“The Student PIRGs team has been an indispensable partner in training practitioners in the student vote space. I’ve worked with the Student PIRGs on dozens of panels and presentations and they bring such thoughtfulness, brass tack ideas, and organizing that have helped hundreds of people.” – Kathryn Quintin, Manager of Census and Civic Engagement at Asian Americans Advancing Justice
For 50 years, the Student PIRGs have been training activists to win victories for students and the public interest. And over the years, we’ve trained an army of organizers and advocates, which is why some people call us the “activist pipeline.” We offer a wide range of skills trainings and issue briefings for our partners, students, and staff. If you are interested in having us run a training for your group, please contact us here.
“Partnering with Student PIRGs on virtual livestream events and webinars provided insight into the advocacy initiatives students can take. It was inspirational to hear and learn about the climate advocacy work the Student PIRGs are doing in communities and on college campuses.” -Eryn Greaney, Programs and Policy Manager, Society for Public Health Education
Featured Trainings:
RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS
This workshop covers how to involve people in a cause and an organization. We’ll cover the best ways to do “retail recruitment” for your campaign, with a focus on petitioning, tabling, door-knocking and calling. It’s the art of one-on-one interaction.
RELATIONAL ORGANIZING
Relational organizing, or peer-to-peer outreach is a critical way to recruit for your campaigns. In this training, trainees will learn how to run a relational organizing block to effectively reach out to their peers across mediums to recruit for their campaigns.
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
Strategy is how you get from here to there, from challenge to victory. We cover the difference between strategy and goals, or tactics and how to develop a handle on an issue. After this training, trainees will know how to craft a strategy to win on issues, and how defining the problem, the policy and their vision relate.
COALITION BUILDING
Winning change is easier when broad constituencies come together on an issue and push for the same solution. During this training, trainees will learn different types of coalitions and how to build one around solving the problem your organization is working to fix. After this module, trainees will also know how to work through coalition dynamics, including negotiating with leaders and managing group decision-making
DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS
Organizing online will build visibility for your campaign and can help engage thousands of people quickly for urgent campaign actions. We’ll walk through the basics of creating digital content that will get attention, engage activists and donors, and build your list, as well as how to evaluate progress and success.
COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA
Working with the media is an effective way to elevate the message of a campaign to the public and decision-makers. In this training, trainees learn how to pitch reporters, organize a news conference, write op-eds and letters to the editor, prep for editorial board meetings, conduct TV interviews, deal with hostile media and craft sound bites.
“The energy, enthusiasm and relevant expertise provided by Student PIRGs was invaluable to our student voting work at SSN. We are grateful for their partnership with FacNet and innovation in communicating the benefit of digital organizing and student voter registration to the health of our campus communities.” – Sam Perlman, Civic Engagement Manager, Scholars Strategy Network
View our full list of trainings
For a toolkit of trainings that you can run on your own, please download our Activist Toolkit.
