Root Camp™
Root Camp™ is a grassroots training program supported by Grassroots For America in conjunction with Latinos for America to educate, engage and empower everyday citizens to be active in and influence the political process on a local, regional and national level.
Conceived as a grassroots leadership "seeding" program, Root Camp™ is currently cultivating a farm team of grassroots leaders and channeling or connecting them into the progressive community and local political party activism. Root Camp™ is also a place where new activists can go to get help navigating the sometimes intimidating roads of political engagement.
Working proactively with related groups, Root Camp™ offers training and resources to help people organize for progressive change. Since Root Camp™ Trainers are members of the grassroots community, they are diverse in their experiences and offer a wide range of political insight. They speak the “language of the grassroots” and allow participants to feel comfortable exploring the political avenues they want to travel.
Participants in Root Camp™ learn how to use the political system to enrich their communities and how to engage and influence that system. Training topics include a variety of leadership skills as well as the basics of government and party politics, reaching out to diverse communities, building voter awareness and growing the progressive voter rolls. Participants are encouraged to participate in periodic continuing education events and training activities.
Root Camp™ is being organized on a national basis with a goal of developing Root Camp™ mentors in each metropolitan region to provide on-going support for local grassroots leaders and to help organize local training programs.
In light of today's changing political landscape, we are in the process of updating the Root Camp™ curriculum to reflect the need for a truly effective grassroots leadership corps to build the vibrant and effective grassroots infrastructure we need to advance the progressive cause.
The updated Root Camp™ program was unveiled at the Progressive Democratic Summit held in Washington, DC the weekend of January 22nd and 23rd. Root Camp continued next at Sessions during DemocracyFest in Austin this past June and we are looking forward to new events ahead.
Root Camp™ is the only program running that involves the grassroots as both trainers, trainees and offers a niche for all who wish to participate. We believe that there is great promise for this model and we are confident that there will be great power in its implementation. Root Camp™ will be successful because it will aid the Roots by opening their eyes to the concept that knowledge truly is power!
Root Camp is currently gathering mentors for the local level and developing the sharing process for grassroots training courses and materials. Grassroots activists from all over the country are coming together to share training material, best practices and ideas so that we are not reinventing the wheel. If you have experience in grassroots training, organizing, education, technical writing, or web development and you want to make a positive change in the world, please visit Root Camp™ and fill out our mentor form!