This is a very rough start for a guide to getting involved in activist work in your community. Please chime in with ideas! Many people are feeling at a bit of a loss as to how to get meaningfully involved and I wanted to try to offer some help.

The first step to becoming an effective activist is to become part of your community—something you cannot do online or in isolation at home. If you don’t know anyone locally you probably won’t be a helpful part of a network of resistance down the line except perhaps by lending monetary support online occasionally or phone banking for prisoners. In order to protect people in your community you need to establish yourself as a trusted part of it in some way shape or form.

Start small. Get involved in organizations that feed the homeless or provide meal trains for the sick, elderly, overwhelmed, or others that need it. Join a weekly trash cleanup crew in a local park. See if your local womens, lgbt, or homeless shelters need anything you can provide. One or more of these options usually exists even in rural towns.

• Check online for radical bookstores or community centers (some cities have lgbt clubs or community centers too) where you might start exploring local options or making friends with people who share your values. Even the local grassroots punk venue or garage show circuit might be a good avenue towards building community.

• don’t discount religious organizations only qua religion. Not all churchgoers (or church leaders for that matter) believe in god, and not every religious person supports the dark sides of their religion’s history. Often these organizations are the only already organized ways to get involved in very rural areas. Some church or mosque supported soup kitchens try to evangelize their visitors but some do not. Test out a few. Trust your guts. Unitarian, Buddhist, and Jesuit organizations are often among the more secular-friendly side of religious charity work. 

• many religious organizations support/sponsor a number of refugees who may be at risk under the current administration. You can offer to provide rides if you drive (to the grocery, to ESL classes, a carpools to school), prepared meals if you cook, yardwork, woodwork, piano lessons, home repair, english conversation practice, etc.

Join existing activist groups. Join already active resistance groups. In an urban setting there are many to choose from. In a rural setting there will inevitably be less options.

• “Friends of the” river/park/community theatre organizations are one place to seek community connections that can solidify into important networks of solidarity down the line. Ask about volunteer opportunities in your area on nextdoor.

• Even if you are not an environmentalist consider volunteering for local branches of the sierra club or similar to build a network with other activists.

Stay safe

Trust your gut. If you go to the first meeting and they are talking about doing something you totally disagree with don’t feel like you have to go along with it no matter what theory they spout, you can always find something else more in alignment with your morals. If you find yourself doing something to prove authenticity or that feels like initiation/hazing that is probably not a healthy organization. If all decisions are deferred to one person and you are getting a creepy vibe from them that is probably a cult. Use your common sense. Use the buddy system.

• If you involve yourself in anything that might seem remotely sketchy to an ultra conservative government be wary of your online paper trail which could be used against you. Before engaging in online organizing, please learn the ins and outs of online privacy. Do NOT engage on platforms like ig/fb/twitter and other known bad actors. Ensure any platform you do use is encrypted properly. See the thread below by @[email protected] and the reply by @[email protected] for online safety tips.

etiquette

• Don’t expect people to always be grateful for your offer of food/resources. People are multi-dimensional and have complex histories. If you work with displaced people some of them will be intolerant or sexist. Just be kind, polite, and respectful to each individual’s wishes once they make them clear. If they are abusive towards you exit the situation and let others in your group know. In many cases your group will be able to point out these individuals beforehand to avoid confrontation.

• Don’t try to immediately voice your opinions loudly, feel an organization out by watching and listening to decide if you’d like to be a part of it. How do they deal with internal disagreements?, What are their priorities (as demonstrated by their actions? Their words?), Are they trying to control their membership in a way that comes off like bullying or grooming?

• There will probably be people involved in every activity you check out that you don’t like or don’t understand, or don’t find helpful. Someone who is always virtue signaling or always condescending, or just a huge oddball. This is just part of being involved in these spaces, it’s okay if you don’t get along with or like everyone.

• If you attend protests but didn’t organize the event don’t talk to journalists. They are likely to misquote, twist, and misrepresent your words.