Step 3: Start your career in social change
Our graduates have the training and experience necessary to work at some of the nation’s top social change organizations. And after you graduate, we’ll connect you with activist groups who are looking to hire organizers. If you join us, by this time next year you could be raising grassroots support alongside the biggest change-makers in America.
Here are some of the groups that have hired our graduates in the past:
- Common Cause: Nonprofit, nonpartisan citizen's lobbying organization promoting open, honest and accountable government.
- Planned Parenthood: Providing safe reproductive health care across America, and advocating to protect and defend women’s reproductive rights.
- MoveOn.org: Working to bring ordinary people into politics by taking stands on policy issues, advocating for campaign finance reform and supporting candidates.
- Jobs with Justice: Leading strategic campaigns to make concrete advancements for workers’ rights and an economy that benefits everyone.
- Global Zero: Working to build the international movement toward a world without nuclear weapons by stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and securing all nuclear materials.
What social change leaders are saying about Change Corps:
"Long-lasting social change simply doesn't happen without organizing. I’m thrilled that Change Corps is passing on the secrets of the trade to a new generation of activists."
—Eli Pariser, Co-Founder, Upworthy; former President,
Moveon.org
"If we organize, we can change the world. We need trained organizers to support the strategies, skills and culture to make this change. That is why we founded Midwest Academy. Change Corps will add to our number and growing forces.”
—Heather Booth, Founder, Midwest Academy
"Knowing the track record of the people behind this program, I expect that in the years to come, the list of our country's most effective young organizers will be peppered with the names of Change Corps graduates."
—George Goehl, Executive Director, National
People's Action
"We live in a wonderful, terrible country, and everyone who isn't lying to themselves or others knows it. Fantastic people, shameful policies. Amazing amount of talent, and yet too many people's life chances are determined at birth. So many unbelievably
funny people to meet and work with, and so much work to do. The smartest, most talented, funniest and hardest-working people I know are all organizers. Change Corps will give you a running start. As Woody Guthrie always said,
'Take it easy, but take it.'"
—Dan Cantor, Working Families Party
"The rallying cry of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress was Amandla! Awethu!—Power! To us! Change Corps, founded in the spirit of that philosophy, can help us learn that the power to change the world is in our hands, hearts and minds, if only
we will dedicate ourselves to the struggle for justice and to learning the time-tested tools of organizing and resistance."
—Si Kahn, organizer and musician; author, "Creative Community Organizing: A Guide for Rabble-Rousers,
Activists and Quiet Lovers of Justice"
"I know the people behind Change Corps. They're smart, strategic and know how to organize. We need more people like them, and I'm looking forward to meeting and working with the graduates of the Change Corps program for years to come."
—Adam Ruben, former
Political and Field Director, MoveOn.org
"Change Corps allows organizers and activists to develop vital skills while fighting in the trenches. This is a unique opportunity to build alliances and make a difference in many communities all in one year."
—Greg Speed, President, America Votes