HE Climate Activist Solidarity Event
In Febuary 2024 Education Climate Coalition hosted a space for London Climate Activist Student & Staff groups to network, share experiences of the last year (what worked? what didn't?), assess where we are now, how we can support one another and look together towards the next year of action!
This event brought together the UCL Climate Activist Network, Imperial Climate Action, Planet Based Universities, JSO Students, Birkbeck Climate Action Network and more!
We developed and practiced, for the first time, the Solidarity Tapestry - where attendees collaborated on a shared piece where we shared our experience, thoughts, struggles and hopes. These elements were then connected, identifying where others have things we need, or we have things that others need.
Get in touch if you’re interested in running this workshop or the Solidarity Tapestry with your community!
Solidarity Tapestry
The Solidarity Tapestry method is simple: attendees are each given a coloured pen (which they will hang onto the whole session!) and split into discussion groups to discuss a topic for a 10-15 minute round. At the end of the round, each attendee writes their personal answer to that question on a large shared paper.
Groups are then shuffled around, so that everyone gets to talk with different people, and the process is repeated.
These questions have the attendees thinking about their past, present and future as activists and members of activist groups:
What we’ve done:
Reflect on your favourite action/work of the past year. Discuss why it’s your favourite, what made it great, what did you acheive, how did it feel?What we need:
What’s been particularly hard in the last year, what’s been the biggest struggle and what do you feel like you/your activist group really needs?What we have:
What skills, resources and strengths do you and your activist group posses?What do we want to do:
What do you want to acheive in the coming year, what are you hopes, vision and goals?
At the end, attendees are then welcoming to come up and thread the tapestry - drawing lines between their answers and other people’s answers in different sections. Doing so, attendees are encouraged to find links between their groups. Groups and individuals can find ways that they have resources that fufill other groups’ needs, aspirations that are similar to previous actions and start to see the ways we can support one anothers’ work and vision.
