12 months ago, I launched my business of training people to be more effective advocates for the issues they care about– particularly transit, biking, and street safety; and I started consulting for advocacy groups. Transportation is foundational to our society and the daily-lives of everyone in it– but our system is in serious need of change. How people and goods get around is our largest source of emissions and dangerous roads lead to over 40,000 people being killed in traffic violence each year. So I started my business with the goal of helping build out the army of advocates working across the country to fix this problem from every angle. 1 year into this endeavor, I wanted to take a moment to reflect and look ahead.
Results to date:
People trained via one-on-one, private group sessions and workshops: 153
People trained via free group webinars: 261
Total states and provinces where trainees reside: 41
Transportation-related events organized: 11. 3 state senate candidate meet-and-greets, 1 holiday bike ride along with my city councilmember, a training for candidates on how to use transportation issues to win, Safer Streets Smarter Spending for Oakland petition delivery, Safer Streets Smarter Spending for Oakland victory(ish) party, California High-Speed Rail panel, Transit Stops Drunk Driving Happy Hour, the inaugural “Rosie Ride”, Invest in Transit Accessibility rally, “Freedom to Ride: Transit and the Justice System.” Plus, a handful of more direct-action events.
Victories helped achieve: Reversing Governor Newsom’s $4B in proposed transit cuts and winning a $1B expansion in transit funding. Held off cuts to Oakland’s Department of Transportation during a record city-wide budget shortfall and won ~$3M in additional funding. Commitment from the Mayor of Oakland to start building a protected bike lane on Lakeshore Ave in 2024.
Special projects for getting out trainings to more people in more ways:
I signed a book deal with Island Press! I’m writing a how-to book on transportation advocacy that will be on shelves in the Fall of 2025!
Since not everyone likes to learn via books or training sessions, I co-created a board game where people can learn the ins and outs of political organizing- it’s called “Beyond the Ballot” and the newest round of playtesting is going on now.
Reflections and improvements on the business:
When I first started out, I offered personalized one-on-one sessions, small group trainings, and projects-based consulting. My original expectation was that my training session workflow would be similar to a personal trainer, therapist, barber, etc where I’d build out a roster of 20-60 clients I’d see on a weekly/monthly/bi-monthly basis. One year in, it’s clear that it’s more like a mechanic or plumber. Clients work with me over a small number of sessions to help them through a logjam or kick start their effort and then they are set for a while.
To better serve this format of short-term & deep need, I’ve expanded to offer customized workshops and standard workshops. My two standard workshops are “How to build a coalition and win bigger” and one for helping volunteers within an organization take on their own campaigns to amplify the organization’s impact without needing to ramp up staffing.
I am also expanding my consulting services and have helped organizations draft campaign strategies and a few other projects.
Though I’ve had good initial success with clients paying for their own sessions and funding from groups for contract work, I was expecting a bit more activity from the donor-front. The transportation advocacy world is under-supported by major donors, foundations, and corporations. I was hoping to carve out a niche where people could donate to cover the training costs of advocates working on an issue the donor cared about (e.g. a busy professional who wants biking to be safer in their area would donate and cover the training costs of someone who has the time and energy to put into bike advocacy in that area). I have built out a list of advocates who’d like free training personalized sessions, but I haven’t cracked the funding side of the equation yet.
Also, last year I dipped my toe into the effort to find corporate sponsorships, but I haven’t done a full-court press on the issue. I hope the people Blue Bird, Gillig, Siemens, Urban Arrow, etc are already helping fund transit & bike advocacy (after all, the other side does). Maybe the coming year is the year I make those connections.
What’s next.
The big things in the next 12 months are:
Write the book! I have a very thorough outline, the first two chapters drafted, and am scheduling a dozen or so interviews.
Playtest the advocacy training board game and find a publisher for it.
Host monthly free group trainings
Expand workshop offerings and consulting services. It’s an election year, so there’s a lot of opportunity for transportation advocates to make their mark this year.
Keep providing one-on-one and small group training sessions
It is hard to imagine what the coming year will look like exactly, but there are some things I know for sure. I know that our climate will keep destabilizing and the need to transform our transportation system will grow even bigger and more urgent. I also know that I’ll keep doing whatever I can to scale up my advocacy and help others do the same. We won’t fix all these problems in a year, but the more people we can get to roll up their sleeves and take on leadership in fixing these problems– and the more support we can all provide those people– the sooner things will be better.
Need help winning better transit service and/or safer streets? I’m here to help! Whether you want a 1-on-1 training session or a group workshop, let’s talk. Email me at Carter@carterlavin.com to set something up. Here’s a bit about what training sessions are like.
Free upcoming online events
2/21 @ 5:30pm PT— Transit Activism Training: “How to make your transit fantasies reality” in special partnership with the “The Transit Guy” Hayden Clarkin, founder of TransitCon. Learn more and register here.
Millions of Bay Area voters are about to get their March 5th Primary ballot and I’m pleased to have helped lead the effort on the “Transportation Questionnaire” which got responses from 65 candidates across the 9 County Bay Area! You can view the responses by region here: East Bay Candidates, North Bay Candidates, Peninsula Candidates, San Francisco Candidates, and South Bay Candidates. The project was co-led with SPUR, Seamless Bay Area, San Francisco Transit Riders, Silicon Valley Bike Coalition, and Bike East Bay
Want to take a peek behind the curtain of this advocacy training work? Sign up for my monthly newsletter here.
Interested in sponsoring the training of an activist working on an issue you’re passionate about? Let’s chat. Carter@carterlavin.com