Organizing for Biodiversity – ESC’s Activist Training Lab and New National Grassroots Organizer

Since our last newsletter, I’ve joined the Endangered Species Coalition as the new National Grassroots Organizer! Joining at the first of August of this year, I’m based here in Boone, North Carolina, and I am extremely excited to contribute to the work of the ESC team and coalition.

In late September, I joined other ESC staff and several member groups in Washington, D.C., for a rally supporting the Tribal Heritage and American Bison, Grizzly Bear, and Wolf Restoration and Coexistence Act. Participating alongside member groups in their conversations with legislators about critical legislation to protect and improve biodiversity, I met with most of the North Carolina delegation to expand those conversations to the southeast.

I’ve also been hard at work building out our Activist Training Lab, with the program set to take on a new cohort in early November. Participants in the program can expect to see some materials covered previously but other modules are entirely new to the ATL, added in response to the needs exhibited by our member groups. These subjects include —

• Organizing 101
  
• Issues, Goals, and Power Mapping
  
• Campaign Planning
  
• Volunteer Retention and Recruitment
  
• Local and Regional Organizing*
  
• Congressional Advocacy and Organizing*
  
• Cultural Organizing*
  
• Telling Your Campaign Story and Closing
  

Knowing the importance, effectiveness, and history of the Endangered Species Act, it’s clear that we’ll have to activate a larger base, bring more people into the movement, and create change-makers and organizations dedicated to base-building to meet the challenge of ESA defense. Through strong organizing, I’m confident we can do just that. ESC is excited about the organizing revival we can help launch in the biodiversity space and hope you’ll support us in that work.