Engagement Organizing and How to Create Change with Erik Pervin

Event Description

"Never do for someone else what they can do for themselves" said Saul Alinsky, prolific community activist and fore-father of Engagement Organizing, a set of practices that blend traditional community organizing with sophisticated analytics and Big Data. Ecology Ottawa has a long reputation of organizing among residents to demand (often successfully) better environmental policies from City Hall. Their success is due in large part to their rigorous adoption of Engagement Organizing, which employ decentralized leadership models and emphasize capacity building, leadership development, and strategic mobilization of large groups of residents from various communities. Join Erik Palvin, as he discusses the basics of Engagement Organizing and Ecology Ottawa's Council Watch program, an example of how this method can be applied. 

Speaker: Erik Pervin

Erik is moved by his love for adventure. Although breathtaking landscapes and urban exploration both serve as outlets for this passion, he envisions a future where these two worlds are more radically integrated. His interest in environmentalism developed while working at Carleton University’s Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Lab (GLEL) and he found his voice advocating for increasingly sustainable business practices as chair of Mountain Equipment Co-op Ottawa’s Environmental Integrity Committee. He now spends a great deal of time working on the administration of Ecology Ottawa, and leads Council Watch.

Ecology Ottawa is a not-for-profit, grassroots and volunteer-driven organization. 

They believe that Ottawa residents are concerned about issues such as climate change, pollution and waste, and that they want sustainable communities where clean energy, air, and water, public transit, active transportation and greenspace protection take priority. They provide residents with the information and tools they need to understand local environmental issues and promote environmental leadership at all levels impacting the City of Ottawa.

Format: Webinar, from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, 26th May, 2020