Next Steps
Taking Peaceful Action
Taking Peaceful Action can be harder than one expects it to be, so make sure you are finding ways of making the best of small resources. Many people use expression of art in everyday life, such as music, theatre, digital or drawen art. In the photo to the left, you are looking at a piece of chalk drawing from a protest lead by students at a Colorado University, concerning the ability to ennact change, as a student body.
ACTION
When you organize a march, walk-out, sit-in, or any other type of peacefull protest, you have to make sure you have the resources neccessary to accomodate yourself, others, and people around the area of protest. Your goal should never be one that inconviences parts of the community you stand with.
Example, if you are protesting at a public place, you can wear a mask to keep anyone who must walk this area for neccessity or transportation, safe. You can never tell a disablility or difference with your eyes, so remember that protecting the people in your community is a part of protest planning.
COMMUNITY
Building a community can be seemingly difficult, but we learned this skill through communicating and being present in our community. Going out to eat, or a bar (21 +) and getting to know the staff or people around you. You can also try coffee shops, hanging up flyers, or just saying 'hello' to someone around you in a longer line. You can also meet like minded people at concerts, theatrical performances, or trade events. If you're having trouble, try your grapevine. Your grapevine reffers to all of your friends, -their friends, -those peoples friends, etc. You can see how many people you reach on social media as well, but we do reccomend social media not be a soul gathering site, as it can poorly effect mental health.
GUIDANCE
Looking for guidance in the community can be tricky and sometimes dangerous. We want to make sure that when we do seek guidance we know who we are getting the advice from, and that healthy boundaries are set. We know that grooming can occur when younger individuals seek adivce and guidance from elders in the community, so make sure its a person, or people, that you can trust. You can also read, and get in touch with guidance in those capacities. It's also never a bad idea to make sure the guidance source matches up, or has some logisitical reason with a lot of your other research, etc.
We know that times are hard, and taking activism by the hand to make change is intense sometimes, so make sure you have people there for you!
How do I prepare myself for protests? What are the best tips for me to avoid any severe injury or arrest?
What does Activism look like? What parts of your daily life reflect Activism opportunities?
How do I organize my friends and community members? How do we build a mutual aid relationship?
How should the community we have organize ourselves to help eachother and be present at protests, or organize them ourselves?
How do I form my community? How do we form understandings and regulate a healthy relationship?
How can we support our planet and climate change actions? Are there ways to use our community's resources to reduce our carbon footprint?
Things you need to idenitify before performing or participating in Activism/ Protests?
Belief System
Before Participating in any form of Activism you should always know the truth behind the organization! You want to make sure that you agree and understand what you and others are there together to protest, etc. This can look like believing everyone should have equitable rights and resources, or agreeing with the right to privacy. You have to question what you want from the government and the community around you.
It's important to know of course, that the things that apply to you may not apply to everyone and that is okay! See how your past and present have brought you to this set of understandings with your community. There are some things that may seem unimportant or obvious, but are reiterated due to issues with upkeeping that resolution. For example, if you are unsure as to why its important to discuss the history of activism and protest, that may be because you aren't aware of the lives lost particularly in the name of the form of activism, especially when it comes to the black community.
Willingness/ Accessibilty
Sometimes there are going to be barriers to events that may not always be obvious. We all have different experiences in society based on several things, which can cause us different experiences when trying to create change. We all can always participate, but we aren't meant to! All people have different health and ability when it comes to being in a protest. This means that to keep our communities safe, we make sure to work together to take up space in different ways.
Some people have work they have to go to or they starve, some people have identites that could get them hurt more easily than others, some people have children they have to be parents too, some people can't risk the mental health toll that some protests can take. This is why it is so important to think outside of the box on what your community can do together, to brigde the accessibility barrier, as well as accomodating the range of things that make us unable to partcipate.
Safety and Reasonable Questions
Ask your community members reasonable questions, and make sure you are giving space for each person's life story to exist. Often we boil ourselves down too much and we don't share our true potential. This can be due to the situation at hand or the seemingly never-ending chaos that ensues everyday. Let yourself talk about what brought you here, and remember the impact new people and new representation of community have on this life we lead together, not alone. While all of us lead our seperate lives in our seperate towns, we only have eachother in community.
Safety is important, and getting to know those around you is a large part of this! But make sure you have come prepared with safety knowlegde about not only activism but predators and social situations. Protests usually are a great bonding opportunity, but we do not ignore the presence of preadtory behavior regardless of the time and place!