A central part of building capacity is providing training to organization members. However, this does not require reinventing the wheel! Using pre-existing materials developed by other groups can help inform strategies for achieving goals without the cost of developing new training resources. For instance, Robi Damelin, an activist with the Israeli/Palestinian group Parent’s Circle/Family Forum, emphasized the benefit of using training resources, documentary videos, and invited speakers, such as “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” mixed with the organization’s internal training content. Damelin noted the significance of learning from other organizations’ strategies, failures, and successes as part of solidifying the work done by Parents and Families of the Bereaved. 

Training can also occur through shadowing and receiving guidance from existing leaders. Bronagh Hinds of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action notes that part of her training of women political leaders consisted of taking them to the United States, where they were mentored by and shadowed women Members of Congress. Likewise, for politicians, training can come in the form of learning from other activists. For instance, Margaret Ward notes that women’s groups helped “skill up” politicians in the Northern Ireland legislature by bringing them together with civil society practitioners and academics to provide guidance about policy issues. Likewise, Saviona Rotley notes that members of Women Waging Peace have participated in workshops given by professionals in strategic planning and other capacities. 

At the same time, development and dissemination of organizational tools contributes to scaling both by helping develop a clear narrative of best practices within a network or across a coalition, and aiding and/or motivating community-based and start-up organizations with similar vision/goals. For instance, the Narrative Project implemented by the Parent’s Circle/Family Forum is a powerful tool that Robi Damelin believes could help the next generation of organizations. The project brings together groups of Israeli and Palestinian individuals to learn one another’s personal narratives and interpreting these within the broader public narratives that are central to Israeli/Jewish and Palestinian culture. Robi Damelin notes that this project could be adapted and used in other contexts where groups are polarized or in conflict: 

This Narrative Project could be a huge benefit to so many other places… Because, I mean, nobody is listening to anybody else anymore. And if there is anything that we can take from the Parent's Circle it's the ability for people to understand that if you don't listen, you don't have to agree, but you must listen.

The experience of the Parent’s Circle/Family Forum suggests that when groups do innovative work, sharing it can be a way to create broader change.

Challenges you may encounter using this tool

• Training, though valuable, can take time away from direct action or other efforts that may have a more immediate impact on the desired social change. Resist the urge to act quickly versus getting the training needed to act intentionally.

• Not all training is good training. Particularly in the digital age, it’s possible that existing materials online are subpar or outdated. Poorly researched materials and old versions of revised documents abound online, so be sure to check the source and age of the material.