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.The diverse coalition of studentleaders successfully advocated for UCSC to reduce pesticide use and wasteand to increase public transit, green purchasing, and green building practices. Some people say that if you STAND UP FOR WHAT YOUBELIEVE IN, people will listen to you.I believe that if you ALSOLISTENQUIETLY to what other people have to say, they will often stand up for whatyou believe in. - JESSIAN CHOYWhen you start to build coalitions with other campus groups, be sensitiveto the fact that most groups already have full plates.Rather than recruit themaway from their existing projects, explore where your issues might dovetail.Ifyou are hosting a rally and hope that the Social Justice Committee will sendsome of their students, make sure you attend their events or offer some supportin return.You scratch my back and I ll scratch yours, right? That helps makeboth of our campaigns stronger.In addition to creating local coalitions, check out groups from othercampuses.Many of them may be working on the same things that you are andwould be more than happy to share their experience with you or work with youto achieve an even larger goal.Multigenerational coalitions are also important.Parents, campus faculty and staff, school board members, local politicians,business leaders, and other adults can be crucial allies to move your workforward.Evaluate Your ProgressRemember, people power is all about, well, people! You ve got to keepthe people in your group happy and growing as activists.One of the best waysto make sure you re doing this is evaluation.Build in time regularly duringyour meetings for people to share how they feel about the group dynamics andthe effectiveness (and fun!) of the meetings.And of course you shouldevaluate your team s progress on your action plan.Here are some helpfulquestions to pose to the group regarding your action plan: Have you met any of your goals? Has your decision maker expressedany interest in or commitments to helping you implement your goals? Haveyou spoken with other individuals and groups affected by this issue, to gaugetheir impressions of your work?What tactics have been successful, to date? Why? If they weren tsuccessful, what could you have done differently? Is your messaging wellreceived when you execute your tactics?Is your team working well together? Have you increased the size of yourteam? Do you have support from more people now than when you started?And beware of forming a clique of insiders.Between group meetings,members of your core team should take the time to meet individually withnewcomers.You can find out more about their interests and what they d like tocontribute to the group.Although email is quick and ideal for announcementsand reminders, personal contact is always best to build strong relationships andto really show each new group member that he or she matters.NEXT STOP: SPREAD YOUR MESSAGESo you ve established an action plan and formed a powerhouse group.What s next? People can t get engaged until they get informed.If you don tshare the news about your issue, maybe no one else will.The next chapter willhelp you spread the word about your group and issue and build peer and publicsupport for your projects.RESOURCESThe Activist s Handbook: A Primer by Randy Shaw.Berkeley, CA:University of California Press, 2001.Training for Change (TFC), www.trainingforchange.org TFC offersresources online as well as activist trainings on a range of topics relevant tobuilding strong groups, including setting ground rules, challenging oppression,team-building, meeting and dialogue facilitation, and much more.Wellstone Action!, www.wellstone.org Wellstone Action! offerstraining in grassroots activism and running campaigns across the country as well as offering Campus Camp Wellstone, a training conference that studentscan bring to their own campuses.Think back to how you first became interested in your environmentalpassions.Did a friend invite you to see a documentary? Did you hear afirsthand account of an environmental travesty from a speakers tour? Did youread in the newspaper that your favorite park was being turned intocondominiums? As we discussed in chapter 1, our activism usually begins bygetting educated about an issue.And now that s your job: to speak out greenand spread your message.Spreading your green message can take many forms, from educationalforums to film festivals to classroom talks.Yet it all starts with the individual.Whether you are speaking at a rally or are sitting in a classroom when a heateddebate erupts, knowing how to communicate powerfully is a crucial way toadvance your cause.Take Alec Loorz as an example.SUCCESS STORYKIDS VS.GLOBAL WARMINGAlec Loorz first saw Al Gore s documentary An Inconvenient Truth when hewas twelve years old.Inspired by the message, Alec applied to be a presenterwith Gore s The Climate Project, but was turned down due to his age
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