Pledge to take at least one action a week to build people power!
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Community building
- Start a book club (and pick some titles about authoritarianism or resistance!)
- Host a potluck and invite a few neighbors you don’t know well
- Volunteer at your local library or food pantry
- Organize a litter pick-up at the local park
- Buy from small businesses — and spread the word about local treasures
- Organize a chalk art competition on your block
- Bake a sweet treat and give it to a neighbor, just because
Advocacy
- Take the ACLU’s Advocates Academy training
- Call or email your elected officials (It really does make a difference!)
- Hold protest signs on a freeway overpass or town green
- Create and display art that makes a statement
- Donate to an organization you respect
- Support independent journalism
- Amplify pro-democracy voices on social media, starting with the ACLU of Massachusetts!
- Join a vigil outside the ICE facility in Burlington
- Gather a group, find a host, and ask the ACLU to bring a “Know Your Rights” workshop to your community
- Write a letter to the editor of your local paper about an issue that matters to you
- Run for your school board or town council
- Read (or re-read!) the Bill of Rights
Free and fair elections
- Double check your voter registration — and make sure all your friends do, too!
- Sign up to serve as a nonpartisan poll monitor. (The ACLU will be offering training this summer and fall!
- Apply to become a poll worker in Boston or your local community
- Volunteer to get out the vote for the Sept. 1 primary or Nov. 3 midterms (ask your favorite local candidates how you can help)
Mutual aid
- Donate to a local food pantry
- Start a neighborhood text chain, Signal group, or email newsletter to keep everyone informed of local needs and opportunities for service
- Take the No Kings “Eyes on ICE” online training
- Volunteer with the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network hotline
- Start a diaper drive to collect supplies for families in need
- Volunteer with a local organization doing good work
- Join the ACLU of Massachusetts Action Team
Important Resources
Sign up as a poll worker in the City of Boston
