Program Description

Catalyst Project runs the Anne Braden Anti-Racist Organizer Training Program (ABP) for white social justice activists and organizers in order to strengthen racial justice vision, strategy, analysis, leadership, and organizing skills in white communities. ABP is an intensive program designed to support white activists and organizers in becoming accountable, principled anti-racist change-makers. This program is part political education, part leadership development and personal transformation work, and part organizing training. We ask that applicants already be actively engaged in grassroots organizing work and commit to staying in and reflecting on that work for the course of the program. 

Participants will:

• Develop an understanding of white supremacy as it interconnects with patriarchy, capitalism, homophobia, transphobia, imperialism, settler-colonialism and the state, and how this should impact our vision and strategy
• Learn about histories of resistance and liberation, and about social justice movements today
• Build grassroots fundraising skills and raise money for a BIPOC-led organization
• Learn about transformative organizing and develop anti-racist organizing skills
• Receive mentorship and anti-racist leadership development
• Gain skills for anti-racist strategy development, leadership development, and alliance-building

This program is a good fit for people who are trying to build these skills:

• Organizing white people into more effective racial justice work, and developing other social justice leaders
• Building alliances with organizations led by people of color and building stronger relationships with organizers of color
• Moving racial justice from an “issue area” into a core strategy and approach to all of your organization’s work
• Strengthening anti-racist culture in your organization by aligning your internal policies and practices with your mission and external work
• Centralizing anti-racism in your campaigns, communications, and membership work
• Moving from a diversity-based approach to a racial justice approach, and having a more historically grounded & systemic analysis of current issues
• Supporting and building the leadership of people of color in your staff, board and/or membership without being tokenizing
• Organizing in complicated political contexts, connecting with what keeps you in this work for the long haul, and being able to take more risks for collective liberation
• Developing racial justice politics and practice that are class-conscious, feminist, and anti-ableist.

Who Should Apply?

The Anne Braden Program is designed for social justice activists and organizers with white privilege who are looking to grow in their anti-racist skills, analysis, and practice. Poor and working-class folks, rural organizers, women, LGBT and queer folks, Jewish people, and members of grassroots social justice organizations are highly encouraged to apply.

Apply now! Applications are due Dec 15.

Session Dates:

The program will meet online beginning on the weekend of February 8th & 9th, close on the weekend of July 26th & 27th and meet every Tuesday in between. The regular Tuesday sessions are from 3-6pm Pacific/4-7pm Mountain/5-8pm Central/6-9pm Eastern. The weekend times are Sat 9-12 & 2-5 Pacific/10-1 & 3-6 Mountain/11-2 & 4-7 Central/12-3 & 5-8 Eastern AND Sun 9-12P/10-1M/11-2C/12-3E. 

Cost: Details on sliding scale are in the application. We are committed to making this program accessible to people regardless of ability to pay, and we are committed to building poor and working class leadership in our movements.

What to expect:

Training sessions are on zoom for 3 hours with breaks, and are highly participatory. Participants should be prepared for an average of 5 hours of work per week for the course of the program, except for the monthly week off. This will include: homework (audio is available for all homework), research, and meetings with a mentor, facilitator and leadership team member. The work starts when participants are accepted into the program in January.

Access Support: Childcare, tech and missed wage stipends are available for some participants — see details below. Online content will be captioned and we are committed to doing the best we can to meet other access needs, including internet access for rural participants.

Childcare stipends and Lost Wages Support

****We will offer full and partial childcare stipends for poor and working class people who will need to pay for extra childcare in order to participate in the program.

****We may be able to offer missed wage stipends for people who will not be able to participate in the program without them.  

Who was Anne Braden?

Anne Braden was a white  anti-racist organizer and leader in racial justice movements in the U.S. South, including the Civil Rights Movement. She brought a working-class based socialist analysis and community-organizing model to the struggle against white supremacy and all forms of inequality.  She  believed in the need to root out racism in the hearts and minds of white people, and worked from the perspective that white people have a collective interest in dismantling white supremacy. Anne Braden’s  legacy has deeply inspired Catalyst Project and many others. In naming our program after her, we honor her memory and the movements of which she was a part. We’ve heard from many anti-racist organizers in the South about being personally mentored by Anne and her commitment to developing more and more leaders, and we hope the Anne Braden Program will honor that legacy.

Who is Catalyst Project?

Catalyst Project helps to build powerful multiracial movements that can win collective liberation. We organize in majority white sectors of social justice movements with the goal of deepening anti-racist commitment in white communities and helping to build multiracial movements for collective liberation. We do this by creating spaces for activists and organizers to collectively develop deeper political analysis, vision, strategy and organizing skills. Our work is based in the belief that all people have a right to dignity, housing, food, healthcare, meaningful work and healthy communities. We organize with the understanding that anti-racism can be a catalyst for challenging all forms of oppression and creating fundamental change.