Thank you so much to everyone who was a part of our in person Leadership Institute – an immersive, 2-day training experience to develop the leadership of people directly impacted by extreme weather and public health disasters, so that they have the skills, resources, and support needed to build the people power it will take to improve our lives.  We aim to connect with people who don’t yet understand themselves as leaders in order to empower regular folks to take action on the issues that impact their lives.  Oftentimes, the folks around them see them as leaders, though! We bring everyday people into our work as decision-makers and because those experiencing the problems are the experts, and must be part of naming and fighting for real solutions.

This Leadership Institute was special because for the first time since 2019, NJRP hosted an in person two day training.  We know there is no perfect candidate or superhero coming to wave a magic wand and save us – we are the ones we have been waiting for. Members from across the state of New Jersey joined us for a weekend in Atlantic City to develop their leadership and advance our upcoming work. Members attended from across the state – Ocean, Hudson, Somerset, Atlantic, Monmouth, Essex, Burlington, Passaic, Camden, Hunterdon, and Gloucester Counties. We brought folks together across party, race, zip-code and  organizational team because:

• We need a united front of directly impacted leaders so we’re prepared to fight back when big corporations, institutions, and people in power take advantage of our communities and our public crises by profiting from our trauma, pain, and suffering.
• Spending two days together strategizing, training, and learning essential organizing skills will level up our game and strengthen the bonds among our members across the state, so we are ready to face the challenges ahead.
• It’s time to collectively analyze shifting power in NJ under a new Governor, so that we know how to leverage our power to win what we need.

Together we built our abilities to engage in:

• Storytelling as Key to Strategy: Our stories are far more powerful at moving people than facts and stats. We practiced skills to tell your story in a short, impactful way that will move people to action by highlighting your shared vision and values. We also collectively workshopped the almost-final cut of a video project the Not 0ne More team has been working on to invite more folks into our mission to end the overdose crisis.
• State Power Analysis: Based on the people power and resources we have, how can we gain access to, and eventually influence over, our new Governor and key members of the NJ Administration?
• Workshop Sessions: Conversations for Action that Move People and Get Results
  • Getting Curious: How to have compassionately curious organizing conversations when talking to strangers, and people in our lives we want to move to action for the first time.
  • Effective Meetings: How to make the best use of our time when talking amongst ourselves and our teams.
  • The Room Where it Happens: How to hold effective meetings with elected officials, and our allies, about something we want them to do.

We wanted to give a shoutout to our amazing trainers, who flew in from different parts of the country to help us level up our organizing game: LaTanya Lane, Jennifer Ritter, and Jesse Ehrensaft-Hawley! And shoutout to all our amazing trainers who made the time to share their expertise with us, including Joe, James, Doug, Amanda D-R, Jody, and awesome leader-speaker-trainers – Amanda M, Mike, Jimmy, Katie, Kim, Alice, and Jason. And to everyone who came and spoke, participated, journaled, shared, and prepared for a role – thank you for spending your weekend learning new skills and growing together.

Thank you so much to Falcon ReCovery for your sponsorship and support of our training – and to all the members who contributed a scholarship ticket.  You know who you are.

We will be running our 5 hour “ opens in a new windowFundamentals of Organizing,” series 2 – 3 times in 2026.  Don’t miss it, it’s a prequel to the 2 day.  Email opens in a new windowinfo@newjerseyrp.orgcreate new email if you want more information.