Tbilisi, Georgia – Building on the Women’s Leadership School, a program launched in April to increase women’s participation in politics and civil society, the Georgia chapter of the Women’s Democracy Network (WDN) hosted a training for chapter members to increase their capacity to conduct effective advocacy campaigns.

With a focus on providing strategic support for the school and looking toward future activities, WDN trainer Mary Pieschek guided chapter members on establishing effective grassroots campaigns. Pieschek specifically worked with the chapter on how to identify a community’s shared values, set-up grassroots action teams and execute action plans to achieve its objectives.

During the session on how to assess community attitudes, Pieschek stated, “Do your homework, use your market research; know who may object to, or compete with, undermine, or reject your campaign.”

The participant then divided into two working groups for an exercise on applying the skills they had learned and devising a theoretical grassroots campaign. Participants were required to identify a campaign goal, two strategic actions, create roles for volunteer and management teams, develop a communications plan and identify the strongest and weakest bases of community support. Each group then presented their outline for a grassroots campaign to the group.

Chapter members are using their newly honed skills to ensure they effectively portray their mission and gather community support for their initiatives to increase women’s activism in public life. They will also share their skills with participants in the Women’s Leadership School.

The school, a WDN-funded project, will run from April-July and will work with local women who want to get involved in civil society and politics. Following a call for applicants, the chapter received more than 140 applications for 15 placements.

“After receiving so many applications, we interviewed 70 of the applicants and added two placements for a total of 17 women who are now enrolled,” said Chapter Lead Nini Chanturia. “We were excited to see such an overwhelming positive response to our program; we are encouraged that so many Georgian women are interested in increasing their political knowledge.”

The Georgia chapter, which was established in 2008 and has the youngest members of any WDN chapter, recently registered as a nongovernmental organization in Georgia. The chapter is very active, having recently organized a charity event for Georgian orphanages and representing WDN at local and international summits.