Environmental Justice, Just Transition

Growing Our Popular Education Program

September 9, 2026September 10, 2026By
Collage of photos documenting experiences during the Lideres Campesinas Training-of-Trainers event

Members of Líderes Campesinas participate in a training-of-trainers. Photo credit: José T. Bravo

In 2025, we welcomed 25 skilled organizers from Environmental Justice and Labor movements (plus 3 of our newer staff) to a dynamic, popular education (“pop ed”) Training of Trainers that built powerful relationships and future possibilities while further expanding our trainer corps.

In 2026, many of these new trainers have been utilizing the pop ed skills that they learned to educate and inspire others in their communities and workplaces.  We are so happy to see all these folks making JTA’s empowering curriculum into a vital part of their own good work, sharing knowledge and skills with their colleagues and allies in order to collaborate between campaigns and to activate new organizers.  So we take just a brief moment to celebrate their impressive successes.

Post-training smiles from Valley Improvement Projects and local allies.  Photo credit: José Borroel

Valley Improvement Projects conducted the most recent training, after working really hard on the long-term relationship building necessary to gather a diverse combination of more than 20 participants from public health, union, environmental and health promoter groups from multiple communities.  We are really excited to see where they take it next!

Líderes Campesinas (pictured above), whose members were not able to attend our 2025 Training of Trainers, received their own special instructional experience, custom-tailored to their specific needs thanks to JTA’s José Bravo and VIP’s Bianca Lopez, and then went on to perform 7 trainings that served over 150 people.  They are excited to do many more, and we are cheering them on!

Three people stand before a crowd and a man in a hat points to the whiteboard.

José T. Bravo, of Just Transition Alliance, and Sandra Plascencia and Sydney O’Connor, of United Domestic Workers, host a popular education training. Photo credit: Sabina Borbon

United Domestic Workers really rose above and beyond, self-initiating two more “Trainings of Trainers” (engaging both English and Spanish speakers), and then went on to conduct at least 9 trainings that served nearly 300 people.  Wowza!  Great work!

JTA’s popular education program continues to expand, and we are working to organize many more trainings in 2027.  Stay tuned for more inspiring stories.