Digital organizing learning curves

We’re back with another story from the Fellowship! This week’s interview is with Fellows from Florida for All. While writing this, I went to their website and the first thing that popped up for me said this: we are the heroes we’ve been waiting for. The way I audibly said, “YASSSS!”

It’s not only a good line, but it describes the vibe of the conversation that I had with the organizers at Florida for All. As you dig into this interview, I think you’ll pick up on that. As well as the intentionality that each of these folks put into the work they do. 

What I really want to highlight is the honesty that the Florida for All Fellows brought to this conversation. I want to tell a good story as much as the next comms person, but the goal isn’t a perfect story. We spent quite a bit of time talking about the challenges of integrating digital tactics into your organizing, especially for the first time. The learning curve is real and trust me, as a Fellowship alum myself, there were so many times I thought: I have no idea what I’m doing.

This is something that Kairos Organizing Team anticipated. They have set up office hours, supplemental workshops, and are entirely open to connecting with Fellows 1 on 1 through the duration of the program to make sure Fellows don’t stay stuck. 

In talking with Florida for All, it was clear they are trying despite the learning curves and are using all of the resources they can to win for their communities.

Take a read through below for the full story.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Jelani: Thank you for taking the time to chat with me about Florida for All and the Fellowship. Can each of y'all introduce yourself, names, pronouns, and then what work you do at Florida For All?

Christy: Christy Foust, she/her pronouns. I'm the Tampa Bay Theory of Change organizer for Florida for All. Florida for All as a whole is a statewide coalition and the Theory of Change organizers feed local information up to the coalition.

Justin: Justin Atkins, he/him pronouns. I am the Theory of Change organizer for Palm Beach and Broward counties and also our electoral manager.

Erica: Erica Gomez Tejeda, she/her/ella. I am the Director of Special Projects as well as the local Theory of Change organizer for Central Florida. I get the privilege of working on the organizing program and supporting our Organizing Director, Chanae. I also support our leadership development through the Path of Power program with Bruce, our Deputy Director.

Chanae: Chanae Jackson, she/her pronouns. I am the Organizing Director and temporarily the regional Theory of Change organizer for Alachua and Duval County. For me, it's all things organizing. So: strategy, events, coordination in the field, field activities. I'm the point of contact for organizing directors coming from our partner organizations. I field some of the questions as it relates to the electoral program and meshing together our constituencies with our partners. And then I do the distributed work, which is actually creating a footprint and offering resources to the counties that we don't have a footprint in.

Nadeska: Hello, my name is Nadeska, she/her/ella. I run communications for Florida for All. And communications for us is very much focused on narrative alignment and using stories to build power for our communities.

Danni: Danni Adams, she/her. And I am the Black constituency organizer for Florida for All.

Jelani: We are two sessions into the fellowship. What have you learned so far that has impacted your work or the way you think about your work?

Justin: Just like Chanae said, the takeaways have been more difficult to apply practically. But it has got me to start thinking about campaigning in a digital space. I’ve been thinking about the Fire It Up app — where you can go in and organize and canvass people on Facebook. I’m thinking about digital when it comes to fieldwork versus literally just what does a field plan look like? It's layered with digital components as well.

Ericka: I've really found the office hours a very helpful space. And the learning curve for me is working with anything outside of Facebook. So having somebody to walk through what the pieces of what we learn in the Fellowship mean on a day-to-day basis is helpful.

Nadeska: What caught my attention about Kairos when I first heard about it was this whole idea of rethinking our relationship to the digital space. I see that's the direction that we're going in — at this point in the Fellowship it just feels like we're still at the beginning stage of that. But I also think just having the language to talk about it is helpful. I love the “one-two punch.” We know we want multiple touch points in all these areas that we're in. Having this way of talking about how to marry the digital and the on-the-ground work — I find that helpful.

Danni: Last week I was able to use the Kairos Fellowship materials quite a bit after we had the messaging training. We actually took a moment to look into the assessment that Kairos did around the social media platforms. If I was to input my little spin on it, I would probably have included which platforms cater to more Black and brown folks and how they are using it based on communities. But I was able to use the assessment and it helped shape some of the things that I'm working on and trying to finalize in my program.

Jelani: I really appreciate y'all being honest and I know that y'all have had varying experiences with the fellowship so far, but can you describe the communities that you are working in? How do you see digital organizing working and winning for them?

Justin: I would definitely say communities that are minority communities, specifically Black and brown folks. I'm looking at digital organizing as a tool to combat a narrative that has been proliferated amongst Black men. So I think where folks are online, and [digital organizing] is an opportunity for us to be able to combat harmful ideology and hopefully turn around some of that thinking.

Chanae: We are fighting to organize our Black spaces, our immigrant spaces. For me, I live in a college town, so our student spaces. 

Christy: For me, I'm thinking of our partners and the communities they represent. So we definitely have organizations that represent AAPI and Hispanic communities. Then we've got folks that are focused on more environmental issues. I'm always thinking about what to consider when we're approaching new partners, when we're going into these new neighborhoods, and making sure that we set impacted folks in the front. Digital organizing is super helpful for just getting the word out about what we're trying to do. Same story for partners, as well – using digital to stay connected with their communities, keeping them updated, keeping them connected, keeping them engaged, but also recruiting and organizing new folks as well.

Nadeska: I'm looking at this from a bird's eye view from my position and definitely a specific target that we have this year is reaching 18 to 34 year olds. And so we know they're mostly going to be living in and getting their political information from digital spaces and on social media. We know this group, understandably, has a lot of mistrust and even apathy towards the political process. So I think that is something we need to be really strategic about when we're thinking about our digital organizing.

Jelani: My last question for y'all is: what is the internet good for?

Justin: The internet is good for power.

Nadeska: The internet is good for connection.

Christy: I don't know if I can get this down to a word, but it's good for so much research and building power. I just feel like it's such a useful tool and there's so many things that it can be good for.

Chanae: It's good for information sharing and relationship building. When you have an online presence, people see you and they feel like they know you if you're consistent.

Ericka: Good for building community.

Danni: I think that the internet is good for what Christy said: research. I just want to uplift that. I think it's a great place for storytelling. And I also think the internet is a great place to build trust.

When Justin said “the internet is good for power” everyone on the call went: damn that was good. He spoke it with such clarity and to hear that understanding come through from an organizer working both online & offline is chefs kiss. The internet is good for power. We need to invest in organizing wherever our people are able to contest for power– offline AND the digital realm.