Amnesty activist leaders recently gathered in Sydney for a skill share, networking, and planning weekend. We were fortunate to have 24 participants from across Australia and two participants from New Zealand!
Key highlights of the weekend:
- 3 exceptional activist presentations
- 7 staff presentations/workshop sessions
- A guest speaker who not only shared a powerful personal narrative but also explained the structure of the story of self, us, and now.
- We invested in running sessions that we thought would prepare the participants to design a leadership plan that was strategic with clear human rights impact. The reflections at the end of day three highlighted that they achieved this. Some of their plans became cross pollinated with region-to-region collaboration and also some national projects were born!
- They created their own social networking group to continue building on their relationships and sharing their ideas and outcomes into 2019.
What we focused on:
- strategic thinking – taking the campaign strategy cycle and applying it to the way we plan anything in our lives.
- facilitation – why we hold meetings, how we run meetings, how we facilitate decision making and how we follow up.
- understanding the role of young people at Amnesty – exploring the ways young people are leaders at Amnesty International and the ways we can continue to build a diverse and inclusive movement.
All 26 participants and staff at the end of the weekend.
We also created space for participants to share their earliest activism memories and their leadership journeys.
The participants spent most of the last day working on their plans within working groups which focused on: group development, starting groups, activist pathways, campaigns, young people and schools. In the coming week each participant will be meeting with their regional Branch Committee to present their plans.
Some of the responses from the participants:
“An amazing and inspiring weekend, it couldn’t have been a more rewarding experience”.
Imogen, NZ
“Many thanks…for organising this wonderful series of workshops for us activists and the opportunity to meet so many amazing and dedicated human rights defenders…”.
Vincent, Adelaide
“It was a really great experience for me and so lovely to meet such inspiring people.”
Melanie, Vic
If you have any questions about the Activist Leadership Weekend please get in contact with the Activist Leadership and Development Coordinator, Zoe Houstein at zoe.houstein@amnesty.org.au
