Three Steps to Kickstart Your Campaign for Police Reform

YOU have the power to lead your community in the fight for police reform.

YOU can be the difference for change. Let's get started; let's pass police reform!

1) Assemble a circle of people from your community that also want to get active.

These can be faith-community friends and acquaintances, fellow sorority/fraternity members, local chapters of historical and established organizations (such as the NAACP, YWCA, Congressional Black Caucus, Boys and Girls Club of America, etc.), or fellow members of local clubs and other outreach groups. Don’t be afraid to get young people involved! Call up your local YMCA/YWCA and ask if they have a group of teen campers who might be interested in getting involved with grassroots activism. Call up local church VBS day-camps to ask the same question!

2) Decide on a single-event course of action.

We’re aiming to pull together and pass the Justice in Policing Act against some pretty stacked odds that have pitted a Democrat-controlled House against a Republican-controlled Senate. If you support the Justice in Policing Act, then your circle needs to convince the Republican-controlled Senate that they should too. So how do you launch a convincing campaign in one, single, event? Decide on one, small, goal—to make your voice heard in the offices of up to three senators that you think might be ready to listen to another party’s politics. Craft your event around flooding those senators’ phone lines, and their email inboxes, and their physical mail boxes! Two to three hours of dedicated calling, writing, and emailing to a select number of senators could make more difference than you’d think…

3) Get the word out!

So you’ve decided to host a letter or email writing party. Or maybe you’ve got your phones ready for a group call-in. But how do you get a good-sized group together? Reach out to local businesses in your neighborhood: ask local business owners if they would allow you put up a poster advertising your call-in or letter/email campaign so that more people have a chance to participate. Even if people want to call from their own homes during the same hours as your call-in--that's a win! Seek out your local post office’s bulletin boards and ask if you can advertise your event there. Part of the official mission of the YWCA is “eliminating racism”—ask if you can advertise there, and possibly host your event there as a kind of quid-pro-quo advertising for the YWCA space!