"I love The Wildfire Project | Thriving groups, powerful movements"

2022-06-12 00:44:21

HomeWho We ArePurposeWildfire StaffFacilitation TeamAdvisory Board2020 Year In ReviewWhat We OfferPartner ProgramsPublic Programs Coming Soon!TestimonialsHow We Do ItSix ElementsWhat Makes Us SpecialOur Track RecordWho We Work WithResourcesSongsPodcasts & ShowsVideosArticles & ToolsDonateSelect Page THRIVING groups, Powerful Movements What Is The Wildfire Project? Learn More Sign up to our newsletter We have a vision.Building pro-power, solidarity-driven, embodied, wise, organizational cultures – for the sake of winning a world where:everyone’s fundamental material needs are metwe all experience dignity, safety, belonging, and freedomwe are in right relationship with ourselves, our communities, and the ecosystems we belong to PARTNER WITH WILDFIREWe’re here for organizations as they emerge, shift and mature.Groups are the fundamental building block of movements. We work with organizations at the leading edge of a range of movement sectors. For GroupsOur workshops for groups include single-day workshops to multi-day retreats and convenings. Our facilitation team develops workshop goals in collaboration with each organization and builds a unique curriuclum from scratch, tailored to the group. GET STARTED coming soonpublic programsWe are excited to expand our offerings beyond groups and organizations to individuals like you! For IndividualsOur public program workshops will focus on core Wildfire facilitation methods that will support organizers, facilitators, activists, union & community members to understand, develop and maintain resilient and effective group culture. Please check back here to sign-up! DonateHelp transform our movements in life affirming waysWildfire is a nimble and frugal non-profit, delivering a high-volume of programming with a small staff, large love-driven team, and a lot of rigor. We raise money to make our programs accessible and affordable for frontline grassroots organizations. Our programs are free for individual participants. Help Us Grow & DeepenWe need your help to change the culture of the activist Left. Consider becoming a grassroots sustainer, or major donor today!  PAY IT FORWARD How We Do ItIn order to navigate rapidly changing terrain, we must transform.Wildfire’s methodology was developed through years of letting the work teach us through praxis. We’ve found patterns that hold groups back, and an approach to assist groups in shifting the culture they practice. We design custom programs from scratch to serve the needs of grassroots groups, using experiential, directly-democratic, participant-centered pedagogy. Learn More OUR TEAM Akua Deirdre Smith , she/herBioAkua is an Earth Steward, Strategist, Resource Organizer, Transformative Facilitator, Reiki Master, Energetic Healer and Diviner. Akua began learning Reiki 25 years ago in reaction to learning about the toxic and violent way corporations and governments were treating her family, her community, and the land. Rooted in New Mexico and Louisiana, Akua’s work is inspired by the black and indigenous land stewards who taught her organizing and the necessity of healing and working at the root of things. She focuses on solidarity, organizing, political education, and transformative facilitation to create the new systems we need and uproot the systems that harm us.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Black Land Strategies Director at the BlackOUT Collective, Drinking Gourd Member and Wildfire Project FacilitatorAreas of expertiseAkua works to build networks and design projects that help black, indigenous, and multi class multi racial communities build trust, practice shared governance, and build shared language, culture, resource and power. Rooted in abolition, dual power, transformative justice, black queer and an emerging afroeco-feminism, she has done lead thinking and work to design tools structures and startegies for national groups networks such as: M4BL, NBFJA, BlackOUT, Wildfire Project, Black Land & Liberation Initiative and Climate Justice Alliance. Andrew Smith , he/himBioAndy is a formerly incarcerated facilitator focused on issues of masculinity and mass incarceration. He has started multiple organizations in NYC like Occupy Sandy and the NYC chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice. He recently left his position as Electoral Manager at the Florida-based racial justice organization the Dream Defenders.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Wildfire FacilitatorAreas of expertiseCurrently, he specializes in healthy group formation, healthy feedback structures, strategic planning processes, and working towards a greater mastery of somatic healing and circle work. BJ STAR , they/themBioBJ is an experience designer committed to a thriving, just, and sustainable world. Through experiential facilitation and consulting, BJ develops transformative leaders, creative community, liberatory institutions, and powerful movement groups. BJ came alive as a trainer with Generation Waking Up, The Work That Reconnects, and has trained at Rockwood Leadership, Landmark Forum, Animas Valley Institute, Theater of the Oppressed, and Training for Change.Today they are a facilitator at the Wildfire Project, a consultant at Moral Choice, curator of Black Folks Dinner Seattle, and lead anchor of First, We Grieve.10 years of facilitation, 18 years of praxis, and 34 years inside a queer black body have elicited keen sight, grounded presence, and a tendency toward blessed unrest.