NYC Weekend of Organizing
North Star Fund held our Hudson Valley Weekend of Organizing on October 26-28, 2023, followed by the New York City Weekend of Organizing on November 9-11.
The Weekend of Organizing is part of a larger effort in partnership with Village Funk, Engage NY and New York Civic Engagement Table to support New York’s movement leaders. Participants met other leaders and shared information, tools and resources to grow their skills for a transformative approach to organizing. Grassroots organizers for justice in New York City and the Hudson Valley were invited to participate (and did not have to be North Star Fund grantees). Radical cultural organizers Julien Terrell, Kris Keen and Marisol Ocampo from Village Funk facilitated the trainings. From North Star Fund, Gabriela Quintanilla and Olivia Fu coordinated the Weekend of Organizing, with support from Kellie Terry and Leyana Dessauer.
While it may be uncommon for funders to host organizing trainings, convening across issue areas and regions is both essential and within our commitments and values at North Star Fund, as our responsibility to support movements goes beyond dollars.
Uplifting our process and partners
The first two days of each training were held online. Like in previous Weekend of Organizing trainings, on day one we explored frameworks for this work, built trusting relationships, developed shared language and discussed tools for collective strategy. On day two, we focused on basebuilding, movement building and liberatory strategies. We considered how we can alter power relations while winning our communities’ demands.
On the final day of each series, we gathered in person to strengthen our skills and practice, discuss leadership development and organizational culture and develop our systemic analysis. Hudson Valley training participants met at Trinity Retreat Center, where we ate fresh food grown in their gardens—and there were donkeys! In New York City we gathered at the North Star Fund office and enjoyed food from Just Soul Catering.
These trauma-informed trainings created space for building and growing meaningful and sustainable relationships—for folks to feel seen, heard and affirmed in their organizing strategies. While some of the organizations represented had joined our Weekend of Organizing in the past, the individuals who participated were new to the training. The atmosphere was intimate and focused on connections, which felt healing and grounding. It offered ways for individuals to connect with themselves and with each other. Participants were invited to contribute an item symbolizing what sustains them in their movement to an altar in the space.
The Hudson Valley Weekend of Organizing was bilingual (English and Spanish), and for the first time the NYC Weekend of Organizing took place in English, French and Spanish. We appreciate our partners who provided interpretation—Algarabía Language Co-op and AfriLingual Cooperative.
Gathering now—and what that means
This was our third Hudson Valley Weekend of Organizing Training, and our second time offering the training in New York City. In recent years, we have experienced ongoing shifts in the ways people bring communities together to strategize and mobilize. We’re still emerging from and struggling through the pandemic—while our world experiences and witnesses wildfires, genocide, violence and police brutality.
It is challenging to determine common direction and goals in the midst of turmoil and change, so it is important to create spaces to come together in person. It provides the opportunity to continue learning from one another, deepening our understanding of how our struggles are interconnected and building strategies together that reflect these intersections.
The turmoil of this world and in our lives affects organizers’ energies and abilities to carve out space and time to address issues, respond to and move through crises and support one another in healing (and being). Crafting a path together is a powerful, grounding response to injustice and chaos—and we try to contribute to that process through our Weekend of Organizing. Participating means taking three days away from the everyday urgency organizers face and re-imagining what building together can look like.
North Star Fund pushed back the New York City Weekend of Organizing from its original planned date so it would not conflict with the National March on Washington: Free Palestine on November 4—the largest march for Palestine in U.S. history. We wanted everyone involved in the training to be available to participate in both the action and the Weekend of Organizing if they chose to.
Listening for direction
North Star Fund offered the Weekend of Organizing based on feedback from grantees and Community Funding Committee members about movement needs and what grantees said they wanted for support. We hope to continue to hear from grantees about the types of opportunities movements can benefit from and to explore what we can implement.
This year we plan to pause external-facing work in June to engage in listening and planning (while continuing to center grantees’ needs). We will reach out to grantees to hear about current challenges and how we can best support organizers and movements at this time.
Many thanks to everyone who joined our Fall 2023 Weekends of Organizing—and to all who made the trainings possible! Join other upcoming North Star Fund events.
Quotes from organizers
Quiero darle las gracias a todes. Fue un día inolvidable y una gran alegría conocerles. Espero volver a compartir un momento tan maravilloso como éste. Juntes somos más fuertes, y las cosas pequeñas que hagamos pueden hacer grandes cambios positivos dentro de la sociedad. Estoy emocionade de haber recibido conocimiento y muchas buenas vibras de ustedes. | I want to thank everyone, I had an unforgettable time today and it was a great joy to meet you. I hope to share a wonderful time as this one again. Together we are stronger and the small things we do can make big positive changes within society. I am excited to have received knowledge and many good vibes from you all.
—Nelson Andino, Hudson Valley Weekend of Organizing
I would just like to thank you for inviting me to this amazing workshop. I’ve learned so much in this training and I just want to say thank you for everything.
—Renette Josephs, NYC Weekend of Organizing
Photo by Gerard Gaskin.