Re-Energized and Inspired by Web of Change
By JulieSzabo on 04/24/2014 - 18:42
Contributed by Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez
I didn’t know what to expect at my first Web of Change. As soon as I got on the bus headed to the ranch on the outskirts of Austin, Texas my heart started beating a little faster. The thought of being in the same room with some of the most talented techies, organizers and leaders in the progressive movement seemed overwhelming.
I had never participated in a space where there was absolutely no limitation to what could be achieved. We were free to reimage conventional wisdom, to challenge one another, and to dig deep to find innovative ideas. That alone makes Web of Change an important space for the progressive movement.
Every corner, every coffee break, every walk by the lake was filled with inspirational conversations about race, technology, grassroots organizing, and movement issues. The ability to brainstorm together was an invaluable opportunity for me.
I spend so much of my time and energy focusing on organizational issues, campaigns and fighting back against the right-wing movement in the United States that I barely have time to reflect and think outside the box. I came back to my work as co-director of GetEQUAL reenergized and ready to take our work to the next level.
Web of Change was an important space for me last year and I’m hoping to come back again in 2014. I personally believe that we will only be able to find liberation when we work cross movement and embrace one another’s strengths. The opportunity to share this space with people from other movements helped me explore ideas I had never thought about before. The Web of Change experience was an important moment for my leadership development.
“I’ve worked plenty of places where mentorship was built in in one way or another, but I’ve never felt it as genuinely as I felt it at Web of Change. It was a gift I was not expecting to receive.”