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Wildfire Project, The Work That ReconnectsAreas of expertiseGroup facilitation, retreat planning, transformational training, strategic planning, leadership & Staff Retreats, Convenings, Creative Facilitation, Grief Tending, Equity & Power.Cat Salonek , she/herBioCat Salonek has organized for nearly 15 years across movement and national groups. Her current work as the Director of Organizing and Policy at OutFront Minnesota is focused on building a statewide base of trans and queer folks to challange business as usual. Cat has spent time union organizing with Communication Workers of America where she led a campaign with immgiration court interpreters that ultimately won an important case that will impact freelance workers for years. She cut her teeth on national organizing with an Occupy Wall Street offshoot, Occupy Homes MN, an organization dedicated to holding Big Banks accountable for the chaos they impose on those who can least withstand it. She worked with community members to hold down multi-week home occupations that resulted in multi-billion dollar national settlements. Cat has trained thousands of new and experienced organizers and raised well over a million dollars in grassroots funds for our movement. In her free time she loves to play with her niece and nephews and sing loudly whenever she can.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Director of Organizing and Policy, OutFront Minnesota, Wildfire FacilitatorAreas of expertiseGroup facilitation, retreat planning, organizing skill training, transformational training, strategic planning, fundraising, nonviolent direct action and blockade tactics.Claire Bergren , she/herBioClaire is a Minneapolis-based union and community organizer, a birth doula, and big book nerd. She has previous experience in social movement work fighting unjust foreclosures with Occupy Homes MN and as a core team member with Black Lives Matter Minneapolis. Her electoral organizing work came as the Campaign Manager for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s re-election in 2020 and for Minneapolis’ rent stabilization ballot measure in 2021. She is currently leading organizing work with cleaners, security guards, and airport workers at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Lead Organizer, SEIU Local 26; Wildfire FacilitatorAreas of expertiseOrganizing skills training, transformational training, equity and power, electoral campaign organizing, union/labor organizing, helping groups hold complexities and nuances in their work.Ileia J. Burgos , she/herBioIleia Burgos comes from an organizing background using popular pedagogies. She is a past Judith C. Jones Fellow for Trainers of Color, from Philadelphia’s Training For Change, focusing on direct education techniques to address internal group dynamics for healthy group development. She was an Activate Fellow under New York’s Social Justice Leadership to use their framework of trauma & oppression, and sustainable organizing practices. Through National People’s Action she implemented their political education tools in her grassroots efforts in SuperStorm Sandy affected areas of New York City. She attended the James Lawson Institute on non-violent direct action methods and history. Through the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative, she applied economic democracy tools in multi-issue organizing. She has been a  facilitator with the Wildfire Project since 2013.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):She is proud to be a part of the facilitation team, and one of the original starter-pack crew at Wildfire, as one of the facilitators to go out and train Occupy groups in Atlanta and Minnesota.Areas of expertiseDesigning curriculum focused on political education, organizing skills, and group development to address internal dynamics. Designing interactive workshops on the basics and structures of cooperatives.Leading multiple seminars using experiential & democratic methods to further strengthen participant’s skills as a collective organizing together.Teaching high school level curricula analyzing systems of power and other social justice issues.Jonel Edwards , she/herBioJonel Edwards is a 28 year older leader in the community power building organization, Dream Defenders. Originally from Miramar, Florida by way of Jamaica, Jonel entered the world of activism after the murder of Trayvon Martin, putting together marches on her college campus at the University Of Florida. During that time Jonel became politicized and involved with the Dream Defenders on her campus becoming a chapter leader. Shortly after her graduation in 2013 she was brought onto Dream Defender staff as an organizer working with local Dream Defender membership across North Florida. Over the past five years Jonel has gone from campus member, organizer, youth organizer, Wildfire Project trainer, Training & Membership Development Director, to Co Executive Director for the Dream Defenders where she plays an important role in the next evolution of the Dream Defenders organization. Jonel has also been heavily influenced by the work of her siblings across the globe, from Palestine, to Brasil, to south Africa and beyond who have demonstrated what collective work towards liberation must look like! “This work has transformed me, everyday I rediscover my voice, my power, my dignity, and my community.”Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Co-Executive Director, Dream Defender, Leftroots Member, Wildfire FacilitatorAreas of expertiseGroup Facilitation, Retreat Planning, Political EducationJoshua Kahn Russell , Executive DirectorBioJoshua Kahn (he/him) is a social movement facilitator who has trained thousands of activists across the globe and has spent the last 19 years as an organizer, campaign strategist, and non-violent direct action coordinator. He is the Executive Director of The Wildfire Project, and facilitator with the Ruckus Society. He has helped campaigns win against banks, oil companies, logging corporations, and coal barons; worked with a wide variety of groups in a breadth of arenas, from local resiliency projects, to national coalitions, to the United Nations Climate Negotiations. Examples of Joshua’s projects include roles as lead trainer for the Tar Sands Action White House protests against the Keystone XL Pipeline; Program Coordinator for Global Power Shift, a youth climate convergence of 500 leaders from 135 countries in Istanbul Turkey; action coordinator supporting The Pacific Climate Warriors in blockading the largest coal port in the world with traditional canoes in Australia; and co-founder of the Bay Area Solidarity Action Team. He has written and co-edited several books and manuals, most recently A Line In The Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice, Beautiful Trouble, and Organizing Cools the Planet: Tools and Reflections to Navigate the Climate Crisis. Joshua has conducted workshops and group retreats around the world including: Brazil, Turkey, Vietnam, Australia, Canada, Peru, Poland, Thailand, Spain, Denmark, Jamaica, Guatemala, Mexico, and nearly all continental US states.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Executive Director, The Wildfire ProjectAreas of expertiseGroup facilitation, Coalition Process, Campaign Strategy, Non-Violent Direct Action, Conflict Transformation, Leadership Development, Organizing skills, Anti-Oppression.Kirin Kanakkanatt , she/herBioKirin believes in building power through leadership development rooted in healing, strategic training and authentic mentorship. She is a first generation Desi queer femme midwest transplant and she carries the wisdom, strength and resilience of her communities into every aspect of her work. Her work includes environmental justice, queer liberation, racial equity, student organizing, donor organizing and GOTV. Kirin loves cooking, dancing and laughing. Her superpowers are resource mobilization and experiential learning training. You can find Kirin @kirin_rosemary or on a dance floor near you!Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Wildfire Facilitator, Internal Projects Manager Militia Designs, Financial Doula Training for Change, Advisory Board Member Healing Justice Podcast, CAAV Board Member, 18MillionRising Board MemberAreas of expertiseDonor Organizing, Group facilitation, popular education & political education, campaign planning, network building, building across difference, conflict transformation, Non-Violent Direct Action,  Leadership Development, Organizing skills, Anti-Oppression, retreat planningLex Barlowe , she/herBioLex Barlowe (she/her) is a New Yorker with ancestral roots in Virginia, South Carolina, St. Vincent, and Ukraine & the USSR. She got her start organizing around environmental & climate justice in high school and college, and has helped to build local and national networks and campaigns. This introduced her to brilliant community wealth-building and cooperative projects in the solidarity economy movement. That journey has led her to the Central Brooklyn Food Coop and her work as the Community Wealth Facilitator at Black Farmer Fund, a community investment fund investing in Black farmers and food business owners across New York State, where she supports a group of 13 Black farmers and food business owners to design the fund’s democratic process and make collective decisions around investing in their own community.Lex focuses on how we keep and share and learn from our histories, in our families, communities, and movements. The community seed resources and experiments she’s part of are imagining how to share resources and bring that ancestral wisdom into now. Lex is a facilitator/healer with the Wildfire Project.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Wildfire Facilitation Team, Black Farmer Fund, Reclaim Seed NYC, Central Brooklyn Food CoopAreas of expertiseGroup facilitation, popular education & political education, campaign planning, network building, building across difference, conflict transformation, collective governance and decision-making, organization and community history / archiving.Lisa Juachon , Operations DirectorBioLisa (she/her/siya) comes from the people of Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija, Philippines and was born and bred on unceded Ohlone Territory aka the Bay Area. She has 2 decades experience working to advance grass-roots solutions to environmental issues and community development. Lisa was a community service worker in SoMa Pilipinas, San Francisco. An organizer with the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action and a Program Supervisor for a food justice initiative based in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Most recently, Lisa co-founded a cooperative that brings together diverse Filipino families in the Bay Area to reclaim and re-imagine cultural practices towards a just society. When not busy organizing projects, timelines and numbers in spreadsheets for Wildfire Project, Lisa loves a good book (currently reading Braiding Sweetgrass and Patron Saints of Nothing), natural hot springs, hiking and hot springs. She is blessed to be the Nanay to two outstanding humans who have brought so much joy and learning to her life.