Our executive director and senior popular educator Jeannette Huezo is in Pennsylvania teaching and facilitating at the United Association for Labor Education (UALE) Northeast Women’s Summer School again this week!
UALE is a vast network of organizations and individuals who are engaged in labor and worker education. Jeannette has been a part of UALE for over 10 years and has also served on their board. This week as a facilitator at one of their multiple regional summer schools happening around the country, Jeannette is using popular education techniques to teach real organizing skills, like planning mobilizations and public speaking.
These skills cannot be taught easily from a book but are learned best through practice and experience. That’s why UFE’s popular education method is so successful for teaching about and organizing around the economy: we put participants in the leader’s seat from day one. But leadership also doesn’t always mean being in the front and center. From our shared experiences we learn and grow, unpacking the stigmas and inequities that have held us down in the past and unlocking new ways of moving forward together. The curriculum includes daily conversation sessions and skills workshops focused on leadership development, community and connection, breaking silos, and working in solidarity with other movements. We’re so excited to be back at the UALE summer school and can’t wait to see the incredible work that follows from this new cohort of leaders!