Action against injustice: How to (quickly) get started, restarted or unstuck

Moving from outrage and overwhelm to action in 5 steps or less. Or your $$$ back ;)

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We CAN do the hard things even in hard times

It is a scary time to be in the world. The deluge of bad news keeps coming. For me it feels as though somedays I am getting a call, text, ping, DM every hour from someone I am in community with who is in desperate need of support. There are dozens of asks I am not attending to as I write this brief essay and even more issues I would be confronted with were I to open a newspaper or scroll any number of my social media feeds. I do have and utilize strategies for managing info overload but that doesn’t mean I am immune to the frenetic urgency of this moment.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, I am right there with you. If you are having trouble figuring how to prioritize, where to start, what your want to focus on going forward you are not alone. I have a particular desire to help people who are not already actively engaged in community work right now to get (re)started. But please know many, many, many veteran activists and organizers are going through a similar crisis right now. Many of us are aware that we need to deepen, expand or shift our work. But many of us are putting out fires and not able to strategize or build in the way we want to right now. Many of us are personally impacted by the injustices we are fighting. There are no shortage of reasons that we may be struggling to take action. People who’ve been doing this for decades are struggling so if you are too, know that you are in excellent company.

Someone asked me once who my audience was. I create for

• folks who are unlearning terrible but pervasive ideas that they internalized,

• people who are moved by information and injustice and

• people who when confronted with a problem, want to do something about it.

I create for people who do not simply care about injustice, but also are willing to take action to to end injustice. I can’t say who is actually on the other end of this essay but usually I create for a younger version of me. That younger version of me didn’t always have the information or tools to see and understand the injustices happening in her world, so she needed information and the support of scholars, elders, comrades, friends and neighbors. Younger me never needed to be convinced to care about injustice and I don’t know how to convince other people to care but I definitely needed tons of guidance on what to do address the injustices I saw.

So for the people who care, I am moved to offer the information, ideas and tools that helped me. Today I am offering my thoughts on moving from outrage to action because I too have been feeling stuck in a sense. I am in the process of unsticking myself and I am unsticking myself by thinking less and doing more. I am allowing myself to try things that I know may not work, knowing that any action I take is a form of forward movement that can help me learn and refine what I want to do.

With that in mind I offer three non-comprehensive approaches for getting started, restarted or unstuck. You can blend these together or riff on them in whatever way feels appropriate and authentic to you, but I wanted to prove to you (and me) that we can move from outrage to action with relative ease.

Food insecurity isn’t going to disappear when SNAP payments resume. Could you join an existing local meal serve? Cook meals for unhoused neighbors? Set-up a guerrilla food distribution in your community? Drop excess food off at a community fridge?

The Joiner Approach

The Idea: Plug into existing groups and community work until you find a match that feels right

Good for: Anyone but especially for people newer to community work or who have stagnated in their current communities / groups. May also be good for those who have a general desire to help but not a clear idea of how or how to get started.

How to do it

1. Find something you care about

2. Find people who are doing something about the thing you care about

3. Join them in doing the something

4. If you like doing the something and the people doing it, keep going. If you don’t like the thing or the people return to Step 2 a bit wiser.

5. If you find yourself repeating steps 2-4 more than a few times or eventually you see that there are more things that can be done, you may have to create the thing that needs to be done and/or you may have to create the group to do it.

What this could look like: Finding a community meal serve / food distribution (note: Food Not Bombs is great place to start and is active in many cities and communities in the U.S.), reaching out to organizers to find out what is most needed, showing up with what you can offer, rolling up your sleeves and seeing how that feels to you. It could also be going to an orientation or open meeting of an established group in your area but essentially this approach means finding community groups that have a front door of sorts that allows new people to get involved.

ICE abductions are ripping apart communities across the U.S. Are you prepared to defend your neighbors? Your coworkers? Do you have language skills that could help others? Are you prepared to intervene in abductions? Could you accompany folks to immigration appointments? Could you offer other material support?

The Skill-up Approach

Good for: Anyone but especially people who need the confidence and purpose that a concrete skillset can provide. Can also be a good approach for people more comfortable working independently or autonomously (vs joining a group) since many skills are portable.

The Idea: Training is a front door to many community groups and initiatives. Training opportunities offers a chance to get comfortable with the work and the people doing it in a low-to-no risk setting.

How to do it

1. Find an accessible training opportunity (see some ideas at the end)

2. Take the training

3. (Optional): Connect to the group behind training or others in your area doing related work

4. Test what you learned by going out in the world as using what you learned (with or without the group you connected with in step 3)

5. Take additional related or unrelated trainings to help enhance, expand or complement your existing skills and community work

What this could look like: Copwatching is a great skill for lots of people (side note: if you appear White, nondisabled, and have U.S. citizenship this is among the most powerful ways you can use those privilege for good). Both local and national groups periodically run copwatch trainings. Some of these groups are more formal copwatch patrols that trained community members can plug into, but the skills can be used to ad hoc copwatch as needs arise or start a copwatch patrol of your own.

Hot tip: Facebook is often a better platform for researching training events vs other socials (IMHO). Even if the events are out of date it is often worth reaching out to organizers to see if they plan to offer similar trainings in future or know groups that are.

Medical services are increasingly inaccessible and in an emergency, bystanders and neighbors are often the true first responders. Are you a healer that could offer your talents to community? Do you know how to stop a bleed? Administer narcan? Could you act as a street medic? Could you accompany sick, injured or disabled community members to an appointment?

The Skills/Resources Driven Approach

The Idea: Use what you have in abundance to fill unmet / undermet needs in your community

Good for: Anyone but especially people who have developed specialized or in-demand skills or simply understand what they have to offer whether tangible or intangible.

How to do it

1. Get clear on what you can offer and understand why it may be valuable

2. Find someone(s) that have a stated need for the skills or resources you can offer or a group who offers similar skills/resources and is already connected to those who need them

3. Offer what you are able

4. Continue to offer as needed and when you are

5. If you continue to enjoy this work you can expand it, share your skills with others, build community around you to complement what you can offer.

What this could look like: If you were a lawyer this may look like reaching out to groups that do immigration legal support to offer your services (note: in many cases these groups can provide training to bridge whatever knowledge gaps you may have around immigration law). But you need not have professional-level experience to be valuable. Perhaps you are a yoga teacher and can offer a space or instruction for a group trying to cope with the fall out of the polycrisis we find ourselves in. Perhaps you are a proficient sewer and can get plugged in to a mending clinic. You do not necessarily need to plug into existing initiatives, you could simply be post your offer in a community message board and let people find you. Truly if you know you have a skill, I’d wager that there is someone in your community who’d benefit from it so it is simply a matter matching your offer to someone else’s need.

Where to go from here, finding your place

Regardless of the approach you choose you are likely going to want to get more plugged in to what is happening in your community. Trainings, open meetings, mutual aid distributions are all great opportunities to do this. But how?

There are plenty of ways to get connected but in this digital era, one of my go-to tools is social media. Above ground initiatives generally, though not universally, have some social media presence. Finding groups that are working on issues you care about (if you don’t already follow them on social media) can be as easy as searching for the issue plus city on socials (e.g., food justice + New Orleans, tenant union + Portland). It may take time and experiementation to find the right group, right training, etc for you. BUT you do not need a perfect fit to get started. Instead you should prioritize getting started. You do not need to share a politic to learn how to stop the bleed. You should definitely notice if a group is predominantly White, man-led, cisgender but even a White man can help you learn how to do ICE appointment accompaniment. So if you show up gain a skill, learn more about what is happening in your community, get a chance to practice resistance in a new way and you never interact with that group again that is totally fine. Take what you can from these experimental interactions and keep moving.

Not everyone feels comfortable jumping into a new group or event/action cold. While I am tempted to remind you that you are capable of doing much harder things, I want taking action to be as easy as possible for as many people as possible. So please do take a friend or buddy along with you if that gets you out of your comfort zone with slightly less discomfort.

Also consider connect in advance with the group or event organizers. I swear that there is a real person managing that social media account you follow and they are generally welcoming of appropriate support from new folks. DM them. Ask questions that you have. Maybe just send a quick note to let them know you’re planning to come or confirming the meet time/place. Sometimes naming your intentions makes it easier to follow-through and we need you to follow through!

