The MOVE Toolkit is a companion series to the Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Immigrant Action Mobilize the Immigrant Vote Toolkit (PILA Toolkit). The two sections of the MOVE Toolkit can be used alone, or to supplement the PILA Toolkit’s “Planning” section. An important element of movement-building electoral organizing is the ability for organizations to train their own staff, members, and community leaders to plan for and run every component of a campaign. Electoral organizing leaders will need to understand the concept of movement-building electoral organizing, the basic components, and how to plan an electoral campaign. This approach can be an important way to increase the stake of organization members and volunteers in the work of our organizations, to provide leadership development for members and staff, and to ensure our electoral programs are rooted in the input and needs of our constituents.

The MOVE Toolkit provides resources and trainings in the following areas:

Section 1: Movement -building Electoral Organizing

This section provides numerous resources to assist conducting electoral work in a way that advances larger social justice goals. It includes movement-building electoral organizing definitions and field campaign components, sample agendas and trainings, a case study, and more.

Section 2: Electoral Field Campaign Planning Phase I

This section includes ideas and resources for setting goals, targeting, and detailed planning, all important aspects of the first phase of planning. It contains sample agendas, practice exercises, sample planning templates, budgeting and fundraising worksheets, and much more.

Section 3: Additional Resources

Additional resources including a sample gallery exercise for presenting small group break-out sections in a fun and interactive way, and many more useful resources.

These tools and trainings were created for our Movement-building Organizations for Voting and long-term Empowerment (MOVE) Program. During the 2007-2009 MOVE Program, the MIV Collaborative partnered intensively with 30 community based organizations working within low-income immigrant communities across California to expand capacity to educate and mobilize immigrant voters, and to connect voter engagement strategies to ongoing organizing and civic engagement efforts.

This workshop "starter kit" is part of the US Social Forum Workshop Series developed by SOUL (School of Unity & Liberation) in conjunction with POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) and Causa Justa::Just Cause (CJJC) in the San Francisco Bay Area. This Workshop Series is designed to support organizations in developing unique curriculum to prepare delegations to attend the US Social Forum 2010 in Detroit.

Contained within here are a broad outline of a workshop that can be tailored to your organization's needs to understand the broad history and context of Detroit along with one popular education activity with complete instructions. Also included in this Starter Kit are "Quick Facts" on the topic and a list of research resources for further study or information.

The other workshops in this series are:

• History of the World Social Forum/US Social Forum
• Detroit 101
• Converging Crises: Economy, Ecology, Empire
• Standing with the People of the World
• Neoliberalism in Our Communities
• In It to Win It: Our Movement and Strategies.*

You can find them here on Build the Wheel.*

* "In It to Win It..." coming soon!

This workshop "starter kit" is part of the US Social Forum Workshop Series developed by SOUL (School of Unity & Liberation) in conjunction with POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) and Causa Justa::Just Cause (CJJC) in the San Francisco Bay Area. This Workshop Series is designed to support organizations in developing unique curriculum to prepare delegations to attend the US Social Forum 2010 in Detroit.

Contained here are an outline of a workshop to understand the current moment of economic crisis, ecological crisis, and empire along with one popular education activity with complete instructions. Also included in this Starter Kit are "Quick Facts" on the topic and a list of research resources for further study or information.

The other workshops in this series are:

• History of the World Social Forum/US Social Forum
• Detroit 101
• Converging Crises: Economy, Ecology, Empire
• Standing with the People of the World
• Neoliberalism in Our Communities
• In It to Win It: Our Movement and Strategies.*

You can find them here on Build the Wheel.*

* "In It to Win It..." coming soon!

This workshop is designed for people who are going to attend the World or US Social Forum to better understand the importance of participating in decision-making.  The main activity is called the Table Game where each participant is given a different role/character (i.e. the oil industry, agricultural industry, environmental justice grassroots organization, British Prime Minister, etc) and told to share their perspective and vision with the other characters at the decision-making table.  Participants are given prep sheets that describe what character they represent, who are their members, where does their money come from, what they hope to get out of the meeting, etc.   Depending upon their role, participants are given extra items such as millions in cash, gold watch, thousands of members, inability to speak English, etc. 

The activity is guided by the facilitator who introduces, starts and stops the activity, and the chairperson, who introduces the history of the forum, the funding proposals up for discussion, and develops the rules for table participation, which can gradually change over the course of the game (i.e. to have a seat at the table, you must pay $1 million; to speak, you must pay $1,000 per 10 seconds; to join the private party, you must have a gold watch; etc).   Soon, it becomes clear that the industry and wealthier states hold a lot of power and ability to participate in the decision-making table, and the poorer governments and grassroots organizations are marginalized to the sidelines.   If the marginalized groups haven’t already begun to organize themselves, the facilitator can ask what are they going to do and what have they done with their organization.  The group activity continues and the chairperson can continue administering whatever rules s/he wants – i.e. no interpreters for people not at the table, the table meeting moves to an isolated room, hires security guards or infiltrating spies, etc. Then there is a large group debrief about the activity – what was that like? How did it feel to be in a seat of power?  How did it feel to be excluded from power? 

After this activity, the group reviews the stated goals of the World Social Forum and the World Economic Forum, where their annual meetings are held, who can become a member, and what is their membership structure.  The group breaks into small groups and discuss 1) what are the similarities and differences between these two multi-national convenings; 2) what is the value of creating diverse, multi-sector convenings and 3) what are the implications of who is and who is not able to attend the convenings.  The group reports back to the large group and facilitator wraps up the conversation.

This tool was developed for the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) political education curriculum. It should be used for people who are going to, or have interest in, the 2010 US Social Forum in Detroit. By engaging in this workshop participants will have the chance to learn about the history of Detroit, with different histories (economic, political, movement) broken up into different tracks. After an overview of the history, participants will be introduced to current struggles facing residents of Detroit, and what neighborhood responses have been. There is also an opportunity for people to reflect how the history of Detroit is similar and different to the history of San Francisco, or other cities that the participants may be coming from.

This tool is meant to be used for an audience that does not necessarily have a lot of background knowledge about Detroit. It should be used as a compliment to a general workshop about the history of the US Social Forum.

The workshop entails having participants understand the role of grassroots fundraising, having participants overcome the fear of asking for funds, and to plan a grassroots fundraising event.

This workshop caters to being more comfortable with public-speaking, to learning message development and sound bytes, and to having a basic understanding of the media process.