The Midwest Academy is coming to Buffalo!

Midwest is a 50 year old training academy for community organizers, and an essential training for those who want to run impactful campaigns.
https://midwestacademy.com/about-us/

Required Dates
Cohort Intensive - Tuesday January 20th, Wednesday 21st, Thursday 22nd and Friday 23, 2026, and while we do not have the exact daily schedule planned yet, we expect it will be 9am-5pm, with breakfast prior
One-day Cohort-led Public Training - Saturday January 24, 2026, likely 10am-3pm, with breakfast prior
This application form is for the Cohort Intensive - the registration page for the one-day training on Saturday the 24th will be launched in December. If you are only interested in the one-day training, please do not fill out this form.

Cost - FREE thanks to a grant from our friends at the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo! Upon completion, you will receive a professional certification from Midwest. Please note, this certification training ordinarily costs $660 - 1570 per person depending on organizational budgets, plus travel and lodging!

At Clean Air, we work to develop leaders to run and win environmental justice campaigns. We are bringing Midwest to Buffalo to lead us in a 4-day cohort intensive for full time staff organizers and grassroots organizers, and the Saturday following those local organizers fresh off their intensive will lead a 1-day training on the Midwest Model for the general public.

We feel this training is needed to meet the moment - we need to not only combat the fascism and authoritarianism that threatens us all collectively, but also work to build our alternatives, and do all this work with a long term vision. Grounding our work in a shared strategy framework, such as the Midwest Model, will strengthen organizing work throughout our region.

We have a limited number of 30 seats for the 4-day cohort intensive, so the intensive will be application based. Each organization is limited to 3 people. If we have extra seats available after the application process, we will open up to additional seats for organizations.

We also want to make this as accessible as possible, so have budgeted stipends for up to 3 grassroots organizers who are not paid by an organizing non-profit and will need to take time off work to attend the intensive. While primarily intended for folks who are organizing independently outside of a formal 501c3 organization, this stipend could also be for members or volunteers of your organization who are being urged to consider becoming full time organizers.

We also have budgeted for support services, such as babysitting and interpretation, and for food as well for all dates.

All participants in the 4-day intensive January 20 - 23 must commit to the full length of the program, plus Saturday January 24th, where they will lead a break out group during the training for the public.

Applications are due Friday October 31, 2025 and all applicants will be notified no later than Friday December 12.

No matter what, please mark Saturday January 24, 2026 on your calendar and plan to join us, either as one of the cohort trainers or as one of the trainees!

Our sincere thanks to the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo for funding this training!