10 learnings from the first ever Abortion Rights Activist Bootcamp

10 learnings from the first ever Abortion Rights Activist Bootcamp

Authors: Camila Agust, Tristin Agtarap, Emily Butler, Charlotte Chung, Mariana González Cedraro, Alice Chilcott, Lucy Wilkinson

In November last year, Abortion Rights launched our first ever Activist Bootcamp – a free virtual training programme for people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds who were new to reproductive rights activism. By training up new activists, the Bootcamp aimed to seed and diversify reproductive rights activism in local communities and to advocate for abortion decriminalisation.

The programme, developed by our group of volunteer co-organisers with diverse experience in activism, movement building, and reproductive justice, was an ambitious one. Following an intensive 3-month “crash course” in UK abortion rights law, communications and advocacy skills and grassroots organising techniques, our participants designed and launched their own grassroots abortion rights projects in their local communities. 

Image: timeline for phase 1 of the Abortion Rights Activist Bootcamp

The results were as diverse as they were inspiring: Activists launched podcasts, film clubs, family-friendly awareness-raising gatherings and an online campaign to draw attention to reproductive coercion in the music industry.

Having completed the Bootcamp, Activists now become inaugural members of the Reproductive Rights Activist Collective, an ongoing support network which will provide regular upskilling sessions and tailored mentoring. You can find out more about the RRAC on our brand new website.

Now, we’re reflecting on a year of ups and downs, steep learning curves and joyful surprises. The learnings that we share with you here are already informing our design of the next Bootcamp process, which we hope to launch in early 2024. Register your interest in joining the next cohort here.

What we’ve learned:

1. Abortion rights are at the forefront of current feminist concerns. The 160 applications we received for 20 places on the Bootcamp – with fairly limited advertising – showed the real appetite from people of all ages and genders to engage with this issue. Feedback from other organisations we consulted was that there was need for an initiative like this, and that no similar training programme for abortion rights activism existed in England, Scotland and Wales.
2. Fast and frantic wins the race. Our 9-month programme was too long to sustain engagement for many activists, with people with caring responsibilities most likely to face challenges participating. Other very engaged Activists dropped out due to personal circumstances such as illness, bereavement and changes in their employment situation. Next year, we plan a shorter programme to make Bootcamp completion more feasible for a wider number of Activists.
3. Theory is easier than practice. Some Activists, disproportionately younger Activists, dropped out at the point where the focus of the Bootcamp shifted from learning to designing and executing their own projects, suggesting that they were stressed or intimidated by the prospect. For the next cohort, we aim to make this transition more integrated, and to profile real activism examples to support activists’ development. 
4. Grassroots organising approaches must start with the community. Wanting to ensure that Activists were able to build on their own unique skillsets, we took a ‘blank canvas’ approach which encouraged them to choose and design their projects independently, without telling them how they should engage with the community they were working in. But this led to the creation of projects which did not always correspond to the needs of their community, later creating difficulties with engagement and sustainability. Next year, taking an intentional community organising approach will support Activists to truly understand the needs and interests of their community, and to narrow down a choice which some found overwhelming.
5. It’s not just about abortion. While the Bootcamp initially aimed to create grassroots movements around decriminalisation, our Activists understood instinctively that it didn’t make sense to talk about the criminalisation of abortion without linking it to other injustices which affect reproductive experience and choice: racism, period poverty, sexual harassment and coercion, the gender pain gap and the two-child benefit cap. This more expansive approach fitted well with the Reproductive Justice lens that we integrated throughout the Bootcamp’s curriculum. 
6. Connection is a must in virtual spaces. Activists reported that the opportunity to meet like-minded people and make valuable connections across the field of reproductive rights was one of the most valuable aspects of the Bootcamp. However, generating a sense of community and mutual accountability in a totally virtual space was a challenge. More time dedicated to relationship building would have enabled Activists to work more closely together.
7. Mentorship matters. The Bootcamp relied on a mentorship model which gave each Activist regular one-to-one meetings with an expert in activism, campaigning and public policy change. This model successfully created relationships of support and trust between Activists and the Bootcamp’s co-organisers. It was key to helping Activists to overcome individual challenges, and give tailored advice and feedback on their projects.
8. A truly diverse movement takes more time and intention than we gave it. The UK’s abortion rights movement has, fairly, been criticised for centring the voices and needs of white, cis-gendered and predominantly middle-class women. During the recruitment phase, we tried to recognise and counteract this by giving priority to applicants from marginalised communities, including people of colour, people from low-income households, people with disabilities and trans or non-binary people. While this was partially successful, the fact that we still ended up with a majority white cohort and volunteer team shows the need for more intentional outreach and relationship-building, particularly with Black and Muslim communities.  
9. Building accessible and inclusive spaces requires intentional and dedicated resources. The pilot of the Bootcamp strived to be accessible and inclusive, but with limited resources, we fell short in many ways. While the Bootcamp was free to participate in, there were no funds to finance in-person meetings or to support Activists to maintain their participation. Activists juggling multiple jobs struggled to invest time to work on developing projects; participants with children often invested their own money to cover the additional childcare needed to take part. It is not enough to want to create accessible and inclusive spaces and to reach out to underrepresented groups – we need resources to create spaces where underserved and underrepresented communities can actually join and thrive. 

Radical rest is not an optional extra. With the project entirely volunteer-run, the thought of stopping work was scary – it felt like we risked losing the momentum we had built. But we found that intentionally stopping at regular intervals helped us to approach the project with renewed focus and energy. Our choice to pursue ‘radical rest’, which has its origins in Black feminist and social justice movements, was crucial to sustaining the project and to nurturing our most important asset, our Activists.