Every year rural and small town organizers come together for the Rural Caucus & Strategy Session, a day to share incredible organizing from across the state, reflect on our last year and make plans for our rural human dignity movement in the year ahead. And what a year it’s been… full of grief and challenges and courage and creativity!
Register here for the 2021 Virtual Rural Caucus and Strategy Session
The Caucus will look a bit different this year. We will begin at 9 am PST with a morning session focused on reflecting on the work rural Oregonians have done for human dignity and democracy over the last year and planning for the year of community organizing to come! Join us for one or both of the afternoon strategy sessions focusing on building our rural organizing toolboxes. We will close out the Caucus with a performance and conversation with the phenomenal OUT Dance Project, which will perform rural, queer Oregonians’ stories, including stories from folks in the ROP network. You can join us for the whole day or just come to parts of it!
Rural Caucus & Strategy Session Schedule: May 15th, 2021
9-10:30 am PST: Building Community in the Time of COVID: Reflecting on 2020, Planning for 2021
11 am-12:30 pm PST: Defending Our Communities from Detention & Deportation
Join us to learn more about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, ways we can protect each other in at-risk locations like food banks, document rights violations to help with legal defense, organize community pressure to stop deportations, and uplift the leadership of directly impacted people!
1-2:30 pm PST: Organizing for Everyone: Tried & True Tools for Rural Organizers
Join us to build your skills as a rural community organizer and add tools to your organizing toolbox! Together we’ll explore how to build a strong human dignity group and keep it alive and kicking, tools to plan campaigns (not just one-time actions!) that build people power and win, and resources that will help grow your group’s capacity to advance justice and democracy in your community. This workshop is great for new and experienced organizers alike!
5:30-8 pm PST: Closing Celebration: A Performance and Conversation with OUT Dance Project
Save the date (Saturday, May 15th) and register here now!
ROP is committed to making participation in the Rural Caucus & Strategy Session as accessible as possible! We will use closed captioning, provide Spanish or American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation if requested by May 3rd, offer scholarships for long-distance phone calling, allow for regular and frequent breaks throughout the day, and do our best to meet other needs to ensure rural organizers can fully participate. Reach out to us at office@rop.org with any input or questions!
We know there’s nothing quite like the magic of being together in person and the little conversations you have over lunch that spark big ideas. We have started tentatively dreaming about being together in person again before long, and are exploring a possible in-person Caucus this Fall if it’s safe to gather! We’ll keep you updated and we can’t wait to see you, both on screen and in real life. 🙂