Learn to organize,build movements.

My name is Phillip Meintzer and I work as a campaign organizer with Coalition for Responsible Energy (C4RE), which includes ordinary Albertans, rural landowners, scientists, and a number of Indigenous, environmental, human health and civil society organizations.

The coalition formed around a shared concern about the ongoing failure of Alberta’s energy regulator to provide safe, orderly, and environmentally responsible energy development. C4RE demands sweeping changes to the way the fossil fuel industry is regulated in Alberta to prioritize the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Communities, Alberta’s ecosystems, and the public.

Many of the groups involved with C4RE were not experienced in the work of grassroots organizing or the tasks required to do so. Which is why I enlisted the services of the Organizing Hub to help introduce C4RE members to the work of organizing, and to help us refine and focus our first campaign.

Across two workshops with Le Hub, their facilitator introduced C4RE members to some of the fundamentals of organizing, including theories of change, ladders of engagement, escalating campaign tactics, and the importance of narrowing down our “mountaintop” goals.

It was an incredibly informative experience for our coalition, as it gave us some much needed direction as we mapped out our first campaign over the following months - which officially launched on May 27, 2025.

The sessions were run efficiently and effectively, and the workshop materials were easy to access and understand. One of the most valuable pieces of Le Hub’s workshops was having a third-party group provide the instruction, which gives it a sense of legitimacy or credibility, rather than someone within the coalition trying to convince others about the necessity of organizing.

The Organizing Hub is such a valuable resource for grassroots climate and social justice organizers. I have been actively involved in climate organizing for the last eight years. I am a member of For Our Kids Toronto, a chapter of a nationwide group of parents and caregivers who advocate for climate justice. I am also currently co-chair of Toronto Climate Action Network (TCAN), an umbrella organization of over 70 grassroots climate organizations across Toronto. Through my early years as an activist, I learned primarily from other activists and, through trial and error, from my own experiences. With the Organizing Hub, however, grassroots activists now have a dedicated organization that can take their organizing to the next level.

The For Our Kids Toronto team benefitted from an Organizing Hub session focused on how a campaign can help recruit and retain members when focused on a particular goal, target, and concrete ask. This led to a discussion of capacity and the importance of having a “menu of actions” that teams can choose to create or participate in. Throughout this session, I appreciated the facilitator’s openness to listening to participants, her commitment to meeting activists where they are and supporting them on their journey.

I later attended another two-session course on recruitment and retention with activists from a range of climate and social justice organizations. These sessions provided engaging opportunities to interact with others and brainstorm ideas. They also came with a wealth of resources which synthesized research on movement building, distilled best practices for organizing, and provided many tangible real-world examples.

I have returned to the Organizing Hub resources again and again – and learn something new and valuable every time. The Organizing Hub makes activism accessible – and we need that more than ever. I only wish I had had access to the Organizing Hub when I began my journey as an activist.