GLIDE Social Justice Academy (SJA)
(SJA) serves as a community learning center, catalyzing the wisdom and expertise of those impacted by systemic inequities.
GLIDE’s Center for Social Justice regularly convenes a Social Justice Academy (SJA): a cohort of talented fellows who have in-depth lived experiences with struggle and crisis. We spend 18-24 weeks engaging them in project-based learning: teaching them about public policy, communications, and advocacy.
They get to learn first-hand how decisions made by local and state leaders affect everyday life, and meet lawmakers in San Francisco City Hall and Sacramento. Our Social Justice Academies are community learning centers, catalyzing the wisdom and expertise of those impacted by systemic inequities.
What You Learn in the Social Justice Academy
- How to implement tools of community-based research,
- How to engage in community organizing
- How to view your lived experience as policy expertise
- How to advocate to positively influence public understanding of and government investments in pressing social issues.
Our curriculum focuses on community engagement and systems change processes that center impacted communities’ strengths and specific needs. Fellows gain the skills to advocate for evidence-based policies and practices that interrupt cycles of marginalization, poverty, and oppression. Our workshops cover:
- systems change models,
- California’s legislative and budget processes,
- advocacy through traditional and social media,
- And so much more!
Fellows dive deep into a policy issue area of their choice and design a community-based research project addressing a problem in that issue area. Employing a variety of data collection methods such as surveys, focus groups, interviews, and secondary data analysis, the fellows gain insights into community needs and develop their own policy recommendations.
Fellows then use their own lived experiences and the community-based research that they have conducted to develop narratives and share them through public speaking and community advocacy. At the end of each cohort, fellows participate in a graduation and receive a Community Advocacy, Organizing, and Research certificate.
To apply, use this QR code:
