By Paul Savides
Note: The article below was originally published in the 2025 JONAH Yearbook.
JONAH’s work in our community is challenging. We confront long-standing issues of inequity and injustice as we seek to change the policies and systems that so often fail our most vulnerable neighbors. That is why it is critical that those who take on the work are equipped with the training and support they need to feel confident in their knowledge and skills.
JONAH believes that everyone can be a leader and that leadership should be shared among members of our task forces and committees. We help those who have been traditionally marginalized to sit at the decision-making tables and contribute to solutions that affect their lives.
Our goals each year are to create a culture of grassroots organizing throughout JONAH, develop leaders locally, and create a flow through the year that supports that deve-lopment. We offer trainings that support current internal and community challenges, trainings in the community to congregations and partner agencies as invited, and trainings to interns and new leaders.
Our training year began with New Member Training to welcome people ready to engage in social justice advocacy and to get to know JONAH better. We encouraged them to attend our next training on Building Relationships through 1-on-1 Conversations.
We held public meetings throughout the year, with mini trainings on story-telling, power mapping, and social determinants of health. In preparation for state budget advocacy, we held a training with WISDOM. Our Organizer helped lead Wisdom’s 5-week Introductory training, which 8 JONAH members attended, one of whom attended Gamaliel’s weeklong leadership training. We also held a retreat and an advanced leader training for our board and task force leaders.
We wrapped up the year offering three opportunities for folks to get support in clarifying their self-Interest: What do they really want to do for our community and why? Throughout the year, about 225 people were trained and supported to become strong leaders in the Chippewa Valley.
Long-time trainers Paul Savides and Lynn Buske were joined this year by Eclypse Armstrong and Sam Ahrens – both with strong experience in teaching and training. Kari Allen, Joyce Anderson, and John Wagner helped out as alternate trainers as well.
In 2026 we will continue to mentor our new trainers. We hope to offer a more consistent training schedule to support people’s lead-ership development, and we will seek more opportunities to collaborate with organizations in the Eau Claire Coalition.
To learn more about JONAH training opportunities, visit our webpage.