Fellowships for Occupiers/Organizers

[Sara S]

from FIREDOGLAKE.COM:



Occupy Exchange:
Providing Fellowships to Send Skilled Occupiers to Help Other Occupy Groups




Over the past year, the Arab Spring uprisings have inspired a worldwide movement against injustice, and since that time, many new and exciting voices of the struggle have emerged.

Students overloaded with debt with little hope of finding work; veterans left homeless and forgotten by their communities; factory workers watching as their jobs are shipped overseas; working class people falling below the poverty line because they can’t make ends meet with minimum wage and part-time jobs: skilled people from all walks of life are sharing their experiences and their vision of what they want the world to be.

To develop these unique and important voices both here and abroad, the Firedoglake Writers’ Foundation is starting a new project called Occupy Exchange, offering fellowships to outstanding, committed members of the Occupy movement so that they can share their knowledge, skills and expertise in a wide range of areas with others around the world.

Occupy Exchange will send our fellows on visits to other Occupy encampments, where they will share their knowledge on the subjects their hosts need help with the most. Afterwards, our fellows will write up their experiences and lessons-learned and share them with the rest of the world.

Can you please make a tax-deductible donation of $20 or more to help the Firedoglake Writers’ Foundation offer fellowships to outstanding members of the Occupy movement?

Please make a tax-deductible donation of $20 or more to help Occupy Exchange provide fellowships to Occupiers with skills and expertise that can help Occupy groups in other parts of the country.

Meet the first three Occupy Exchange Fellows from Occupy Buffalo: Samantha Colon, Robert Albini and John Washington; three outstanding organizers whose local activism on education, mass transit and foreclosure mills has been a model for other occupations across the country.

Right now they’re on their way to Occupy Little Rock, where local occupiers have taken the encampment off the grid using solar panels, wind turbines, a grey water system and an urban greenhouse.

As Occupy Buffalo and Occupy Little Rock have openly demonstrated through their work, occupy encampments are vibrant communal spaces where people can come together to solve problems and demonstrate a model for the world as they want it to be. By sharing and exchanging strategies, experiences and skills - and then publishing them online to make them available to the rest of world - the Occupy movement can continue to not just demand change, but provide strong alternatives for a more equitable society.

Just like Sam, Bob and John, our fellows are committed Occupiers with real world skills to share with other protests across the country and the world. Their exchanges can help Occupy groups stay put, stay organized and affect real change in the communities that need it most.

We know of many Occupations that need this kind of assistance, and a lot of Occupiers like Sam, Bob and John who are willing to share - but we need your help to extend fellowships to other members of this movement. Can you please make a tax-deductible donation of $20 or more to help Occupy Exchange offer these fellowships and network Occupies to share these essential skills and ideas?

Help demonstrate the world as it should be: make a tax-deductible donation of $20 or more to help Occupy Exchange provide fellowships to Occupy protesters.

The Occupy Exchange fellowship program will provide fellowships to Occupiers willing to share their knowledge and expertise in the following areas:

Event Organizing
Dealing with Media
Nonviolence Training
Shareholder Activism
Tactical Mobility
Project Management
Online Organizing
Meeting Facilitation
Money and Accounting
Video Production & Livestreaming
Student Organizing
Consumer Debt
Mobile Kitchens
Foreclosure Activism
Security
Renewable Energy
Strategic Planning
Homelessness
Group-building
First Aid
Conflict resolution
Citizen Journalism
Networking with Community Groups

If you’re an Occupier and possess any of these skills (or others) and would like to apply to be an Occupy Exchange fellow, click here to request an application.

If your Occupation would like a visit from an Occupy Exchange fellow to share their expertise on any of these topics (or others) click here to sign up. And if you have a skill or need help in an area we haven’t listed here, make sure to let us know when you sign up!

We all grow frustrated that there’s no accountability for the oligarch class that continues to pillage the world economy with impunity. That makes it all the more critical that we support these visionary individuals who are rising up out of blighted communities, refusing to be snared by the partisan traps that crippled previous generations of activists. They are uncompromising in their commitment to creating models of a world they want to live in. They are our hope for the future.

We hope you’ll support the Firedoglake Writers’ Foundation’s Occupy Exchange program with a tax deductible donation, and strengthen our efforts to help important Occupy voices share their experience.

Thanks for all you do,

Jane Hamsher
Founder & Publisher,
Firedoglake.com

FDL Writer's Foundation, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
All contributions are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by law.