The Virtual Global Study Tour is a unique opportunity to ‘travel’ the world from your desk, learning new approaches to organising or messaging from leading international practitioners, and considering how to apply the insights to your own organisation or movement.
Delivered through two distinct concurrent streams – community organising and persuasive messaging – the Virtual Global Study Tour is designed to build bridges between international best practices and our own movement, and strengthen our collective knowledge and understanding of international socio-political trends likely to shape upcoming state and federal elections.
Understand what’s working and what’s failed in campaigns from the Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa, and UK/Europe, then in between ‘visits’ we’ll have intentional space to debrief in small groups, identifying key lessons along with risks and opportunities for application in the local political context.
The Tour is inspired by previous in-person US Study Trips, as well as Tours taken during Covid – which have enabled organisations working across climate, economic justice, racial justice, public health, workers’ rights, and more to embrace creative and innovative approaches to engaging and mobilising diverse audiences, and building people-power to secure progressive policy wins.
IS THE VIRTUAL GLOBAL STUDY TOUR FOR ME?
If you’re a senior level organiser or messaging practitioner, and you have decision making capacity over these strategies within your organisation – then yes, this program is for you.
We encourage organisations to send 2-3 staff across the two streams, to deepen learning and enable in-organisation support when testing new approaches.
The program assumes an existing level of prior knowledge on persuasive messaging or community organising, and organisational authority to design organising and messaging strategies.
LEARNING OUTCOMES AND SKILLS
Learn new approaches to organising and messaging from leading international practitioners and researchers including insights and reflections into what it takes to create high impact campaigns.
Leave the program with increased confidence and inspiration to design and deliver ambitious organising and persuasive messaging projects that build people power, and engage and mobilise diverse audiences.
Build bridges between international best practices and your own organisations and movements, and increase knowledge and understanding of international socio-political trends likely to influence upcoming state and federal elections.
Build relationships between local organisations and movements, across those leading organising and persuasive messaging strategies, with the high-trust cohort model enabling:
Space to identify key lessons, along with risks and opportunities for application in the local political context,
A foundation upon which practitioner networks that enable ongoing sharing of knowledge and intel will launch.
Speakers
Marshall Ganz
Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing and Civil Society, Harvard Kennedy School
Marshall Ganz is a leading scholar and practitioner of community organising, leadership and social movements at Harvard Kennedy School. A former United Farm Workers organiser, he has spent decades developing approaches to public narrative, strategy and leadership, and now trains and advises organisers and movements around the world.
Anat Shenker-Osorio
Principal, ASO Communications | Host, Words to Win By
Anat Shenker-Osorio is a leading messaging researcher and strategist, host of the Words to Win By podcast and Principal of ASO Communications. She develops and tests persuasive narratives across issues including workers’ rights, climate, immigration and justice, helping movements apply rigorous messaging research to campaigns, elections and policy change globally.
Sarah Durieux
Founder, Multitudes Foundation | Senior Fellow, Democracy Hub
Sarah Durieux is a feminist activist, campaigner and movement builder who has supported major civil society efforts across France. Founder of Multitudes Foundation and former France lead at Change.org, she has helped build people-powered campaigns, including on abortion rights, and now trains movements in organising, mobilisation, narrative change and collective power.
Anthony Flaccavento
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Rural Urban Bridge Initiative
Anthony Flaccavento is a farmer, author and rural development consultant from Abingdon, Virginia, in the heart of the Appalachian coalfields. His book, Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up: Harnessing Real World Experience for Transformative Change, has been used by practitioners, students and academics across the country. Anthony was the Democratic Candidate for Congress (VA-9) in 2018.
Jossie Sapunar
National Communications Director, We Are CASA
Jossie is an award-winning bilingual communications strategist. As We Are CASA’s National Communications Director, she researches Latino men voters in battleground states, examining the cultural spaces where they build community and explores messaging rooted in their identities and values to encourage progressive civic participation. She is a graduate of the Global Messaging Programme and sits on the Brave of Us steering committee.
Noorulain Masood
Founder, Center for Social Innovation in Developing Countries | Lead Trainer, Leading Change Network
Noorulain is Founder and CEO of CSIDC, a Global South organisation that specialises in training and facilitation to enhance the leadership and organising practice. Noor has trained and coached over 1,500 campaigners across Asia, Australia, Africa, and the United States. Noor has been teaching Marshall Ganz’s Organizing and Heifetz’s Adaptive Leadership with Harvard University, LCN, and others since 2012.
Dr Sarah Stein Lubrano
Writer and researcher, Sense and Solidarity and Future Narratives Lab
Sarah has a background in feminist, mutual aid, and local organising as well as teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from University of Oxford and a Master’s degree from University of Cambridge. Her work reaches the public through the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and Future Narratives Lab. She was previously Head of Content at The School of Life and has just published her first book, Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds.
Yotam Marom
Facilitator, Organiser and Author
Yotam Marom is an organiser, facilitator, and writer with over twenty years experience in movements. He played a leadership role at Occupy Wall Street and other movements since, and spends much of his time as a strategy and group process facilitator for social movement organisations. He founded the training organisation Wildfire Project and helped start IfNotNow. His book, For Louder Days: Reaching Beyond a Politics of Powerlessness, was published this past June by the New Press.
Tobias Gralke
Head of Messaging & Training, OMNI
Tobias Gralke lives and works as the head of messaging & training at the German communications hub OMNI & das momentum. He's been active in the tenants' movement for many years, bridging mass communication and structure-based organizing. He has also worked in the international cultural, political, and academic spheres for even longer, studied literature, philosophy, theater, human rights, and psychology – and yet he has learned the vast majority of what he knows and does through hands-on experience alongside others.