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Operations Director, Wildfire Project; Co-Founder & Coordinating Committee Member, Sama Sama CooperativeAreas of expertiseAdmin, Operations, Program Development, Making delicious pickled papayaLu Aya Nephew , he/him BioLu Aya is the co-founder of The Peace Poets, a Hip Hop and Spoken Word crew from The Bronx that has made an indelible mark on the social movements of our times by supporting the re-emergence of the art of collective singing in protest and direct action. He utilizes many creative mediums for collective healing and liberation in Africa, Asia and across the Americas. As a facilitator with The Wildfire Project, he works with frontline grassroots groups to cultivate a culture of connection that honors ourselves, protects our people and builds our power. He also continues to work at the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center where he has been teaching and learning poetry since 2008 with the teenagers in his neighborhood. Lu is an artist educator, poet journalist, freedom singer, cultural worker who is humbled to be able to learn from his elders, serve his community and dedicate his life to building justice.Areas of expertiseWorking across differences/Crossing Boundaries (Race,Class,Gender,Age)Creative and Artistic OrganizingGenerative ConflictCampaign StrategyCommunity BuildingAction PlanningMichael Strom , Program DirectorBioMichael (they/them) is a facilitator, faith leader, and organizer living in the Northwest Bronx, NYC. They first felt the power of organized communities through queer, feminist, and anti-war student organizing and fighting exploitative developers with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition. In the wake of the housing crisis, Michael helped bring together Organizing for Occupation (O4O) and Occupy Wall Street to blockade evictions and shut down foreclosure proceedings with song. In 2015, they founded the NYC chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), a national network organizing white people to undermine white supremacy. Currently, Michael is a preacher and Connecting Council Chair at New Day Church, a Bronx-based faith community confronting injustice with the compassion and abundance of God.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Program Director, The Wildfire Project; Connecting Council Chair, New Day Church; Learning Somatic Practitioner, generative somatics Practitioners Network Areas of expertiseconflict transformation, political education, leadership development, transformational facilitation, ritual & ceremony, gender justice, faith & organizing, equity & power/anti-oppression, coaching, white anti-racism/solidarity Sachie Hayakawa , she/herBioSachie comes from four generations rooted in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to her work with the Wildfire Project, she is an organizer with the New Economy Coalition, working to build solidarity economies and community self-determination. Sachie co-founded the Reinvest in Our Power Project, Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network and the Maypop Collective for Climate and Economic Justice. Sachie has worked with social justice groups across the US and abroad. Through all of her work, Sachie is committed to nurturing resilient communities, defending our rights to land-labor-livelihood, and building people power from the ground up. Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Wildfire Facilitator, New Economy Coalition, Maypop CollectiveAreas of expertiseGroup facilitation, climate justice organizing, political education, equity and power, campaign planningSam Corbin , she/herBioSam is a facilitator, organizer, and action coordinator from New York City. Her commitment is to supporting the development of resilient, courageous, and joyful people and movements. She is the co-founder of Movement Netlab and The New York Action Network and has worked with local, national, and international organizations for over 17 years developing campaigns and coordinating creative direct actions. Some of those include the Ruckus Society, The Other 98%, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Sandy, and the Climate Justice Alliance.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Wildfire Facilitator, Movement NetlabAreas of expertiseAlong with group facilitation, retreat planning, navigating conflict, etc, Sam specializes in supporting groups in thinking through and designing the systems, structures, and culture that are responsive to the unique needs of self organized, distributed networks. She also loves teaching climbing for direct actions and is pretty confident you’d love it too.Sherika Shaw , she/herBioSherika is a mother to a toddler while being an aspiring revolutionary. As an internationalist, from Miami, Florida by way of Jamaica. Sherika has had the opportunity to learn from movements and freedom fighters in Palestine, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, among others. Sherika began organizing on the campus of Florida State University with the Dream Defenders, where she eventually became a founding staff member and the South Florida Regional Organizer. In her time with Dream Defenders, she among many initiatives, bodies and campaigns, she supported the group in founding the organization’s Womyn’s Faction, which worked to bring a gender justice lens to the group. Since then, Sherika has been the inaugural Director if the Summer School of Resistance and