California Campus Camp 2022
Join Us Online: Thursdays, 6-9 p.m., for Winter Term
Register Now to Get Zoom Access links
The California Campus Camp (formerly “Campus Camp Wellstone”) is an intensive and energizing training program that is open to community college students, faculty and staff in California interested in gaining practical skills in democratic political action. Normally the Camp takes place in a 48 hour in-person format in the Santa Cruz Mountains. For 2022, to keep us all safe, we are sticking with the weekly online webinar format we used last year. We meet on Thursdays from 6-9, Feb 3-March 24.
Two Ways to Participate
1. Attend individual camp sessions (all online); or
2. Sign up for either POLI 16 and POLI 17 (both online, 4-unit, GE, fully transferrable
classes)
Thursdays, 6-9 p.m., Feb. 3-March 24
Click here for a YouTube preview. Each weekly webinar will include:
- a different guest panel featuring some of the best and brightest social justice organizers and leaders in California; an
- very practical and “hands-on” skills-building lessons in community and political organizing specifically tailored to community college students (and faculty and staff who are welcome too!)
These eight sessions provide a window into dynamic and real-world social justice advocacy, organizing & community leadership illustrating how we win victories, as well as the lessons learned when we don’t. These are exactly the kinds of opportunities that can lead to meaningful jobs and life-changing careers. This year’s sessions cover topics like:
- Women of color in political leadership;
- Environmental advocacy in an age of urgency;
- Break-through and progressive leadership from the Asian Pacific American community;
- Student-led victories in the long struggle for housing justice.
Just a sampling of this year’s guests include:
- Ash Kalra and Alex Lee of the California State Assembly;
- Cindy Chavez , Santa Clara supervisor and San Jose mayoral candidate;
- Aimee Allison, director of She the People and organizer of the first national presidential debate on issues of women of color;
- Shiloh Ballard, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Executive Director;
- Sheng Thao, Oakland City Council president and mayoral candidate;
- Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, president of the Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges;
- Patrick Ahrens, President of the Foothill De Anza Community College Board and district director for Assembly Member Evan Low
- Adrienne Hypolite, long time social justice organizer and president of the Foothill College Classified Senate… and many, many more.
Are you hungry for change and for meaningful work doing social good??? Join this year’s camp to organize, connect, advocate and then build your capacity to re-imagine and reconstruct a society that works for all of us. You can attend individual sessions without cost.
Or to earn 4 units of academic credit, register for one of two De Anza College classes: POLI 16 (Social Movements Since the 1960s) or POLI 17 (Grassroots Democracy: Leadership and Power). Fully transferable to UC and CSU; and also satisfy the American Culture graduation requirement at UC Berkeley.
- Find more information on our Campus Camp webpage for college credit!
- Or email: HarikaMaddala19@gmail.com, JillB.Student@gmail.com, YuenNicky@deanza.edu or CisnerosAlysa@deanza.edu.
We believe that if we are serious about student success, diversity, equity, inclusion,
the elimination of racism, building real pathways towards flourishing communities
with real opportunities for successful careers... then we must empower students to
own and control their communities. We believe that leadership, political action, and
civic engagement can be woven together to develop a critical mass of diverse leaders
with the motivation, expertise and power to build strong, healthy and just communities.
We believe that the only way to build power is in partnership with others, and not
by ourselves. We believe that if we want to make real change on the important issues
impacting our the lives of our students, then we must change the structure of decision-making
throughout our societies.
The California Campus Camp training sessions provide rich and interactive experiences
that maximize participants’ learning. Inspired by the community and political organizing
model pioneered by the late United States Senator Paul Wellstone, the California Campus
Camp focuses on the three elements of the “Wellstone Triangle”: progressive public
policy, which lays out an agenda for action; grassroots community organizing, which
builds a constituency to fight for change; and grassroots electoral politics, which
provides tools for changing what leadership looks like and how to influence policymakers.
Through the California Campus Camp we train participants in the nuts and bolts of
effective and democratic community organizing campaigns. We train participants how
to enlarge the range of people in our communities who participate in making our society’s
key decisions. In the words of Marshall Ganz, we train people who normally don’t have
a lot of power and influence how “to use what they have to get what they need to get
what they want.”
For the 2021-22 academic year, the California Campus Camp is a series of 3 hour "cafe"
webinars that spread our learning and practice out over the whole winter quarter providing
plenty of time to engage in organizing and leadership training over the digital format.
Register Now to Get Zoom Access links. The California Campus Camp Cafes take place each Thursday from 6 to 9 pm, will feature
some of the most exciting organizing initiatives taking place in California and throughout
the nation, with guest presentations by some of the most pre-eminent community organizers
of our time. Topics covered will include organizing around affordable housing, climate
justice and resilient communities, careers in organizing and advocacy, workers rights
and union organizing, effective electoral organizing, and youth and student empowerment/leadership,
break-through progressive leadership from the AAPI community, women of color taking
decisive action.
Even better, participants will engage in collaborative cohort learning to take action
RIGHT NOW in the setting of California's Community Colleges. Yes! Hands-on learning
that you can apply immediately to make progress creating more just and sustainable
and empowering experiences in your everyday lives where you live, work and learn.
If you'd like to join the next California Campus Camp, contact Camp organizers and
leaders:
Check out our promo video that shows what we do when we are in-person!
Someday we will get back to this!
