Missed something? No worries, we will gladly shared recordings, slides, and materials for our past events. Check out what we've been working on below!

Celebrations

• Bill of Rights Day
  At the end of 2022, we celebrated our golden state's leaders, including leaders like Janette Robinson Flint, the Executive Director of Black Women for Wellness who has led innovate strategies for Reproductive Justice in California, with the Chief Justice Earl Warren Award. We also honored and thanked longtime ACLU advocate from Monterey County, Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts, with the Lola Hanzel Courageous Advocate Award. You can review a recording here. 

Culture Shift Series

• Equity Mapping
  Equity, intersectionality, and liberation are concepts that have become part of the popular lexicon, appearing in everything from mission statements to memes. Join sessions led by Tammy Johnson, racial equity consultant, writer, and dancer, to explore what it means to activate these key concepts in our movement. This was a two part series. Please contact us for the slides or more information.

• Facilitating Action-Oriented Meetings Rooted in Community
  It’s easy to plan organizing or coalition meetings that default into the norms of white supremacy and paternalism. These meetings can be disengaging, feel like a waste of time, or even feel unsafe for marginalized community members. In this workshop, we covered practical ways to structure meetings and planning spaces that invite everyone to be heard, the best ideas to come forward, and foster collective decision-making and action. Please contact us for the slides or more information.
• Land Acknowledgments and Indigenous Justice 101
  Land acknowledgments can be a first step towards rectifying the centuries-long attempt at complete erasure of Indigenous people in the United States. When done well, land acknowledgements can serve as a reminder that all land that is now the United States is occupied Indigenous territory, bring visibility and awareness to Indigenous leaders advocating for freedom and justice, and serve as inspiration for audience members to learn and get involved. When done inappropriately or un-thoughtfully, land acknowledgements can unintentionally cause more harm to Indigenous peoples. Learn how to integrate land acknowledgments into your organizing and gain a deeper understanding of indigenous justice and decolonization. You can view a recording here. 
• What is Respectability Politics?
  Be a lady. Be professional with your language. Activists of today need to protest the way Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr did if they want to be taken seriously. These phrases are commonly said to set expectations about who deserves respect and fairness. But these expectations can reinforce systems of racism and sexism, even if that’s not the intention. In this workshop, we will explore the subtle ways in which the politics of respectability unfold in social justice movements, alienating impacted people, and derailing movements to build collective power to achieve freedom, justice, and equality. Please contact us for the slides or more information.
• Somatic Healing for Activists
  In the movement for social justice we are constantly called up to fight, to speak, and to lay ourselves bare for the cause. We often carry trauma in our bodies which prevent us from being able to move through life from a place of joy, comfort, and peace. Somatic experiencing helps you realize if you've been “stuck” in the fight, flight, or freeze response. Somatic work also offers the body time and space to complete and release some of that stuckness. In this workshop we invited Christhmus Presence, IMFT, PCC (all pronouns) to lead us through somatic experiencing and offer tools to become more embodied. Please contact us for the slides or more information.

• Transformative Justice 101
  Transformative Justice is a practice for responding to harm and violence without creating more harm and violence. It is the very opposite of the police and carceral systems that tear our communities apart, and can be practiced on a community- or interpersonal-level. In this workshop, we developed an understanding for how transformative justice practices can transform our relationships and our communities. This was an introduction to transformative justice and community accountability frameworks. It is an invitation to explore these concepts for yourself and with others. Please contact us for the slides or more information.

Trainings for Change Makers

• Analyzing Public Policy
  Public policy has a huge impact on all of our day-to-day lives, but reading and understanding it is challenging. Find out how to decipher public policy with staff from the ACLU California Action legislative advocacy team, including the difference between a resolution and ordinance, subtle shifts in meaning because of words like may or shall, and how to spot key words and phrases to understand the impact of legislation that affects you. View the recording here. 

• Campaign Planning | Setting Goals and Identifying Targets
  During this training, we’ll cover how clear goal-setting, identifying target decision-makers, and people power are critical to achieving meaningful change. What’s your visionary goal, and how do your short-term goals get you there? How can we identify the local decision-makers who can give us what we want and build the power to influence them? You can view the recording here. 

• Campaign Planning | Power Mapping
  Power mapping is an important tool to figure out how you can persuade and influence your target to give you what you need to achieve your campaign goals. It is a necessary part of building a campaign strategy. In this workshop, we will cover making sure you are targeting the right decision-maker for your campaign goals, several models of power mapping, and how to use publicly available data to map networks of influence and persuasion. You can view a recording here. 

• Digital and Data Security for Organizers
  Are you an organizer looking to shrink your digital fingerprint in the surveillance state? In the workshop we provided tools to combat digital surveillance and gain skills to understand digital privacy with Adamma Izuegbunam Chau, Director at Cyber Collective. You can view a recording here. 

• Immigration Detention
  Immigration detention is fundamentally cruel and unnecessary. Despite recent progress on the state level to enact immigrant-friendly policies, our state still has seven immigration detention facilities: six of them privately run and one run in collaboration with Yuba County. In this training, join us to learn how you can advocate with your member of Congress to call on the Biden administration to take action to close some of these facilities. You can view a recording here. 

• Using Art for Organizing
  Art is a powerful tool to propel movements forward through reflecting stories of resilience, inspiration, and change. Join ACLU NorCal Artists in Residence for a discussion about the power of art, and practical ways you can engage artists and art practices in movement-building and organizing strategies. Please contact us for the slides or more information.