The SPIN Academy strengthens the strategic communications capacity and progressive leadership skills of participants, their respective organizations and the progressive movement by providing affordable, inclusive, and engaging communications training and support.
We carefully evaluate all applicants for appropriate placement at the Academy. To this end, applicants should consider:
- The SPIN Academy is ideal for social change activists who do communications and media relations for their organization routinely, but lack any formal training in these areas.
- The Academy accepts applicants who work on a wide range of progressive causes, with priority given to organizations working to create concrete systemic social change in:
- Civil Rights and Liberties
- Disability Rights Advocacy
- Economic Justice
- Education
- Electoral Reform
- Environmental Conservation
- Environmental Justice
- Food and Agriculture
- Globalization and Human Rights
- Health Care Policy
- Immigrant and Refugee Rights
- Immigration Reform
- Labor Rights and Justice
- LGBTQ Issues
- Media Justice
- Media Reform
- Prison Reform and Criminal Justice
- Racial Justice
- Reproductive Rights
- Reproductive Justice
- Acceptance to the SPIN Academy is also contingent upon:
- Strategic positioning of the organization, specifically its ability to develop the leadership and media skills in colleagues and allies to build a stronger progressive movement
- Organizational capacity to turn Academy training into substantive organizational change and cause-related activities
- The organization's clarity of focus on its specific media-related needs and challenges
- Timeliness of the organization's issues, relative to other groups in the applicant pool
- Amount of applicant's work time spent on communications
- Diversity of our participant group in terms of demographics, geographics, experience in communications work, and organizational size, structure and focus.
- From year to year, we evaluate each applicant pool independently. Thus, we do not give priority to previously declined applicants.
- We cannot guarantee acceptance to multiple applicants from one organization. However, the application does allow organizations to indicate which applicants are their first priority.
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