We are very excited to announce the launch of our new Movement Technology Fellowship (MTF). In partnership with the socially-oriented tech firm Devlabs, this 9-month long program is training organizers from two of our collaborative partners who understand their communities, but want to learn how to leverage technology to increase their organization’s impact. The program begins this month and will train fellows in developing their technical capacity with a focus on:

web and admin fundamentals,
online organizing, and
a shared collaborative-wide ‘Partner Portal’.

Fellows will work on immediate solutions to technical and technological problems within their organizations and will identify long-term goals to enhance organizing.

From Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), Daniel Mendoza is a community organizer who believes in helping systems-impacted young people and knows that when it comes to social injustice, criminalization and the impact certain communities absorb, the people in those communities are best fit to find the solutions. Daniel sees this fellowship as an equalizer as many tech skills traditionally have not been offered to people of color living in lower-income communities. He looks forward to not only increasing his marketable skills, but also helping CURYJ grow, to engage and expand their outreach work, improve their data and information collection, and better utilize their social media, website, and CRM platforms.

Also from CURYJ, Josh Stokes is a Youth Art Fellow who co-organizes events, manages art projects, and speaks at local events. Through the Fellowship, Josh is excited to work on ways of promoting community art and leveraging it as an organizing tool, acquiring more digital art skills, digital organizing skills, and continue learning to code, something he started during high school.

Through the Fellowship, Josh, Daniel, and CURYJ envision enhancing their research and data digital infrastructure, hold trainings on effectively using databases and digital systems for community members, streamlining referrals for resources, using online surveys, and leveraging art as an organizing and resistance tool.

From Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), Luri Chen conducts outreach to schools and organizations and coordinates Know Your Rights workshops for immigrants in our communities. As an immigrant who understands the fear and the feeling of being unwelcomed, this work is personal for Luri. She is also part of MUA’s fundraising team where she is learning how to manage donor data using Salesforce, encountering various challenges as she works to find more efficient ways to import and export information and produce insightful reports about their donors’ giving.

Also from MUA, Maria de Lourdes Reboyoso is a graduate of MUA’s Leadership and Grassrooots Fundraising trainings and served as MUA’s first Grassroots fundraising Intern until joining their staff in 2014. Lourdes plans and coordinates MUA’s member-led fundraising events, implements individual donor outreach, and initiates new fundraising strategies. She develops the understanding and leadership of MUA members in fundraising work through workshops, trainings, supervision of an active volunteer committee, and one-on-one engagement.

Through the fellowship, both Luri and Lourdes hope to increase MUA’s impact by creating a digital platform that contains a record of services provided to members so that they can assess the effectiveness of their programs, learn ways to improve their services, and discover which communities could benefit most from their outreach to increase participation. As an organization, they envision technology increasing their impact as well as folks’ access to MUA’s services around domestic violence, sexual assault, and know your rights workshops. Moreover, they aim to implement an accessible and easy organizational system that they can train MUA staff members on how to use.