"I have attended many workshops and conferences over the years and I cannot remember one that was as meaningful as this one. I came home filled with great ideas, new techniques, renewed enthusiasm and many warm feelings about you three and the entire group. My heart was touched, my mind challenged and my body energized. Hard to beat this experience."
—Mark McDermott, Minnesota Training of Trainers participant
The U.S. economy is sputtering along, creating new jobs at a rate that won’t get us back to pre-recession levels for at least another decade. An austerity program is shrinking the public sector, tearing apart the remaining social safety net and widening the racial economic divide. Meanwhile, the top 1% are riding higher than ever. The influence of big money in politics continues to grow and the 2012 elections will push such spending to obscene heights. Global trade agreements continue to spur a race to the bottom, economic dislocation and migration, and the inability to rein in too-big-to-fail financial institutions adds up to a frighteningly unstable and potentially catastrophic economic outlook.
Last fall, however, this doom and gloom scenario was pierced by the Occupy movement. The encampments, an increase in street heat activism and the brilliant reframing of the debate on the economy, from a focus on deficits and government spending to the 1% vs the 99%, has provided us an extraordinary moment in history. Although the persistence of extreme inequality, the opportunity for broad-based movement and significant social change has dramatically increased.
The role of education — not sound bites, but thoughtful reflection, analysis, and strategizing — is crucial to the success of the rejuvenated organizing and mobilizing that is taking place. We need to make sense of what's happening and further challenge the dominant narrative that ignores the structures that systemically drive inequality. We need to create and unite behind a vision of an equitable, sustainable, and democratic economy. We need to establish the conditions for a democratic, multi-racial, multi-class progressive social change movement that can alter the established relations of power.
UFE's Popular Economics Education Training of Trainers Institute explores these questions and gives participants tools for analysis that will inform and inspire action.
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Location:
Conference Center at the Maritime Institute
Linthicum Heights, near Baltimore MD
Free 10-min. shuttle ride to Baltimore-Washington airport (BWI)
About this Institute:
UFE's Senior Education Coordinators, Jeannette Huezo and Steve Schnapp, will train you in how to lead UFE-style popular economics education workshops that educate, inspire, and mobilize people to take political action.
It is right for you if you are:
- An organizer, leader, activist, teacher, or trainer engaged in campaigns for economic or social justice, or
- If you are seeking to improve your training and facilitation skills in order to more effectively present information and engage people in dialogue about the economy.
You will learn about:
- National economic trends, the rules and policies that contributed to the Great Recession & the jobless recovery;
- The impacts of economic policies in terms of race and gender;
- Some history about popular resistance to economic inequality in the U.S.;
- Strategies to advance the economic recovery and to close the economic divides; and
- Principles and practices of popular education.
You will have opportunities to:
-
Work in small groups to plan and practice leading either UFE's or original popular economics education workshop activities;
- Receive constructive feedback on how to effectively present workshops and lead productive discussions on economic inequality;
- Discuss how to best adapt UFE's materials to your communities and constituents;
- Practice responding to challenging questions and difficult workshop situations; and
- Network, build solidarity and open doors for collaboration with others working for economic justice.
Schedule:
- Participants should arrive at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute on Thursday, June 21, between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.; the program begins after dinner on Thursday and concludes after lunch on Sunday.
- Sessions will be conducted in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings.
- Breaks will be provided throughout the day to allow participants to reflect and network with other participants.
The program includes presentations of activities from UFE's workshops, including:
- The Growing Divide
- Bankers, Brokers, Bubbles, and Bailouts
- Immigration and the Growing Divide
- Closing the Racial Wealth Divide
It is important that participants plan to attend the full Institute session in order to get the maximum benefit of the training, and preference will be given to those applicants who can make that commitment. Some materials, including a detailed agenda for the Institute and short readings will be sent to all registrants prior to the training to help participants prepare for the Institute.
The registration fee for this Institute is $500, which includes meals, room and board (double occupancy), materials and the TOT fee. (Transportation is NOT included.)
We are committed to helping people figure out how to attend this Institute. We have limited scholarship funds to help defray a portion of the Institute fee for participants from low-income communities or from organizations with very limited resources. If you require financial assistance to attend this Institute, you may complete a scholarship request form after submitting this application and paying your deposit.
The deadline for submitting an application is Friday, May 25, 2012.
A minimum $25 deposit is required with your application. A payment of at least 50% of the fee must be paid two (2) weeks prior to the Institute. Payment in full is due one week before the start of the Institute.
For more information:
Contact Jeannette Huezo ([email protected], 857-277-7881) or Steve Schnapp ([email protected], 857-277-7868).
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