From Neighbours to Change Agents: Reclaiming Urban Spaces & Social Justice | 005

Transformational empowerment through community organizing

Knock, Talk, Organise: Inside the Work of a Tenants’ Movement

In this episode, we speak with Tanja Rakočević, a tenants’ organiser and climate justice activist based in Berlin. Tanja shares her inspiring journey from activist to full-time community organiser, shedding light on what it means to create change from the ground up. She talks about the challenges and joys of building tenant initiatives, how door-to-door conversations can spark collective empowerment, and why social infrastructure is as vital as physical infrastructure in today’s urban life.

We discuss the importance of knowledge-sharing, community education, and long-term relationship-building in grassroots work.

Tanja also addresses the nuanced role of paid organisers and unpaid activists in movements, and the delicate balance of power, trust, and self-reliant and resilient structures. This episode is a compelling look at the often-invisible labor behind social change — why it matters and how you can be part of it - no matter your "role in society".

 

💡 HIGHLIGHTS of this Episode

✨ What it means to be a tenants’ organiser and community catalyst

✨ How door-to-door work builds collective power in neighbourhoods successfully

✨ The role of education and empathy in movement building

✨ Challenges in organising: burnout, hierarchy, and sustaining momentum

✨ Why knowing your rights and knowing your neighbours both matter

 

👋 ABOUT Tanja (she/her)

Tanja is a transformative community organizer and climate justice activist. She works as a tenant's organizer at Kiezprojekt Berlin with a focus on marginalised groups. Her activism concentrates on climate, decolonisation and migration. She does educational work with her group BiPoC for Future, highlighting the struggles of most affected people and areas. She is also a dog mum and loves hosting and bringing people together - her own way of community building.

 

🔗 CONNECT & follow Tanja's work

👉 https://kiezprojekt.berlin/

👉 LinkedIn

👉 Instagram: @plastophobia || @bipocforfuture.de || @bipoc4future.berlin

 

📚 RESOURCES to dive deeper

➡ The intersectional environmentalist (Leah Thomas, 2022)

➡ Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2021)

➡ It's not just you (Tori Tsui, 2023)

➡ All we can save (Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson, 2020)

➡ The Quest for Environmental Justice (Robert D. Bullard, 2005)

➡ Black Faces, White Spaces (Carolyn Finney, 2014)

 

You have an idea for an impact project in your community? 💡

As an Innovation Coach and System Change Facilitator I have helped multiple #impactpreneurs in taking the first steps to create their own sustainability projects and businesses.

❗️There are two 1:1 Mentoring Spots left for April.

👉 Check out the 1:1 Mentoring here and schedule us in for a Free Exploration Call of your initial idea(s). 🤗

 

Don't want to start your own community initiative?

You want to work in sustainability full-time - in an employed situation of an existing project? but don't know how...⬇️

🔔 Last Chance to join the Group Mentoring for #ImpactJobSeeker❗

🔍 Program Details: https://impacthills.com/impactjobseeker-group-mentoring/

👉 Sign-up here (first Live Session and Door Close is on April 8th!)

 

💌 CONNECT & engage with Pia

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn to follow and support each other’s work. 🤗

If you consider yourself an #impactjobseeker or aspiring #impactpreneur at the beginning of your journey, jump on my Newsletter “Impact Insights” where I regularly share tools and best practices from my work as a sustainability consultant and system change facilitator. 🤓⚖

For daily insights “behind the scenes” and event updates, join the extended community on the @work.with.impact Instagram account. 🧐💓

 

Take care of yourself and others!

Pia 🤍

 

P.S. You can also watch this Episode on our YouTube Channel to see our faces 👋

 

#CommunityOrganising #TenantRights #GrassrootsMovements #SocialChange #ClimateJustice #UrbanActivism #EmpowermentThroughAction #BerlinMovements #NeighbourhoodPower #TransformativeEducation #MovementBuilding #SocialJustice #Organizing