Co-Director of Militia Design where she worked to shift culture and bring more creatives into the mainstream of the movement. Militia’s drive comes from an understanding that there are many difficult tasks facing society. We have a culture in flux, dissatisfied with the status quo and in desperate need of significant and deep-rooted change. Currently Sherika is the Radical Hope Program Director, a program that is a collaboration of women leaders from Central Florida Jobs with Justice, Dream Defenders, Faith in Florida, Fanm Ayisyen nan Miyami/Haitian Women of Miami (FANM), Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Miami Workers Center, New Florida Majority, Organize Florida and SEIU, among others to embolden a grassroots feminist framework to the work in Florida. In her spare time Sherika is a community doula and artist.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Wildfire Facilitator, Militia Design Creative Director, Florida Immigrant Coalition Radical Hope Program DirectorAreas of expertisePolitical Education, Curriculum Development, Art Eduction, Direct Action Planning, Group facilitation, Conflict Transformation, Leadership Development, Reproductive Justice, Revolutionary Mothering – pending*Sofia Campos , she/ellaBioBorn in Perú and raised in Los Angeles, Sofía came from the Andes to the Avenues at six years old. She’s grown as an organizer through the immigrant youth movement, Freedom Side, and now con Mijente. As Director of First Impressions, she leads member recruitment at Mijente (@conmijente), a national political home for Latinxs/Chicanxs who are pro Earth, pro Black, pro LGBT, pro mujer, pro migrant, pro worker y más. While on advanced parole, Sofía learned from Brasil’s Movement of Landless Workers (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra- MST) and resistance movements in Palestine. She’s a Capricorn who loves reading, dancing, and BJJ.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Director of First Impressions at Mijente, Wildfire FacilitatorAreas of expertiseAsk me about it.Yotam Marom , he/himBioYotam Marom is an organizer and facilitator based in New York City. He has over fifteen years of experience as a facilitator specializing in experiential education, strategic planning, group dynamics, and conflict work. He was the founding director of the Wildfire Project, and has facilitated in a variety of settings – from organizations like the Dream Defenders, Sunrise and Justice Democrats, to Jewish youth and Palestinian teens in Israel, to national movement moments like Occupy and Flood Wall Street. Yotam was a leader at Occupy Wall Street and a founding member of IfNotNow. Yotam also writes; you can find his writing and more at www.yotammarom.net.Your current political home(s), org(s) & role(s), or job(s):Yotam spends most of his time as a rogue facilitator, working with groups like Sunrise, Momentum, Justice Democrats, the Dream Defenders, and others, as well as a facilitator on behalf of Wildfire. He helps organize direct actions from time to time, writes, tells jokes, cooks, and takes good care of his awesome kiddos.Areas of expertiseYotam is often invited to take groups through strategic planning processes, and to support groups through internal conflicts (often around power, leadership, and identity). His sweet spot is a combination of the two, with the thought that groups entering into direct conversation about the difficult things lurking beneath the surface both supports good strategy and long-term group health. He has written about that here. Aside from that, Yotam is good at holding complex planning meetings, alignment processes, coalition meetings, and things like that. He has a lot of experience working with folks around issues of race, class, gender, and leadership more generally. See the full squad Who We Work WithOur team is rooted in a range of social movements, and we serve groups who are working toward Freedom in:Climate / Ecological Justice, Immigrant Rights, Black Liberation, Housing Justice, Queer Liberation / LGBTQI, Indigenous Sovereignty, Student / Youth Empowerment, Peace & Justice, Arts & Culture, Land Reclamation, Food Sovereignty, Worker Empowerment / Cooperatives, Women’s Liberation, Progressive Electoral Campaigning, Spiritual CommunitySome examples of grassroots organizations we serve: Dream Defenders Pacific Climate Warriors Native Movement 18 Million Rising Arab-American Association of NY Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia Sunrise Movement Indigenous Climate Action Asian Pacific Islander Equality Northern California Power U Center for Social Change CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities NWBCCC Defenders of the Land Amazon Watch Black Mama’s Bail Out Audre Lorde Project See our other Partners and more groups we've worked with “The Wildfire Project changed my life. It is part of the reason I have been able to step into action and continue to grow. Wildfire opened my heart and mind to my power.”– Lena Gardner, Black Lives MatterRead More Testimonials SIGN UP FOR UPDATES CONTACT US BECOME A DONOR Who We ArePurposeStaffFacilitation TeamAdvisory Board How We DO ITSix ElementsWhat Makes Us SpecialOur ImpactWho We Do It With What We OfferPartnership ProgramCustom ProgramTestimonials GET INVOLVEDContact UsDonate to WildfireJoin Our NewsletterJoin Our Team The Wildfire Project is a fiscally sponsored project of the Social Good Fund, a U.S. tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) organization, taxpayer ID number is 46-1323531.    Facilitator Login Made by Story 2 Designs