Training for Change

PO Box 30914

Philadelphia, PA 19104

http://www.trainingforchange.org/

Training for Change provides training for “groups standing up for justice, peace, and the environment through strategic nonviolence”. Some of the large groups TFC has advised include United Mine Workers of America, Greenpeace, Affordable Housing Action Association of Ontario, United Farm Workers, Philadelphia Student Union, and the Philadelphia School System. In addition, the organization runs workshops and trainings for small groups including leaderships development for students and young people of color. They are well known for their “Training for Trainers” series, which they recently ran for the organizers of this year’s Global PowerShift convention which was a gathering of young people organizing for action on climate change. Speaking from personal knowledge, Training for Change has touched many members of the Philadelphia area activist community, helping to build more strategic, effective campaigns for racial, economic and environmental justice. 

With a full-time staff of just three people, training for change has a large impact in issues, from immigrant rights to LGBTQ equality, per its budget. It has recently been fundraising for a training fellowship position for a person of color and also seeks to provide more scholarships for people from the global south and working-class participants. Their fundraising goal for this fall is $20,000.

Training for change does not itself lobby any organization, though the people it trains may. By my evaluation it is eligible for nomination under section 1. Cooperation between and among potentially hostile groups for its anti-oppression trainings, section 2. Equality of educational opportunity as its scholarships seek to provide trainings for those often denied such resources and 3. Civil liberty or human freedom through the trainings it provides to various groups working on matters of equality and justice. 

Lee McClenon