Join the ALL DIGITAL 2021
CALIFORNIA CAMPUS CAMP
THURSDAYS 4-6 PM, WINTER 2021 TERM
The California Campus Camp (formerly “Campus Camp Wellstone”) is an intensive and energizing training program that is open to community college students, faculty and staff in California interested in gaining practical skills in democratic political action. Normally the Camp takes place in a 48 hour in-person format in the Santa Cruz Mountains. For 2021, to keep us all safe, we are moving to a weekly online symposium format meeting on Thursdays from 4-6. Join the California Campus Camp "Cafe" each week. Contact Camp Trainers Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, Calvin Williams and/or Leila McCabe Williams for more information and/or to get log-in information.
You can ALSO sign up for 4 units of academic credit for this year's Camp. Register either for POLI 16 (Grassroots Democracy: Social Movements Since the 1960s- CRN 35485) or POLI 60A (Introduction to Community Organizing- CRN 37317). Contact Instructors Calvin Williams or Nicky Gonzalez Yuen for more information and/or to add codes.
We believe that leadership, political action, and civic engagement can be woven together to develop a critical mass of diverse leaders with the motivation, expertise and power to build strong, healthy and just communities. We also believe that the only way to build power is in partnership with others, and not by ourselves. If you want to make real change on a particular issue in your community, this is the right place for you.
Training sessions provide rich and interactive experiences that maximize participants’
learning. Inspired by the community and political organizing model pioneered by the
late United States Senator Paul Wellstone, the California Campus Camp focuses on the
three elements of the “Wellstone Triangle”: progressive public policy, which lays
out an agenda for action; grassroots community organizing, which builds a constituency
to fight for change; and grassroots electoral politics, which provides tools for changing
what leadership looks like and how to influence policymakers.
Through the California Campus Camp we train participants in the nuts and bolts of
effective and democratic community organizing campaigns. We train participants how
to enlarge the range of people in our communities who participate in making our society’s
key decisions. In the words of Marshall Ganz, we train people who normally don’t have
a lot of power and influence how “to use what they have to get what they need to get
what they want.”
For the 20120-21 academic year, the California Campus Camp is a series of 2 hour "cafe"
webinars that spread our learning and practice out over the whole winter quarter providing
plenty of time to engage in organizing and leadership training over the digital format.
The California Campus Camp Cafes take place each Thursday from 4 to 6 pm, will feature
some of the most exciting organizing initiatives taking place in California and throughout
the nation, with guest presentations by some of the most pre-eminent community organizers
of our time. Topics covered will include organizing around affordable housing, re-imagining
community safety, climate justice and resilient communities, careers in organizing
and advocacy, workers rights and union organizing, effective electoral organizing,
and youth and student empowerment/leadership.
Even better, participants will engage in collaborative cohort learning to take action
RIGHT NOW in the setting of California's Community Colleges. Yes! Hands-on learning
that you can apply immediately to make progress creating more just and sustainable
and empowering experiences in your everyday lives where you live, work and learn.
If you'd like to join the next California Campus Camp, contact Camp Trainers Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, Calvin Williams and/or Leila McCabe Williams for more information and/or to get log-in information.
Check out our list of Frequently Asked Questions
