The Social Change Map Meets November 2020.
It’s bound to be an unsettling, challenging, and confusing month. Are we ready?
Fogginess. Doom-scrolling. Distraction. Anxiety. Yes, to all of that? If you’re on the same road as I am, here’s a resource that might help. (November 2022 update: for more on the map, including a workbook, please read this article and visit www.socialchangemap.com).
The guide includes a seven-step process to identify our values, causes, roles, ecosystems, and sustainability plan. Here are some examples of how people and organizations are playing various roles during the month of November. Tweet your social change role @dviyer or on Instagram @buildingmovementproject with #SocialChangeMap #Elections2020.
- Weavers connect people, funding, resources and organizations across the country to one another (see https://www.emergentfund.net/rapidresponse)
- Caregivers bring nourishment to share with people standing in line to vote (Feed the Polls)
- Storytellers document and share voting experiences of first-time voters or those facing voting barriers
- Healers provide coaching and counseling support for frontline responders and disrupters taking direct action (see Trauma Response and Crisis Care for Movements here)
- Disrupters plan actions to shake up the status quo and build people power
- Visionaries remind us that regardless of outcome, we need to stay focused on re-imagining a different society because returning to normal is not an option
- Frontline responders provide support to voters who face barriers or organize rallies and protests (see https://866ourvote.org/)
- Experimenters identify new ideas to change government systems
- Guides share lessons learned about how people have historically organized to change systems of power (read this powerful article from Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw about what we can learn from 2016)
- Builders put together rapid response networks and plans (see https://holdthelineguide.com/)
See you all on the other side where no matter what happens, we keep up our struggle for social change, justice, liberation and solidarity.
