Upcoming Events

Come to the 24th Annual

Changing Maine

Saturday, September 8th, 2018

8:30AM - 5PM

(Viles Arboretum, Augusta ME)

Join us for a day of exploring what it means to use a diversity of tactics in your organizing and campaigns, and how our different choices impact our coalition building. Changing Maine is an annual meet up of roughly 80-100 organizers, activists, and nonprofit workers who come together to explore different topics that affect social change. This year's theme will explore:

What tactics are and how we use them
How tactics help us make change
What the concept of "Diversity of Tactics" is and what its role has been historically
How power, privilege, and oppression play a role in what tactics people feel are necessary
How to disagree when we clash with others' choices in tactics
How to work through big tensions to help keep our movements connected and strong
and more!

**Please note: This day is meant to explore and discuss different tatics used to win social movements. This is not an endorsement of any tactics discussed during the day, nor is it meant to be an endorsement of violence.

Click HERE to register!

For more information contact Sass Linneken at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Come to the 15th Annual

GROW

(GrassRoots Organizing Workshops)

Friday, October 5th - Sunday, October 7th, 2018

(Camp Mechuwana, Winthrop, ME)

Learn about organizing, enjoy beautiful surroundings, network with old friends and meet new ones with similar interests.

Workshops this year will focus on how to build on skills that can be used for organizing from the grassroots.

Some of this year's workshop topics will include:

-Facilitating skills

-Grassroots fundraising & using social media for the grassroots

-How to avoid burnout

-Theater of the Oppressed

-Leadership development

-Coalition-building & how to have difficult conversations when we disagree

-Creating caring communities & overcoming oppression

-Grassroots organizing 101

To register, click here!

For more information contact Sass Linneken at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Current Project Highlights

www.AbilityMaine.org

We are happy to announce that our Ability Maine project is opening up a new community blog and we want to publish you! We’ll begin accepting submissions from Maine residents for two blog tracks per month, one for writers who want to submit articles that track and explore current legislative issues or legal policies impacting people with disabilities who are living in Maine, and the other will be open for people with physical or mental health disabilities or those who love them to explore the triumphs, frustrations, and overall personal experiences of navigating Maine with these identities.

We want this blog to become a community project that gives unfiltered voice to those on the receiving end of living in a state that won't expand Medicaid, and we want to hear what you think about legislative proposals that will impact you for the good or not. We also want to hear the more intimate stories about living with disabilities in Maine, for instance, what it’s like to seek support from a woefully underfunded Crisis & Counseling while experiencing a mental health crisis, or what it’s like as a parent to help your child navigate the juvenile justice system if they also live with disabilities. We are particularly interested in stories that explore the experience of intersecting identities, like being a person with disabilities who is also homeless or a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Share your stories and give voice the disability community in Maine!

To submit your work please send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject heading: Submit.

If you’d like to submit something but you’re not sure if it’s the right fit, send it along and we’ll let you know! For creative writing like literary prose, poetry, spoken word, etc., you can still submit your work to our attached literary journal, Breath & Shadow at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Changing Maine Directory

www.ChangingMaine.org

Maine's grassroots resource for non-profits and change agents

Visit the Changing Maine Directory (CMD) to see an extensive list of non-profit organizations and grassroots groups working to make Maine a healthier, more just, more peaceful place. Each listing includes detailed descriptions and the most up-to-date contact information for over 1,500 non-profit, grassroots, progressive, social change and social service organizations throughout Maine. Previously called the Maine Alternative Yellow & Green Pages, since 1986 ROSC has continuously worked to keep this directory's entries current, accurate and relevant to help empower folx looking to create positive, meaningful social change.

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Down to Earth Storytelling Project

ROSC is a proud fiscal sponsor of Andy Burt's Down to Earth Storytelling Project, which is capturing stories on film that can connect people everywhere to the growing climate justice movement. The film will be the centerpiece of a larger project meant to inspire, motivate, and move people to act on climate in their own communities. Some of the plans of this project include:

The creation of a journaling workbook that draws from the filmed stories and may guide people into deeper personal and community commitment to climate and social justice activism
A four-week experience that includes four workshops featuring the film, invited guest activists, visioning exercises, and time for sharing workshop participants' own stories arising out of daily journaling in the workbook guide.
A virtual workshop experience similar to the one described above.
A two-hour workshop including the film and time for reflection on filmed stories that spoke to audience members.
A handout with opportunities for further reflection and action steps and resources.

To help contribute to the project, please click here.

ROSC is a proud member of MaineShare

ROSC Newsletter

Our Mission

is to build and support a movement for nonviolent social change that will educate, activate, & empower all Maine people through grassroots community organizing.

Our Goal

is to share resources and support all Maine people who want to engage in social change work, particularly those who are the most affected by oppressive systems. We strive to build infrastructure and strengthen cross-issue statewide movement building by increasing leadership development for grassroots organizers, promoting democratic practices within organizations, and supporting work that gets to root causes of injustice.

Contact Us

PO Box 2444
Augusta, ME 04338-2444
PH: (207) 607-2571
EM: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.