The name of this game is moving. Action. Practice.

I know many people are overwhelmed and so I write this in the interest of moving people from thinking to action. Any positive movement will generate inertia that makes it substantially easier to take subsequent action.

This week I went to a mutual aid event in my community. I share many of the politics of the people who attended. I think the work we did at the event was valuable. I chatted amiably with lots of new people. I appreciate the work they will continue to do but it didn’t feel entirely right for me. I’ll stay connected with these folks. I’ll probably work with many of their community members in other capacities. I may attend future events with this group but I know now that this probably isn’t one of the primary lanes I want to play in going forward. Knowing all this now I would still argue that this was a very valuable outing for me.

Because in a small way I got myself unstuck. I went out in the world and tried something new. I now have plans to go to a similar event with another group to see if that’s a better fit. I suspect that this other group / event may not be a perfect fit either but I am going to go anyway. I am going to meet some new people, possibly connect with some old friends and definitely get one step closer to zeroing in on how I want to be in the world right now. As a bonus I get to have an impact on my community in the meantime.

It is easy and it is hard. But it is possible and do-able too.

Addendum: Happenings to get you acting vs thinking

There is a genuine deluge of great trainings and meetings happening in the next couple weeks. This is a non-comprehensive list of some I have seen (please do feel free to drop additional trainings in comments on Substack). Some offer info or skills you could use independent of a group or initiative. Some are explicitly building organizational capacity to do the thing. Some are NYC-focused but can readily adapted to other areas of the U.S. Maybe some interest you even if they aren’t exactly what you think your community needs. I share as opportunities for gaining skills and connecting with community but also as thought starters for you to seek out new ways to get into the action in a new or at least renewed way.

If you see an opportunity here that sounds good but might not perfectly fit what you’re looking for I encourage you to try anyway. You do not need to marry any of these groups, this is just a first date and you are there for dinner. If you don’t want a second date you still ate dinner.

Self-Managed Abortion 101 with a Reproductive Justice Lens
Facilitated by Abortion On Our Own Terms
Tues Nov 11 6-8PM ET
RSVP: https://tr.ee/QQFGpIesWv
Original post with more details

Screening “A Home Worth Fighting For” with Tenant Organizer Panel
Coalition against Demolition of Fulton & Elliott-Chelsea Public Housing
Tues Nov 11 7PM ET (In-person at 235 W 23rd St)
RSVP: tinyurl.com/AHWFFfilm
Original post with more details

Decriminalizing Sex Work
Led by Decrim NY
Wed Nov 12 7-8PM ET (Virtual)
RSVP: bit.ly/decrimtraining25
Original post with more details

Emergency Climate Crisis Planning
Another World BK
6-7:30PM ET (In-person)
No RSVP needed
See original post for full slate of November Programming at Another World

Legal Entities for Land Projects
Organized by Soul Fire Farm, led by Athena Bernkoph and Leah Penniman
Wed Nov 12 3-5PM ET (Virtual)
RSVP: bit.ly/SFFcalendar
Original post with more details

Immigration Court Accompaniment Training
ICE Out of NYC / Peoples Forum NYC (affiliated with Party for Socialism and Liberation)
Sat Nov 15 10AM ET (Hybrid - in NYC and Zoom)
RSVP: peoplesforum.org/nov15
Original post with more details

Navigating Conflict
Facilitated by Dean Spade, Hosted by Shareable (a for profit company)
Thurs Nov 20 3PM ET (Virtual)
RSVP: mutualaid101.org
Original post with more details

First Aid for the People
People’s Health Education Program
Nov 30 12-4PM ET (In person, masks required and provided at Come Forever in Brooklyn)
RSVP (space limited): bit.ly/1130faftp
Original post with more details
Note: Lots of medic and health groups host similar first aid trainings but you can also tap into more mainstream offerings (non-profit, DOH, Red Cross) and get key skills that can be adapted for community work

Disclaimer: I have some experience with some of the organizing groups above. Others I am new to myself. All are experiments in new ways of being the world. Treat them like the imperfect experiments they are. Plan to be active in shaping these spaces into the kind of community you want to be a part of. Ask tough questions. When something feels off, speak up. When something goes wrong, push for accountability.