Parents and grandparents are incredible, powerful agents for change because we're guided by our commitment to protect our kids.
There are so many parents and grandparents concerned about climate change and the world we're passing on to our kids. What's missing is someone willing to bring them together. Do you want to start a For Our Kids team in your community?
We're here to help:
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Check out our Organizing Guide, it breaks up the process into manageable steps.
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Sign-up here and we'll help you getting started.
For Our Kids teams:
- Frame their work as parents taking climate action and bring together parents, grandparents and families to take collective action
- Are made up of at least 3-4 people working together over time
- Empowered to work on issues they care about
- Are non-partisan
- Supported by the national network support team, who also connect teams across the country
For Our Kids team organizers are:
- Looking for a way to get more involved in climate solutions
- People who like working in a team and are interested in connecting with other parents/grandparents navigating the climate crisis
- Have 1-2 hours per week to give to For Our Kids organizing, including responding to emails and organizing regular team meetings where you live
Support offered:
- Provide initial action suggestions that help build community
- Personal coaching via email, phone, or video call (and sometimes in person depending on where you are)
- A regular team organizer meeting with other team/group leaders so you can meet one another and share stories, advice, strategy
- Regular Team Organizers' Newsletters and access to a Slack Workspace, for updates and connection with other teams
- Training on organizing groups, communications, social media, etc.
- Small grants to help you cover hard costs for your activities
- Access to a video conferencing account for your use
- Use of our Nationbuilder platform for web pages, sign ups, and petitions
- Amplification of your work through our social channels and network
3 Key Steps to Starting a Team:
1) Find some friends (AKA recruitment): A welcoming first meeting or House Party are a solid recruitment methods where you draw on your social circles to invite other parents you think may be interested to share some food and to have an initial conversation to test for willingness to be involved. We may have parents in your area signed up via this website, so be in touch with us and we can put you in touch with them. We also have some suggested meeting/house party agendas to help you connect, get to know each other and brainstorm what you can do!
2) Take Something On: It's good to do something together relatively soon rather than spend a long time just talking about it, or people will drop off. Having said that, choose an initial activity that a majority of your team is into and that has tasks for everyone to do. Remember that you can always take something else on next. What your team decides to do is up to you, but we recommend that any project be time bound (you know when it's over), visible, and within the ability of your team to pull it off (even if that means recruiting more expertise). Here's a list of possible activities for your team to discuss.
3) Tell the Story: Great actions get bigger when we talk about them. Share what you’re working on with us and we'll share the news across the network in our newsletter and social channels. Sharing our stories on social media or in mainstream news can also help inspire more parents to get involved and gets the attention of the power holders we want to motivate.
We'd love to support you through this process. Make sure you sign-up here or contact: [email protected] to stay in touch.