Movement Netlab applied for Brooklyn Community Foundation’s Incubator Project late in the game, and as such we were truly surprised when we got the call back to come in for interview. After the admission process, we were notified that we had been selected as one of the three organizations welcomed to the 2017 class. For a growing network such as ours, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect and we are extremely excited about this partnership.

The Movement Netlab is a practice-centered ‘think-make-and-do tank’ that was founded in 2014 after both Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Sandy proved that decentralized network structures could accomplish massive scale, but that we needed to understand these structures better. 

We are comprised of movement-based activists, organizers and researchers whose goal is to help develop powerful conceptual and practical tools that help facilitate the growth and effectiveness of the most dynamic emerging social movements of our time.

As experienced practitioners with decades of combined experience, we believe that mass popular social movements working to create deep, system-wide transformation are our best hope of achieving a more just and equitable world.

While being a member of the Incubator Project, we wish to complete our first SwarmLab program and organize a second cohort beginning in Fall 2017; launch our communications platform Liberation.Network with at least three organizations or movements; produce and distribute five modules in collaboration with Public Society; and organize at least five open trainings.

We also hope to raise funds to produce and distribute more of our modules, to organize a second round of SwarmLab and improve Liberation.Network; solidify our on-boarding process for new Movement Netlab members to expand our team and fully incorporate individuals who have worked on a variety of Movement Netlab projects; finish our incorporation process to become our own 501c3 organization; organize an organization-wide retreat; and develop more relationships with the funding world to build upon the Resource Mobilization and Movement Building Retreat.

As individuals we are deeply connected to the climate movement, the immigrant justice movements, the racial and criminal justice movements, and many more.  We understand the potential of building a movement of movements, as we have been at the center of many of the movement moments of the past six years.

Many thanks again to Brooklyn Community Foundation for seeing the value in our work, and let’s get to building together for this world – especially for Brooklyn.

Feel free to check out more information by visiting our website at www.movementnetlab.org. Recently we launched our Communications Tool Resourcer, which assesses the many digital platforms that networks can use for their work.