The Gamaliel Foundation brings an array
of resources to groups committed to creating powerful citizen
organizations. It provides its affiliates with the tools to
train and develop leaders and staff.
For our affiliates we offer:
A Well-Developed Methodology:
We teach techniques and methodologies
that have worked in rural, urban, suburban, Black, Hispanic and
working-class communities. Leaders in our network work from a
plan that consistently brings results. Leaders that contract
with the Gamaliel Foundation are able to move quickly from a
loose coalition of neighborhood institutions to a powerful force
capable of organizing thousands of people to coalesce and
prevail on major issues.
Ongoing Consultation:
The Gamaliel Foundation provides ongoing consultations with
monthly visits, weekly phone meetings and hands-on participation
in the strategic planning process of each member organization.
We provide talented and diverse consultants with many years of
experience in their fields.
Organizer recruitment Program:
The key to success of most organizing
project is a committed and talented organizing director.
Gamaliel has an ongoing program to recruit diverse and
professional people to staff its affiliates. The Foundation
prides itself on its record and its capacity to attract women
and minorities to this profession.
For the leaders of our affiliates we
offer:
National Leadership Training:
This is a seven (7) day residential training event that presents
the basic concepts and tools needed to be an effective leader.
It affords a person the opportunity to reflect on his/her
present and future potential roles in the public arena. The
method is Socratic. The style is agitational. This training is
offered four times each year in the Untied States and three
times each year in South Africa.
Clergy Training:
We conduct a three (3) day program once annually for clergy
whose congregations are members of an affiliate organization.
This training is conducted by and for clergy. These men and
women are faced with balancing the demands of maintaining their
own institutions while at the same time addressing issues of
justice and community concerns. This training includes tools,
concepts and methodologies for becoming effective in both
realms, while providing a supportive network of clergy
experiencing similar dilemmas.
Advanced Training: A three (3) day program offered once
annually to 75 top leaders. This program is designed to
challenge and equip leaders to assume major responsibilities
with their organizations. Advanced training participants leave
equipped to return to their communities and to do power
analysis, cut issues, conduct major actions, create a core team
or run a major fundraising event.
Ntosake:
The word comes from South Africa and means
"She who walks with lions and carries her own things." This
is a women’s leadership training program conducted by and for
women. It is designed to present ideas and concepts for becoming
effective and powerful leaders. It also provides a support
network for women. The program is designed to help women
overcome the internal and external obstacles faced on the
journey to becoming powerful and effective leaders.
Local Training:
These are training programs conducted twice a year in the local
setting of each of Gamaliel’s affiliates. These trainings are
usually day-long or weekend sessions. Each of the 80 sessions
attracts 50 to 200 leaders. The trainings either introduce new
leaders to the basic concepts of organizing or develop, for
established leaders, specific skills around outreach, voter
registration, power analysis and recruitment.
For the professional staff of our
affiliates
Organizers Retreat:
This is an annual event for all the
professional organizers of the network. Senior organizers lay
out the concepts and tools utilized by organizers in this field.
Experts from related field also address the gathering. Most
importantly the retreat affords the organizers the opportunity
to learn from one another.
Staff Development Sessions:
Two times each year all organizers gather
to discuss certain key aspects of this work. Topics include
cutting metropolitan wide issues, raising and managing funds,
recruiting members, developing leaders, etc.
Training of Trainers:
This is a two (2) day program offered
annually to organizers. It enables the Foundation to
develop a skilled and diverse team of trainers.
For clergy, other key leaders, and
professional staff of the network
National Leadership Assembly:
In December of each year, five hundred
of the leaders and staff of the network gather to learn from
each other, participate in workshops conducted by top academic,
religious, political and labor experts, and map out a strategy
for the coming year. At the assembly decisions are made around
addressing major issues and expanding the network to new areas.
The various components of the network, the National Clergy
Caucus, Ntosake, Gamaliel’s board of directors, and the staff
meet together to make commitments for achieving goals for the
coming year. Our major allies such as politicians, bishops,
authors, and key staff from foundations are also in attendance.
A Learning Organization
Ours is an environment for learning,
nurturing and growth, where relationships are developed through
a daily exchange of ideas and experiences. An intangible, but
perhaps most invaluable commodity of the Gamaliel Foundation is
the mutual support of the leaders and organizers as they engage
in the work of creating healthy communities. The Founding
Fathers of this country wanted there to be a "robust debate in
the market place of ideas". And so it is with us.