Fall and winter are seasons of change, slowing down, celebration, and transition. Like these past months, RoadMap is in our own season of change, as we seek to be even more prepared and impactful in service of powerful movements, alliances, and organizations that advance social justice. We are looking forward to the path ahead and hope you join us!
Emily’s Transition from RoadMap Directorship
In spring 2019, Emily will be transitioning from her role as Director of RoadMap. The Ops team is grateful to Emily for her leadership, dedication, and vision of what RoadMap could bring to strengthening grassroots organizations and the wider social justice movement. It is a bittersweet moment: an ending and a new beginning, an opportunity of growth for RoadMap and an opportunity for Emily to explore a new role in the work. We will be making space in the new year to celebrate her accomplishments, and will bring you updates about RoadMap’s future plans and emerging new leadership. For now, we thank Emily with heartfelt appreciation for creating this powerful network, and making a difference in hundreds of organizations across the movement.
“I’m excited to let you know that in spring 2019 — after nine years— I will transition out of my role as Director of RoadMap. It has been a privilege to help shape and lead this incredible movement organization…I’m also excited for RoadMap, as my departure creates space and opportunities for change — for more leadership at all levels by people of color and especially in the director role; for a tune up or shake up of the ways that our values, strategy, program and practices align; for fresh eyes and hands who can redesign our model and structure to meet the changing needs and opportunities in this dynamic political environment, who can help create a path to greater sustainability and impact.” – Emily Goldfarb
Be sure to read Emily’s full letter announcing her transition.
What RoadMap & Our Clients Accomplished in 2018
This year was and continues to be intense politically: a midterm election season marked by powerful progressive victories alongside intensifying voter suppression along the lines of race and class, the viciousness of continued family separations and powerful movements and direct actions for migrant justice, growing movements to end sexual violence and harassment and the installation of Brett Kavanaugh into the Supreme Court, and so much more. In 2018, RoadMap has served 78 groups and alliances who work on all these critical issues. We are proud to contribute to justice movements across the country and offer support to their bold, brave and creative transformational work.
To serve these hundreds of groups RoadMap grew our network to 93 people, held a national network convening in New York, launched our quarterly “State of the Network” calls, while running 21 public and private webinars and 12 trainings that 1449 people participated in.
Weathering the Storms: This year, we served many groups and alliances through our flagship program, Weathering the Storms. We continued our webinar series, digital security cohorts and rapid response work, and in partnership with AFJ-Bolder Advocacy, RoadMap launched a unique electoral TIPS line, providing Technical Information for Power and Security for groups doing civic engagement and get out the vote work. We launched a webinar and training on combating sexual harassment within social justice organizations with 9to5 and also Amanda Aguilar-Shank of Freedom to Thrive (formerly Enlace); and got clearer on the fact that WTS is not just about combatting opposition attacks – it’s also about reimagining and practicing safety within and across our movements.
Electoral Victories: We’ve heard from many of the groups who have received consulting support and Weathering the Storms (WTS) services that they felt more aware and better prepared to engage aggressively in electoral organizing (with c4s in place), as well as to handle attacks, threats or attempts to disrupt their civic engagement work leading up to and on election day. A few of the groups we worked with are the Orange County Civic Engagement Table (OCCET), CHIRLA Action Fund, Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES), Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), Wisconsin Voices, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Action (PLAN Action), and Colorado People’s Action. Voces de la Frontera ACTION in Wisconsin, a powerful organization and RoadMap client whom we have long admired, and who has experienced numerous attacks in the past, reported “Because of our WTS training, we put measures in place to stay safe and to put our ambitious voter engagement work in motion,” stated Christine Neumann Ortiz.
Updated MHO: My Healthy Organization (MHO), RoadMap’s 360-degree online assessment tool designed for social justice organizations got an important update, as we incorporated a racial justice lens to it – adding a question to every section and its own section as well. In 2019 we will be updating Our Healthy Organization (OHA) as well). We believe a healthy organization/alliance also must be a just organization/alliance and working to dismantle racism and other systems of oppression within and outside our organizations.
Grew Our Operations Team: Our Operations team grew by three more part-time contracted people this year! Stephanie Rodriguez joined us as our Program Manager, Jess St. Louis joined as our Communications Manager, and our accountant imi rashid expanded her role and joined the Ops Team as well.
What’s On The Horizon for 2019:
Beacon Project: The Beacon Project, RoadMap’s program to develop internal agents of change embedded within social justice organizations continues! Seventeen Beacon Fellows are working with their coaches, have attended two webinars, one in person convening, and developed organizational change plans. They will attend a 3-day training in February with co-trainers Mohan Sikka, Ana Perez, and Jaritza Geigel. A final convening will happen in May or June.
Cohorts & Collaborations: In addition to our 8th year running a capacity-building cohort with the Unitarian Universalist Veatch program, RoadMap is partnering with Just Beginnings Collaborative (JBC) on a new capacity building cohort starting in 2019. Just Beginnings Collaborative is a movement building platform designed to initiate, cultivate and fund strategic efforts to end child sexual abuse. We are in conversations about more cohorts and collaborations to come.
Upcoming Report: In early 2019, our collaborative report with RoadMap client, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Shifting Power from The Inside Out, will be released. The report offers a new framework for community-based organizations on the evolution from member-based to member-led organizational structure, culture and practice.At a time when political leaders in the U.S. are using rhetoric and policy to terrorize and silence immigrant communities, Shifting Power demonstrates how we can back immigrant women as the leaders our movements need.
HR & Racial Equity Work: Along with RoadMap consultant Rebecca Johnson, RoadMap is working to implement the Legacy Equity Project, a program to ensure that movement elders can have dignified and sustainable retirements/reduction in work and their organizations can make the transition to new leadership. And we will be releasing a new resource on how racial equity can be embedded in Human Resources policies and practices within social justice and non-profit movement organizations, produced by one of RoadMap’s peer learning clusters that includes Rita Sever, Mala Nagarajan, Scott Lowther, Brigette Rouson and others.
We look forward to more collaborations and thank you for partnering with us this year.
With gratitude for the future,
RoadMap Operations Team
(Alfreda, Brigette, Emily, imi, Jess, Mala, Margi, Mary, Nijmie, and Stephanie)