Parents and grandparents can be incredibly powerful agents for change. You influence your family, friends, and colleagues through your words and actions. You influence the society you live in by standing up, speaking out, and holding elected officials and institutions to account. 

Still, bringing people together to talk about big topics like climate change and a just society can feel intimidating, particularly if you haven’t been involved in something like this before. Our Organizing Guide breaks it down into very manageable steps. You can also sign up here and we'll help you get started.  

Here are the first key steps to starting a local group: 

Start a conversation: Open the door by starting a conversation about your concerns within your social network - online, with your family/friends, at your workplace or with a community you're a part of. You’ll be surprised who may come forward and voice interest in joining you.

Organize a meeting: Spread the invitation further and set up an initial session to get to know each other and share ideas. House parties are a tried-and-true method, but it will be a while before that kind of gathering can take place, given COVID-19 restrictions. Online meetings make it a little more difficult to create the same kind of atmosphere, but they do offer more flexibility and the chance for parents to participate from their own homes, so they are a good alternative. Here are some tips for running effective online meetings.

Brainstorm ideas for action: Think of where you can affect change and what might be motivating and energizing to work on together. It may take a meeting or two for the group to come to agreement. You can get some ideas and inspiration from other teams here and from our feature campaigns here.

Share what you’re working on with other groups in the For Our Kids network and elsewhere, to inspire more parents and grandparents to get involved.

Interested in learning more and possibly helping to lead a team? Sign up on this page and we’ll be in touch.