Resources

Advocacy Workshops

Upcoming Live Trainings

We regularly lead training workshops to teach new and seasoned advocates alike the skills you need to be successful when campaigning for more bikeable and walkable communities.

Strategies for Winning Campaigns

June 1st, 9am – 5pm | Homewood YMCA

This full-day, “hands-on” training will show you how to create a strategy for making the change you want to see for safer biking, walking, and rolling.

The Walk Audit: An Effective Tool For Community Change

TO BE RESCHEDULED FROM ORIGINAL MAY 4th DATE! Sign up at the link above for the new date when it’s announced.

Community members and local leaders can help make their neighborhoods more walkable by conducting a “walk audit” to identify the roads and intersections that should be walkable and crossable but are instead dangerous (by design) for pedestrians and cyclists.

And check out our monthly “advocacy booster” calls, then sign up for our Outspoken Newsletter for details on future trainings.

You can also watch recordings of virtual trainings on various topics below.

Virtual Advocacy 101 Workshops

Learn about what it takes to be a biking and walking advocate. Whether you’re brand new to the bike/ped advocacy world or you’ve been part of the process for years, we want to welcome you to watch our Virtual Advocacy Workshop Series. These workshops take a look at the nuts and bolts of what it means to be an advocate and champion for safer streets. We strongly encourage you to read our Toolkit for Starting and Sustaining a Neighborhood Bike/Ped Committee to familiarize yourself.

GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY TOOLKIT OVERVIEW

Learn about our updated Grassroots Advocacy Toolkit. This presentation shows off the new features and offers time for questions and answers with our Community Organizer.

HOW TO GET ORGANIZED

This workshop goes over how bike/ped advocacy groups can get and stay organized. We go over things from what a group can do to what individuals can do to keep their groups sustained, lively, and efficient. What sparks you joy?

HOW TO PICK AND PLAN A NEIGHBORHOOD CAMPAIGN

So you want to do something to make biking and walking better in your neighborhood. Do you have a lot of ideas but don’t know how to start? Do you have no ideas and need to know what kind of project would work? In this one hour session, we will go through the process of how to pick and plan a winning campaign for your neighborhood.

EFFECTIVE TACTICS 

Knowing what to do to grab the attention of the right people can make a campaign one that is just okay to something that will make a lasting impression. In this workshop, we talk about the various ways to build support for a project and demonstrate that support to decision-makers. We will discuss various tactics that we have used at BikePGH as well as others from around the country.

USING CITY BUDGETS & PLANS AS WINNING TACTICS

One of the most sure-fire ways to make Pittsburgh better for biking and walking is to make sure that projects that improve biking and walking are included in the city’s budgets and plans. This workshop will train you how to take advantage of two specific opportunities to further your campaigns for safer streets: The Capital Budget and the City’s Paving Schedule.

HOW TO WRITE POWERFUL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AND OP-EDS

Join guest speaker, Jodi Hirsh, from Sequal Consulting, to learn the powerful tools to successfully and effectively write letters to the editor and op-eds to help bring more voices to the media from people who bike and walk. This workshop was originally given on March 24, 2021.

COALITION BUILDING 101

We can’t change our streets on our own. We need the help of our neighbors, community, and other organizations. One way is to reach out to others and form new friendships and working relationships through coalition building. In this workshop, we go over how to build a network and sustain your relationships with your coalition. 

MEMBERSHIP: BUILDING, ENGAGING, AND SUSTAINING YOUR COMMITTEE

BikePGH’s Membership and Outreach Manager will give you tips and tricks to growing, sustaining, and engaging with your committee and community.

HOW TO PASS A COMPLETE STREETS POLICY

Policy is one of the single most important ways to make lasting changes. Over the years many municipalities including the City of Pittsburgh have passed legislation for the adoption of the Complete Streets Policy. This workshop will present about how two communities, Sharpsburg and Wilkins Township, passed this policy and are putting it into practice.

How to Host Your Own OpenStreets

Who doesn’t love OpenStreets? Do you dream of having this celebration come to your neighborhood but you just don’t know where to start or what to do? Join BikePGH’s event team for this workshop to learn about putting on your very own OpenStreets!