Niamh McDonald
Director of Community Engagement and Advocacy, Hope and Courage Collective
Niamh has over 15 years of experience and a proven track record in leadership, strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and crisis management. With extensive experience working across sectors and communities, she is skilled at building trusted relationships and communicating complex ideas in accessible and compelling ways to diverse audiences. Niamh has consistently advocated for and with people from marginalised and disadvantaged backgrounds, bringing a values-driven approach to all aspects of her work. Her background also includes independent research, peer-reviewed publications, and in-depth policy analysis.
key dates
The Virtual Global Study Tour will take place over 7 weeks from October to December online via Zoom:
Orientation Call:
Monday 12th October | 12:30PM to 2:00PM AEDT
Week 1 Learning Sessions:
Tuesday 20th October | 8:30AM to 11:30AM AEDT
Thursday 22nd October | 5:30PM to 8:30PM AEDT
Weed 2 Reflection Session:
Wednesday, 28th October | 12:00PM to 2:00PM
Week 3 Learning Sessions:
Wednesday, 4th November | 8:30AM to 11:30AM AEDT
Thursday, 5th November | 5:30PM to 8:30PM AEDT
Week 4 Reflection Session:
Wednesday, 11th November | 12:00PM to 2:00PM AEDT
Week 5 Learning Sessions:
Tuesday, 17th November | 8:30AM to 11:30AM AEDT
Thursday 19th November | 5:30PM to 8:30PM AEDT
Week 6 Reflection Session:
Wednesday, 2nd December | 12:00PM to 2:00PM AEDT
The learning session weeks will include international guests and run in different formats, including longer lectures and briefings, lightning talks, and conversations. The morning and afternoon sessions allow for broad timezone crossover with the UK and Europe, United States and Canada and South America, Asia Pacific, and Africa.
The reflection weeks are an opportunity to debrief lessons and insights from the previous week, and discuss practical implications for our work. These sessions may also include local speakers in the Australian timezones.
The program is designed to build on content week-on-week, it’s an ‘all-in’ program and we require a commitment that you'll attend all sessions.
COST
$500+GST: Small Nonprofit Concession – For nonprofits with an annual revenue of less than $500K.
$1,000+GST: Regular Nonprofit Concession – For nonprofits with an annual revenue between $500K and $3 million.
$1,500+GST: Large Nonprofit Concession – For nonprofits with an annual revenue of more than $3 million
$2,000+GST: Full Price – For government, political offices, social enterprises, b-corps and businesses servicing the non-profit sector.
$500+GST | Individual — For individuals and grassroots organisers who are not affiliated by an organisation or movement.
To ensure more equitable access across our trainings and events, a limited number of full and partial scholarships ($250+GST) are available to grassroots advocates, community groups and start-up/small organisations. We welcome and prioritise scholarship applications from First Nations people, people with disability, people of colour, people with lived experience seeking asylum and unwaged changemakers. To apply for a scholarship, please complete an application here or contact Phong at phong@australianprogress.org.au.
team discounts
Learning is better together, which is why we offer team discounts to help colleagues learn alongside each other and bring new skills and ideas back to their organisations and movements.
A 20% discount is offered to teams of two or more. Discounts are automatically applied at checkout.
If you need an invoice to organise payment, please email us at info@australianprogress.org.au.
ACCESSIBILITY
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Zoom - During the workshop, we will be meeting via Zoom. If you have access to a computer or laptop, we recommend you join the training by computer to make navigating the materials easier. See here for accessibility documentation for Zoom; including a list of keyboard shortcuts here.
Video norms - During the online sessions, we will encourage everyone to have your cameras on if you feel comfortable, but we will not require you to do so.
Chat - On Zoom you will be able to use the chat function. Participants will be asked to introduce themselves in chat, and to enter responses in the chat.
Captions - We will have auto captions enabled in Zoom.
Google Docs and Digital Documents - We will be sharing workshop materials over Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Slides. All documents, forms, and surveys will be provided in accessible formats. We will use the screen share function to share slides, as well as navigating between Zoom and an interactive slide deck.
Early access to slides - A view-only version of the slide deck can be supplied early if this supports your participation. Any copies of the slides provided will include alt-text / image descriptions. We make sure our content is accessible to screen-readers and can make additional changes based on what program you are using e.g. we can adjust any content typically formatted in tables to display in dot points instead, if you use a screen reader that is incompatible with tables in slides or documents.
Post-training resources - We do not supply recordings from our online training as standard, but can record sections of the workshop if needed to facilitate your engagement. You will receive a copy of the presenter slide deck, interactive slide deck, and other resources. Where video or audio content is included during the training or in any of the resources, we will provide audio descriptions, captions or transcripts as needed.
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Setting norms - As a cohort, we will also set expectations at the start of the training to ensure everyone can comfortably participate in the workshop.
Breaks - Breaks will be organised regularly throughout the sessions. We include breaks every 45-55 minutes.
Breakout rooms - This training regularly uses breakout rooms, with group sizes ranging from pairs, through to groups of 5-10 for discussions and workshop activities.
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Other additional support - We build in flexibility in the program, as we go based on the needs of the cohort. In the registration form, we will ask you for your access needs. If you require something in place that is not already arranged, or if you need more information about any part of the workshop, we will work with you to provide this.
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If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact us at info@australianprogress.org.au.