Impuls Akademie

The Impuls Academy offers a new opportunity for further training for politically active people in German-speaking countries: a week of intensive courses with experienced trainers for everyone who wants to deepen their skills and methods.

The Impuls Academy imparts in-depth knowledge and skills in central areas of emancipatory political work.Participants expand their personal repertoire and are supported in applying the newly acquired knowledge in their organizations. 

The Impuls Academy is not about content-related training, but about teaching the skills and tools that are necessary for effective civil society work, regardless of the topic.

The courses deal with topics such as communication, action-design, campaigns, self-organization and alliance work.

Programm 2025

The skills taught and the networks established are intended to strengthen the progressive movement landscape and counteract authoritarian, right-wing and inhumane political tendencies.

The Impuls Akademie is organized collaboratively by two associations that bring different experiences to the table, complementing each other. Both share a deep passion for progressive political work and have extensive experience in social movements.

The association Humus - Fertile soil for change has been supporting self-organized political groups and associations since 2019 through education, consulting, and guidance in developing skills and methods for political activism. With their Tipping Points workshop weekends, the association has gained significant expertise in designing training formats.

The association radius, is an agency for communication, campaigns, strategy, and training.It collaborates with progressive organizations, institutions, and social movements on projects focused on social justice, ecological sustainability, and solidarity. The radius team brings years of experience working in various social movements.

Our organizational team brings together several decades of experience in political work and activism, both at the grassroots level and professionally within various organizations. Together with a team of trainers, they are committed to making the Impuls Akademie an inspiring and holistic space for learning and exchange.

Jayda Sauseng

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Jakob (they, humus) represents the western Austrian branch of the Impuls Academy. Jakob is the driving force behind networking and international cooperation. When Jakob is not stuck in online calls, Jakob is involved in queerfeminist contexts and research on gender justice. Jakob's focus is on networking, moderation and educational projects.

Laura Grossmann

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Laura (she, Humus) began her political work in the student council. During her studies in England, she was active in the anti-privatization movement at university and founded a networking platform for climate policy initiatives on campus. Back in Austria, she became involved in various activist groups for climate justice; blocking roads, recruiting young activists, speaking to the press and taking responsibility for internal organizing. For several years, she has focused on movement building through training and facilitation. Her studies in business administration and organizational development provide a solid foundation for understanding and supporting organizations from the ground up. Experience abroad has sharpened and broadened her perspective.

Manuel Grebenjak

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Manuel (he, radius) took his first activist steps in the movement for food sovereignty. Since then, he has been active in the climate movement for many years: in Austria, Spain, as well as on an international level. He has been working in civil society organizations for over ten years. His particular focus lies on communication, networking and strategy work. In 2022, Manuel published a handbook on climate communication, followed by a book on the strategies of the climate movement in German-speaking countries in 2024.

Mely Lyn

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Mely (she) is a freelance artist, filmmaker and producer. As part of the feminist film collective Kinokas, she co-directed the documentary feature film “Wie Wir Wollen” (Choices/Voices, 2021) which deals with abortion in the German context. She has been developing media education workshops for young people since 2018.

Sarah Tanner

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Sarah (sie, radius) hat sich in ihrem interdisziplinären Studium „Umwelt- und Bioressourcenmanagement” intensiv mit ökologischen und sozialen Herausforderungen auseinandergesetzt. Ihre Leidenschaft für Kampagnenarbeit entdeckte sie als Campaignerin bei Vier Pfoten Österreich.
Die Impuls Akademie unterstützt Sarah vor allem mit Social Media und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit.

The Impuls Akademie aims to strengthen social movements. That’s why it’s important for us to gather input from various organizational forms and areas of focus. For this, we have put together theImpulse Advisory Board"Impulse Advisory Board”, which will consult with us four times throughout the organizational process and give feedback on various topics, such as course outlines, the evening program, and potential challenges.

The goal is to make the Impuls Akademie as useful, accessible, and safe as possible.The advisory board is structured to bring a variety of perspectives into the organization of the Impuls Akademie, complementing those of the organizational team. 

Members of the board 2025 are:

• Cleo
• Eylem Lorin
• Georgie Gruber
• Lorena Olarte
• Josefine Hüttisch

Together, these five individuals contribute perspectives on No-Border activism, decolonial struggles, climate justice, feminism, disability justice, critical academia, the Kurdish freedom movement, and LGBTQIA+ issues. 

Of course, it’s not always possible to implement every suggestion or need exactly as it is, but we are committed to a step by step approach toward making progress.

Finances should not be a barrier for anyone to participate at the Impuls Akademie. To achieve this, we have built a financing model with multiple pillars. In addition to a small participation fee and donations, we count on the support of various funding partners and sponsors. We will gradually announce these partners here. What’s important to us is maintaining independence in terms of content.