This post is part of a series of report-back posts from the 15th annual Allied Media Conference held in Detroit in June. Besides being a regular contributor to Grassroots DC, Judith Hawkins is a Client and Community Organizer at Bread for the City. The following article is also posted on their BFC’s blog.

This year, 6 Bread for the City clients and 2 staff members went to the Allied Media Conference (AMC). As I blogged about before we went, my first time at the AMC changed my life. This is the response that many first time participants give when asked how they feel about the AMC. Participants attended sessions on media making, networking, and urban farming and many more. View a complete listing of the 2013 sessions here.

So what’s so life changing about the AMC?

The energy charged atmosphere is like being hit by lightning. People are excited about learning, exchanging information and sharing their experiences. I found it quite refreshing to witness different generations, races, genders, and people whose “issues” may be different working together to solve problems, not just talking about the history of the problems and how we got here.

“The AMC is stimulating and informative,” according to Dusti Ridge, CAB Member.

I attended a session on cross-issue organizing, which explored strategies for organizers who are working on different issues or campaigns to identify the intersections or similarities and to use those similarities as a bridge to bring people together and work collaboratively. The discussion was led by a panel of people from several groups: The Teachers Action Group (TAG), the Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project, the One-Love Movement, Decarcerate PA, Fierce New York, and the Alliance for Educational Justice. We talked about identifying the gaps in service and activism and making combined efforts to fill them.

The conference sessions use a popular education style. Attendees are encouraged to participate, and there are plenty opportunities for hands-on learning. For example, at the Discotech (Discovering Technology) Lab, young people explained the basics of electronics by showing participants to use electrodes to make jewelry.

A recurring theme at the AMC this year was learning how to support each other in helping others.

Joni Podschun, our Advocacy and Community Engagement Manager at Bread for the City, really enjoyed The Biology of Burnout session and would love to see some of the strategies she learned applied at BFC. Stay tuned for a blog post on that session!