organizers, youth programs, and youth focused organizations. We connect our organizing framework (relationship building, constituency building, and power building) with the lived experiences of young people to create Youth Organizing Institutes that are dynamic, transformative, and ground young people and their organizations in an expanded vision for change.
While the Youth Organizing Institutes are designed primarily for the participation of youth members of organizations, they are also designed to have adult staff accompany young people through the experience. Through participation in our Youth Organizing Institutes, adult staff and allies get a deeper insight into the way young people are experiencing racism, classism, and other forms of oppression in their daily lives. Adults are also exposed to different modalities for engaging youth in critical thinking and action.
For youth participants, our Youth Organizing Institutes offer ways to create deep relationships with peers, to gain structural context for addressing the issues that are impacting their lives, and to develop concrete skills for envisioning and driving youth-led change efforts.
Our Youth Organizing Institute can be offered in English, Spanish, and/or bilingually. We also make sure to tailor the curriculum so that it is culturally competent for different communities. As importantly , we can also adjust the content to make it relevant to the organizing context of the groups we are working with.
Prepared and Presented by Movement Matters
Connect with us if you are interested in our Youth Organizing Institute.Organizing Institutes On the Road
Movement Matters is based in Washington, DC and offers regularly scheduled Community Organizing and Popular Education Institutes, Youth Organizing Institutes, and Advanced Trainings in the DC region. We also offer these institutes/trainings throughout the country (including Puerto Rico) when working with partner organizations.
Movement Matters staff collaborates closely with host organizations in other cities to identify an audience, tailor our existing curriculum to meet local “on-the-ground” needs, and bring our trainings directly to a host city.
Connect with us if you are interested in having Movement Matters come directly to your community.
Applying What We Learn: MM Learning and Action Circles
We heard clearly from our alumni that there is a strong need for anti-oppression spaces for organizers, popular educators, and community leaders to continue building our skills and apply what we learn on an ongoing basis.
In response, we launched Movement Matters' Learning and Action Circles (LACs). We envision these spaces as a shared workshop where each participant can bring their ongoing projects and have the opportunity to cross-pollinate ideas with peers, access resources, get support in planning and implementation, and deepen their own skills. These LACs are also aligned to continue the learning from our Community Organizing & Popular Education Institute and our Advanced Training Series.
In response, we launched Movement Matters' Learning and Action Circles (LACs). We envision these spaces as a shared workshop where each participant can bring their ongoing projects and have the opportunity to cross-pollinate ideas with peers, access resources, get support in planning and implementation, and deepen their own skills. These LACs are also aligned to continue the learning from our Community Organizing & Popular Education Institute and our Advanced Training Series.
To request more information or to request an Organizing Institute in your area, connect with us.
Movement Matters is based in Washington, DC.
We work regionally with various communities and with national partners.
We work regionally with various communities and with national partners.
