The essential framework of knowledge, skills, and critical understanding required to engage in effective, sustainable, and impactful social change.
Activism Literacy moves beyond the initial passion that sparks a movement. It provides the crucial tools to analyze power structures, build strategic campaigns, and foster resilient communities. While passion provides the fuel, literacy is the engine that drives movements forward, ensuring that energy is channeled effectively toward clear, achievable goals. It is the bridge between righteous anger and transformative, lasting victory.
The Tangency Foundation's mission is to serve as a crucial point of tangency between ideas, movements, and resources. Through our work, we've observed that even the most dedicated efforts can falter from burnout, internal conflicts, or strategic missteps without a strong foundation of knowledge. We developed our focus on Activism Literacy to address this gap. We believe that by empowering changemakers with this framework, we help build a more interconnected, effective, and sustainable global activist community prepared to achieve a just and equitable future.
Activism Literacy encompasses several key areas of knowledge and skill. Mastering these concepts empowers individuals and organizations to work smarter, not just harder.
To know where you are going, you must first understand where you have been. This concept involves studying the history of social movements—their triumphs, their failures, their tactics, and their leaders. By understanding historical context, modern activists can learn from past precedent, adapt successful strategies for today's challenges, and avoid repeating the mistakes of those who came before them.
This is the cornerstone of effective activism. It involves moving from reactive protest to proactive, long-term campaigns. This concept teaches activists how to analyze power structures, identify leverage points, set clear goals, and develop actionable plans with measurable outcomes. It ensures that every action, from a social media post to a public demonstration, serves a larger strategic purpose in the fight for tangible victories.
Lasting change is built by and with the community, not for it. This concept focuses on the essential skills required to build broad coalitions, mobilize diverse groups of people, and foster a sense of shared ownership over a movement. It emphasizes the patient work of listening, relationship-building, and empowering local leaders to create a strong, resilient, and unified base of support.
The way a message is communicated can be as powerful as the message itself. Non-violent communication is a critical skill for both internal and external interactions. Internally, it helps movements navigate conflict constructively and maintain unity. Externally, it is a powerful tool for de-escalation, persuasion, and winning allies, ensuring that the movement's conduct reflects the just world it seeks to create.
A movement is only as healthy as its members. This vital concept addresses the human side of activism in the modern age. It includes digital security practices to protect individuals and sensitive information from surveillance and disruption. Critically, it also encompasses self-care and community care practices to prevent the burnout that can prematurely end an activist's journey, ensuring that changemakers can sustain their work for the long haul.
Activism Literacy is the foundation of everything we do. See how we integrate these concepts into our work and support the community through our grants, scholarships, and consulting.
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