Trainings

UCSA offers a wide range of trainings developed by our professional staff. All UCSA Trainings are free of charge and open to UC students, student orgs, clubs, or groups. We invite you to fill out the request form below if you are interested in hosting any of these on your campus or developing a specific training not on this list to fit the needs of your group. These trainings can be stacked together or expanded depending on the time you make available!

How Do I Request A Training?
After you look at the list below, fill out this form to schedule a training. Trainings require advanced scheduling, so please make your training request 2-3 weeks in advance. To contact a trainer directly, look for their contact information on our staff page.

Organizing Tools

Organizing 101 Direct Action Organizing is a means of making students aware of their own power in order to alter the existing power relations to give us concrete wins that improve people’s lives. In order for direct action to be successful, we need to learn the basic principles of organizing. This training provides and introduction to the strategies, tools, and organizing math behind direct action organizing that leads to victories for our communities. Peacekeeper Training: Know Your Rights

Direct actions such as rallies and marches can be unpredictable with the possibility of police violence. In order to be prepared and keep folks safe, we need designated peacekeepers. Peacekeepers, or police liaisons, create a buffer between the crowd and the police, are trained to de-escalate conflict, and communicate levels of risk to participants. In this training you will learn how to be a successful peacekeeper and your basic rights when interfacing with police.

Intro to Organizing Tactics: Base Building You can have a perfect plan, but without a base who is well equipped to advance your campaign’s mission, you will struggle realizing campaign wins. Learning how to get commitment is one of the most important foundational skills in organizing. This training will teach folks the best practices of outreach, recruitment, and provide them with the confidence they need to effectively engage their peers. Without continually building our movement, we cannot achieve the changes we seek.

UCweVote & Voter Registration

Vote Campaign Backwards Planning Building a successful Vote Campaign on your campus doesn’t happen overnight. In this workshop you will learn to set feasible voter registration goals, go through organizing math that will support your efforts, and backwards plan to make your voter registration drive a success! How to Fill Out A Voter Registration Card Filling out a voter registration card is easy right? Surprisingly, a high percentage of voter registration cards are filled out incorrectly and even worse, a large number of people go to the polls thinking they are registered when they are not. Come to this training to learn how to effectively guide someone through a voter registration card. Clipboarding, Canvassing & Class/Org Raps (UCweVote Specific) Clipboarding, canvassing, and group announcements are the primary methods students use to register their peers to vote. Request this training so your volunteers are confident and prepared to register voters. Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Getting students to turn out to Vote is just as important as getting them to register. In this workshop, you will learn best practices for voter education, tools for increasing voter turnout in student communities, and ways to maximize your GOTV efforts on your campus.

Campaign Planning

Theory of Change How to Identify and Tackle Worthwhile Campaigns: A campaign is only is good as its strategy! Before taking action, a successful campaign needs a game plan. In this training, you will learn how to create a long-term vision for your campaign by narrowing down the problem you want to tackle, selecting the values you want to abide, identifying the outcomes you seek and identifying the best strategies to get you there! You will analyze the resources available to you as a student and learn how to turn those resources into power! Power Mapping Decision Makers Power mapping helps analyze current power relationships, determine who/what you need to win (key targets, coalition partners, etc.) and develop a strategy to change the power relationships necessary to win. Our challenge as organizers is to connect the interests of our peers/community with our campaigns or issues. The deeper the commitment, the more likely the capacity and resources made available to build people power! This training will help teach you the value of personal relationships as an important dynamic in social organizing. State of Higher Education: Fund the UC How did California move from a Master Plan to no plan? This workshop outlines how policy and lack of sustainability have threatened the affordability, accessibility and quality of higher education in California and what students can do to fight back!

Strategic Communications

Creating an Invincible Message

Strategic communicators know how to prepare for the harshest critics. Whether it is administration who deny the problem or students who underestimate its urgency, we all have our haters. This workshop will teach you to stay on message, be credible, and preempt your opposition’s argument. It will give you tools to describe the importance of your campaigns so that you can earn attention for your cause.

The Limits & Strategies of Social Media Campaigns

As a college student, you have more access than ever to a social network of your peers. It is tempting to fall back on hashtags and photo campaigns to draw attention to your cause, but this workshop will make the case that regular social media use is not enough. We must equip ourselves to use social media strategically, as a component of a larger campaign plan. This workshop will teach you how to use data and best practices to take your social media use to the next level.

Earning Press Attention (Coverage, Op-Eds, and more)

Our campaigns are meant to win tangible victories for students, but we have another battle to fight in the hearts and minds of people who struggle to value our activism and advocacy. The press is one way we win that battle. This workshop will break down different types of press coverage and give you step-by-step methodology to earn the attention your work deserves.

Legislative Advocacy

The California Legislative Process

This training provides an in-depth view of everything a student or Lobby Corps needs to know about the California legislative process, start to finish. An informed student is better prepared to advocate on legislation that impact their daily lives in the Capitol or across the State. This engaging training ends with students identifying the best times and places to put their advocacy efforts to use.

California Political Realities

Through direct democracy, Californians have placed major initiatives on the ballot. These propositions have real, and sometimes unintended, consequences to the lives of UC students. In this training, we will teach you how to understand and navigate these political realities in California. Don’t worry, we will also cover the fundamentals of California government, so you have the entire landscape.

Legislative Advocacy

Activist Burnout and Self-Care

Are you a full-time student activist? Are you taking on as much as humanly possible? Unlike a regular 9-5, the work of an activist never ends. Activism is not an easy endeavor and can take a toll on you emotionally, psychologically, mentally, and physically without proper self-care. Learn ways to practice self-care, avoid facing burnout, and advocate for yourself!

Privilege and Allyship in Coalition Building

Intersectional coalition building between groups, movements, and identities can be critical to help us realize the change we seek. However, for many, this requires rethinking the oppressive institutional frameworks instilled in us and realize that a true ally, or accomplice, mindset works towards building relationships that are less transactional but rather transformational. This training outlines what part we can all play in our collective liberation.

Interpersonal Communication with Oppression in Mind

This training helps you apply an understanding of different conflict styles (including your own) to how you work with interpersonal conflict in the future. Communication is a critical tool for supporting everyone’s best thinking & contributions, by being aware and interrupting oppressive behaviors. Learn how we can use feelings as a guide to learn rather than controlling our words, actions, and participation.

You Have a Seat at the Table! Student Involvement in the Collective Bargaining Program

As a UC student you have the guaranteed right to sit at the negotiation table, as a third party participant, with UC and Unions representatives as they bargain over issues like wages, healthcare and pensions! In 1979, students won the right for you have a seat at the table! In this workshop, you will learn about the unions that represent UC employees and practice the process of collective bargaining between UC, its employees and students.