Training Agendas

Trainings in a Trump Era

Here are off-the-shelf training agendas to use and adapt to your own needs.

Skill-Based Training Modules for Trump Era

Strategic Escalation in a Trump Era
120-minute training

Strategic Escalation in a Trump Era
120-minute training

Goals:
* Understand different of actions: symbolic actions, noncooperation (omission), disruption (commission), and alternative cooperation
* How to be more powerful in action design, from humorous street theater to dilemma actions
* Discuss how tactics may shift under a Trump Presidency
* Touch on action safety and maintaining discipline

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Sense-making and Vision: how did we get here?
120-minute training

Sense-making and Vision: how did we get here?
120-minute training

Goals:
* preparing people emotionally to be ready to fight back (emotional triage),
* girding people for the long fights ahead by making people feel part of a large resistance community (how to organize under the new threat),
* orienting towards our next steps (you can adapt this to your design — here we’re introducing the “Block and Build” strategy).

This design requires some adaptations for your group, including your specific plans next and some chances for leadership to openly reflect on what they’re taking away from this moment. (People will want to hear from you!)

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Action Security and De-escalation
120-minute training

Action Security and De-escalation
120-minute training

Goals:
* how to make actions safer before, during and after an action;
* de-escalation with people on our side and opposition.

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How to talk with people you might disagree with
120-minute training

How to talk with people you might disagree with
120-minute training

Goals:
* Learn skills for bridging with unlikely allies:
– reframing condemnatory ways of communicating
– intro to Race/Class Narrative
– asking open ended questions
– sharing personal narratives
* Committing to at least one place where we will practice (e.g. public invitations or deep canvassing or…).

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Mutual Aid 101
120-minute training

Mutual Aid 101
120-minute training

Handouts: Mutual Aid 101 Handouts

Goals:
* Understand what mutual aid is and why people do it
* Know the initial steps of starting your own neighborhood pod
* Learn about Pod Mapping
Have additional resources for your own mutual aid work

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Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence
120-minute training
by HOPE-PV

Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence
120-minute training
by HOPE-PV

This module comes from the HARNESSING OUR POWER TO END POLITICAL VIOLENCE (HOPE PV) materials. Make a copy of this slide deck for your presentation (and make it shareable, so your participants can participate in editing it).
Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence.pptx
Facilitator Guide: HOPE PV FET Facilitators Guide

Goals:
* Build understanding of the contours of political violence, especially in our own contexts
* Awaken imagination about how we might assertively respond in the face of threats or acts of political violence
* Explore concepts that can help us identify and undermine political violence
* Practice tools and approaches you can use at home right now or in a moment of crisis
* Connect with others who are also working to interrupt political violence
* Celebrate the ways our communities have creatively resisted political violence

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Outdated Trainings (Pre-Election)

Group Scenario Planning
3-hour training

Group Scenario Planning
3-hour training

Your group explores possible scenarios for what might happen if Trump is elected to step into how those scenarios might feel, and to experiment with ways the group might show up. Download the Facilitator Guide.

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What Do I Do if Trump Wins
90-minute training

What Do I Do if Trump Wins
90-minute training

Handouts: Personal Plan if Emergency (link to share with participants)

Goals:
* Building personal “break glass in case of emergency” plan — identifying behaviors to do if Trump wins to support my personal self

Includes emotional resilience tools, tools to prioritize energy, broadest introduction to what Trump might do, and resources to explore these themes further.

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Outdated Trainings (Immediately After Election)

Emergency Call: We Won’t Go Back
120-minute mass call

Emergency Call: We Won’t Go Back
120-minute mass call

Goals:
* preparing people emotionally to be ready to fight back (emotional triage),
* girding people for the long fights ahead by making people feel part of a large resistance community (how to organize under the new threat),
* orienting towards our next steps (you can adapt this to your design — here we’re introducing the “Block and Build” strategy).

This design requires some tweaks to your group’s approach. Since this is a huge chance for absorption, we suggest including that as well at the end.

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Staff Call After a Harris Concession: Regroup to Fight Back
90-minute staff call

Staff Call After a Harris Concession: Regroup to Fight Back
90-minute staff call

Goals:
* preparing people emotionally to be ready to fight back (emotional triage),
* girding people for the long fights ahead by making people feel part of a large resistance community (how to organize under the new threat),
* orienting towards our next steps (you can adapt this to your design — here we’re introducing the “Block and Build” strategy).

This design requires some adaptations for your group, including your specific plans next and some chances for leadership to openly reflect on what they’re taking away from this moment. (People will want to hear from you!)

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There are more of us: community gatherings
2-hour community gatherings

There are more of us: community gatherings
2-hour community gatherings

These are designed as in-person trainings soon after a Harris concession. People invite their supportive families/friends and use this training to lick their wounds. Designed so it can be successfully facilitated by anyone.

Handouts: Community Gathering Handouts

Goals:
* Strengthen community spirit for what’s ahead
* Give voice to our emotions in these times
* Share plans on what we want to offer each other going forward

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Additional Resources
How to Facilitate Online
Resource	Type	Authorship	Language
Leading Groups Online: your essential guide to leading online courses, meetings, trainings, and events	Book	Daniel Hunter and Jeanne Rewa	English, Spanish, Polish, Chinese, Korean
Online Training Monster Manual – tools for online training and facilitation	Google slides of tools	350.org	English
Tools for Online Training	Online Tools	Training for Change	English, Spanish
Training for Change’s Online Trainings	Workshops	Training for Change	English, Spanish
Legal Rights
Know Your Rights / Know Your Risks Trainings	Guides	National Lawyers Guild	English
Know Your Protestors’ Rights	Guides	ACLU	English, Spanish
Right to Protest in multiple countries	How To’s	Activist Handbook	English
Learning about Autocracy & Trump
10 ways to be prepared and grounded in Trump wins	Article	Choose Democracy	English
The Authoritarian Playbook and The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025	Reports	Protect Democracy	English
Democracy is a Verb: International lessons on fighting full-blown authoritarianism	Articles and Interviews	Waging Nonviolence	English
Anti Authoritarian Podcast	Podcast	22ci	English
Bringing Down a Dictator	FIlm	International Center for Nonviolent Conflict	English, Arabic, Spanish, and many more
A Force More Powerful – a documentary series on how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule (India, USA, South Africa, Denmark, Poland, Chile)	FIlm	International Center for Nonviolent Conflict	English, Spanish, and many more
What will you do if Trump wins?: a pick-your-path book	Book	Choose Democracy	English
Digital Security
Security in a box	How To’s	Frontline Defenders	English
Digital Security for Activists	How To’s	Activist Handbook	English
Doxxing Prevention Resources	How To’s	Information Ecology	English
Physical and Digital Security Resources
Data & Communications OpSec Best Practices	Checklist / Discussion Document	Created for FBT	English
Physical and Digital Safety Providers and Funds	List of Who to Contact	Trusted Elections Fund	English
Mediation
Social Movements and Mediation	Training	Lisa Shirch, USIP	English