The mission of the Massachusetts Policy and Organizing Leadership Academy (The Academy) is to help leaders and organizations effectively and confidently participate in public life and influence the advancement of social, economic and racial justice.
Remembering Paul Cellucci

Remembering Paul Cellucci

Rest in peace Paul Celluci ,who always responded to poor people’s advocates— as a State Rep, as State Senator, as Lt. Governor, as Governor, as Ambassador. We called his official office in Canada and told a Secretary that an immigrantion lawyer from GBLS needed his official intervention to facilitate a...
Relationships Matter

Relationships Matter

When two hill town girls from Western Massachusetts get together in Florida – they have fun. Jane Swift and I go way back to our roots in Western Mass, to small town politics, to shared values and commitment to social, racial and economic justice as we pursued our separate careers...
Celebrating National Adoption Day - Like many women in this lobbying business I started as a volunteer 45 years ago.

Celebrating National Adoption Day – Like many women in this lobbying business I started as a volunteer 45 years ago.

Like many women in this business, I started as a volunteer. I belonged to an adoptive parent group. We had decided to “do something” about an existing law that forbade the adoption of children across religious lines. Through our parent support network we had learned that more than a thousand...
What People Are Saying

What People Are Saying

More important than ever – positive policy change on the state level. Here’s what professional and volunteer lobbyists and organizers are saying about the newly-released 2018 edition of Lobbying on a Shoestring, by Judith C. Meredith and Margaret E. Monsell: Making effective and lasting change is harder than ever but...
New! 4th Edition of Lobbying on a Shoestring Is Here!

New! 4th Edition of Lobbying on a Shoestring Is Here!

Lobbying on a Shoestring offers a common-sense, practical approach to political action. Premised on the idea that real people should have a real impact on the development of public policy, this powerhouse of a paperback conveys truths about the legislative process and hard-won, strategic insights. The 2018 Revised Edition gets you...
A Found Poem:  from an official training PowerPoint for workers  who screen shelter applicants.

A Found Poem: from an official training PowerPoint for workers who screen shelter applicants.

THE CHILDREN AND I NEED SHELTER – LAST NIGHT WE SLEPT IN A CAR ( Massachusetts found poem)* Where were you sleeping before you slept in the car? How many nights have you spent in the car? Were your children with you? Do you own the car? Do you have the...
Organizing for Change - Reorganizing Your Internal Resources

Organizing for Change – Reorganizing Your Internal Resources

I bet you can think of 10 MORE reasons why your organization might not want to spend the time and energy to reorganize you existing resources in order plan and implement a campaign to promote positive policy change in your town, in your county or in your state. I can...
New Videos from Freedom House + past Highlights

New Videos from Freedom House + past Highlights

Parents on the March: Organizing for Quality Education in Boston Public Schools, June 2012   Gail Snowden, from Freedom House, hosted the recent session on organizing for quality education in Boston and introduces two of Boston’s greatest education advocates and organizers Rep. Byron Rushing and Sarah-Ann Shaw.      ...
The most fun message training ever.

The most fun message training ever.

What kind of story do you tell?  So far, the most “fun” on-site coaching event is a very lively, interactive message development session which  helps volunteer activists and professional advocates learn how to turn a Chicken Little story that people ignore, into a Little Train that Could story, that makes people want to...
What Does it Take to Promote Positive Change in Our Communities?

What Does it Take to Promote Positive Change in Our Communities?

Answer: One person or organization, willing to be a part of a greater network, fueled by a common vision for the right solution.  Individuals, organizations, communities learning from each other, drawing from a comprehensive library of public policy resources and organizing tools.  Leadership Academy Training Programs: Be part of the Academy’s...
Do you have Real Clout?

Do you have Real Clout?

There’s no secret for how to win the policy change you’re looking for, just a series of planning and organizing activities that add up to a campaign.  Start by learning how the policy-making process works: the Real Clout textbook was written to serve as a how-to manual for community activists who,...
Latest entries
Meet the Your MBTA Heroes

Meet the Your MBTA Heroes

Oh to be young and bold again. Susan Blair from the Globe did a terrific job with this series of photos.   The super group was created not by a nuclear accident or super serum, but by an organization from Roxbury called the Alternatives for Community & Environment. According group, it aims to empower low income...
Outstanding! 2000 Young People Rally for Summer Jobs

Outstanding! 2000 Young People Rally for Summer Jobs

They came from all over the state.  Including Lynn. And, after months of prep work and meetings they got a splendid editorial in the Boston Globe (who described the young people as “earnest”  a throwback to Tom Winship we think.) MANY BOSTONIANS over the age of 40 can recall the ease of finding summer employment during their...
The Videos: History and Legacy of Welfare Rights with Frances Fox Piven

The Videos: History and Legacy of Welfare Rights with Frances Fox Piven

Here is Frances Fox Piven telling us all the Occupy movement has set the stage for a resurgence of organizing the poor.  We hope this very special session in the Organizing to Change series gave new organizers and activists in the Boston area a deeper history of organizing in Boston and some inspiration.  Here are...
Leadership Series: Fridays in March

Leadership Series: Fridays in March

WOULD YOU LIKE TO STEP FORWARD? BECOME A LEADER IN THESE HARD ECONOMIC TIMES! Sign up today for the Academy’s March Leadership Program. Build a successful campaign from the ground up for your issue, even now, during the current fiscal crisis. Walk step by step through campaign planning and practice with Massachusetts advocacy and organizing...
Thousand Flowers around the MBTA

Thousand Flowers around the MBTA

STOP the MBTA Attacks on Seniors & People with Disabilities     It seems like a thousand new partnerships and coalitions are popping up all over the place protesting the proposed MBTA cuts and fare hikes – not quite the thousand flowers Chairman Mao was encouraging but apparently that was a misquote anyway . After weeks...
The Path To Change from Mel King and "do something"

The Path To Change from Mel King and “do something”

Those of us who were in attendance at the January 25 session where Mel King shared with us the lessons he learned as an organizer in Boston are still digesting those words of wisdom and trying to integrate them into their work. We are still editing the video we took that night into some 15 minute...
The Cycle of Organizing

The Cycle of Organizing

At the Mass Leadership’s January 25 session called Organizing for Change, Lew Finfer did not have time to walk people through this particular handout  called the Cycle of Organizing. As an introduction Lew writes ……….. Listen Challenge Act Organizing is about listening, challenging people to come forward on their deeply felt interest, and acting together;...
Good grass-roots organizing always beats money, no matter how much,’’ Dukakis said in an interview.

Good grass-roots organizing always beats money, no matter how much,’’ Dukakis said in an interview.

And he’s absolutely right.   This Globe story describes the pressure that the volunteer town officials face as “big money out of town casino developers” move in to get the necessary permissions to build a destination casino in their town. The state’s legalization of casino gambling is putting unprecedented demands and pressures on part-time local officials, calling...
Resisting the Advocates

Resisting the Advocates

The folk at at  Spare Change News are the ones  who got the State House News story out first about the tinyest possiblity that the Governer’s budget may — just may — include some revenue measures.  We particulary appreciate the image of the our good, decent hardworking Secretary of Admininstration and Finance “warding off ” advocates who want...

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