Organizing Outside the Perimeter: Reaching Smaller Towns and Communities
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Thursday, Aug. 10 1:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Thursday, Aug. 10 2:15 PM (Eastern)
Organizers and activists from smaller communities, surrounded or based in more conservative areas, will discuss their experiences organizing residents who often have different experiences and priorities than those in larger metro areas. We’ll discuss the unique challenges one can face when organizing in smaller and rural communities and what tactics and rhetoric they use to tackle these challenges. We will discuss ways that organizations, organizers, and activists based in more resource/power rich areas can help these organizers and communities who work outside of the usual political/social places of power.
Moderator
Briana Bivens
Briana is currently Member Coordinator with Athens for Everyone and also Vice Chair for Membership & Affirmative Action with the Athens-Clarke County Democratic Committee. She was a Regional Field Coordinator on the successful campaign to defeat Amendment 1, a proposed state takeover of underserved schools in Georgia, in 2016. She is also deeply involved in the push for an Athens Civil Rights Committee in response to continued discrimination at places of business and elsewhere throughout Athens, GA. She is constantly critical of existing power structures and wants to see a world where oppressive hierarchies like capitalism and nationalism are dismantled.
Other sessions: Take the Donkey by the Tail: How (and Why) to Take Over Your Local Democratic Party, Activist Toolbox: Organizing to Win Progressive Local Policy
Panelists
Beto Mendoza
Beto Mendoza is the coordinator of the Athens Immigrant Rights Coalition. As part of the Coalition he is also a coordinator of Dignidad Inmigrante en Athens (DIA), a Migrant based organization. DIA has conducted numerous “Know your Rights” workshops with the migrant community in Athens and surrounding areas since 2010 and has organized LatinxFest for 7 years. Beto Mendoza also is also the facilitator for Community Support for Families in Crisis because of Deportations, an organization that helps families who are struggling due to the detention or deportation of a loved one. In recent years Community Support has provided basic services, emotional support and monetary assistance to over 25 families.
………Co-founder ………………
2015 Community Support for Families Facing Deportation,
2010 Athens Imigrant Rights Coalition,
2010 Freedom University,
2007 Dignidad Immigrante,
2007 La Rondalla Music Band,
2006 Uni-dos,
2005 Incaterpec Music Band.
Organized……………………
2010- 2017 Annual Latinx Fest,
2015 Pinewoods Community Garden.
2008-2009 Athens Immigrant Rights Fest.