How can you create a social change campaign?

I am a fat old white cisgender queer lawyer with disabilities, who was raised working class and christian on the prairies. I believe that social change needs three things: 1. litigating change in the law 2. community organizing for political pressure and 3. an excellent media strategy to inform and educate the general public. I've been doing organizing and activism around queer and trans issues; and around unlearning oppression issues, for more than 40 years. Currently I am focusing on hate toward trans and queer people in Canada, and on US-fueled initiatives by provinces to restrict a child's right to privacy at school. I would be very happy to connect with others doing similar work.

I'm a Black Trans Queer man in my 50's who has been part of progressive political movements in US and globally for the last 30 years. In 2013, out my own sense of rage about the rampant gentrification and increased police occupation of my beloved, Brooklyn, NY , I founded , Equality for Flatbush (E4F). Equality for Flatbush (E4F) is a Black Lives Matter organization that fights gentrification, displacement and police violence in Brooklyn, NY . Led by Black and Brown lifelong and longtime New Yorkers, E4F believes in the abolition of the police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and prisons. We have only 2 goals: to end NYPD murders and to stop the displacement of low-to-middle income people from Brooklyn, NY.

I find that a super tangible goal is really helpful at the beginning. You want to be able to clearly push for a person or set of people to do a thing. When I first started it was asking the Governor of Montana in 2007 to imlement mandatory, face-to-face mental health screenings for Montana National Guard Members as part of their deployment process. The Goals have expanded since then to cover so many different areas of mental health advocacy, but I always try to keep in mind what do we want and who do we want to do it - realizing that likely will be tweaked in detail as the process moves forward. For example, the Governor's staff established multiple staged mental health screenings. That was a great idea and we incorporated it in Congress.

I've fought to make democracy work for everyday people since I was a teenager. Now, I'm active in education issues and youth sports in my community, and most recently served in a hyper-local elective office in Washington, DC. Sure, when goal-setting, I'm always looking to reach SMART before I seriously organizing around a cause, but I don't rush to get there. Identifying a broader theme to your activism allows you see the relationships between potential organizing campaigns, stakeholders, and helps shape an activist identity that will be useful as you engage more directly with officials, journalists, and others in the policymaking process. It also helps develop good timing--invaluable in advocacy.

An important aspect in creating a social change campaign is gaining compassion and understanding. As when you are raising awareness certain groups will disagree or feel left out. To counter this we develop understanding for all sides and make ways to hear all voices heard.

You have got to know your stakeholders, which begins long before the project needs arise. Very few people show up from “outside of the circle” and have the ability to rapidly gain rapport and buy-in. You’ve got to be able to be the person that sees the trend, researches, then offers a solution even a half step ahead of the members of that stakeholder group. It creates value, trust, and it makes your solution a “we” solution to “our” problem. Do your best to know your community and stakeholders and embed yourself so that you can see the clouds on the horizon and be the person handing out umbrellas when it starts to rain.

I always try to start with one person. Who is the decision-maker. If it is a committee, then you have to still start with winning over one person on the committee; before you move onto the next one. After you win over the Committee, then you're likely onto a broader deliverative body that can still be addressed individually as much as possible. That makes it so much more tangible and achievable than trying to address an amorphous crowd.

E4F's purpose is to uplift and contribute to the historical narrative that when low-to-middle income BIPOC come together to fight , we can/do win! BIPOC communities/movements are constantly inundated with propaganda that, “Tenants are powerless “, “Gentrification is inevitable”, “and the structural oppressions & state violence we face “can not be changed”. E4F strives to promote hope by putting the emphasis on community victories, no matter how small. We believe in "demonstrating revolutionary love", practicing kindness, being relentless, and having “ each other’s backs'' . These are our core values and what motivates our organizing . We Love Our People. #TakeBackBrooklyn #FightGentrification #AbolishThePolice #WeBelieveThatWeWillWin

It says something when an otherwise diverse coalition is united around a common purpose. It also adds capacity and access, opening doors to decision-makers you might otherwise have to work hard to open yourself. It's not the lazy approach, though. Cultivating broad stakeholdership really forces you to think beyond your own circumstances and understand the impacts on others of what you're fighting for. Critical is the ability, not just to listen, but to communicate from other perspectives beyond platitudes. Always keep your goal at heart, however, when making compromises. If you don't have a fully bought-in audience from day one, slow down and work hard to get them there.

Recognizing your value in problem-solving is rarely of your talent alone; it's by being the conduit and facilitator. This means having enough knowledge and awareness to know where to find the answer or who has it, learning what you need to seem competent, and then presenting the 20% of the answer to your stakeholder and offering your connections and resources for the remaining 80%

We are a member-led, majority Black Caribbean women and descendants of migrants of color organization. We believe in the self-determination and leadership of people most directly impacted by gentrification, displacement and police violence in NYC. We are our own spokespeople & strategists. Whether you've been in the organization for 5 years or 5 days, you are part of E4F's collaborative decision-making process. This means street vendors, homeowners , tenants , tenant associations , small business owners , people / families impacted by police violence , survivors of gender, sexual, and patriarchal violence , elders etc. determine for themselves their own course of action and strategies for every single E4F campaign.

I studied insurgency strategy at West Point. I relied heavily on it when I first fell into mental health advocacy and still do. I think there are a lot of great lessons there in how a weaker party can succeed in pushing powerful change through focus, nimbleness, time, etc. It's a great structure for a strategic campaign for change. I've published a little online on how we think about these efforts.

PLAN IN REVERSE. At its inception, the only thing you know about a campaign is its goal, so start there and keep woking backwards. There's a much stronger logic to mapping out timelines, outreach points, fundraising goals, and especially potential pitfalls, when you look at them from the next step's perspective. Your organizing for more than your own sake, so don't put pressure on yourself as the only person who can make everything happen. Remeber that big coalition your working so hard to cultivate? Wisely plug trusted stakeholders into acheiving a strategy. It will build an even stronger sense of ownership around your cause.

First of all, make a team with talents who resonate with the same purpose, under that vision, mission & goal will get generated. Secondly, continuously foster freedom and innovation in company culture. Thirdly, start acting with ideas. None knows which will click. If the strategies are not cost heavy try maximum possible way and measure the outcome where to put next amount of time and energy.

Social media is often seen as too great of an investment for smaller organizations but by tapping into the collective strength of an online community, any organization can effectively use social media to drive change. 1. Start Local: Focus on community-based platforms or local social media groups. 2. Mobilize Volunteers: Rally your volunteers to become digital ambassadors. 3. Engage with Similar Movements: Collaborate or engage in cross-promotion with other grassroots campaigns or causes that align with your mission. 4. Crowdsourcing Content: Encourage your supporters to create and share their own content related to your campaign. This not only diversifies your content but also deeply involves the community in the campaign.

E4F's campaigns : Triage, Accountability & Structural. Triage Projects : 1. Brooklyn-wide Alternatives to Calling 911 Hotline & Rapid Responder Team 2. Brooklyn Shows Love Mutual Aid Project 3. The Emergency Housing & Rental Assistance Fund 4. Providing Eviction Defense 6. Relocating Fire, Domestic Violence & Elder Abuse Survivors Accountability: 1. Natl online public shaming campaigns against landlords, The NYPD, elected officials & developers 2. Organizing tenant associations 3. Our Homes Are Not for Sale Homeowners' Campaign Structural Change Victories : 1. Winning the 2018 Rent Laws 2. Winning a cop-free zone for Street Vendors in Flatbush 3. Stopping the demolition of a stop on The Underground Railroad in Brooklyn

There are so many great tactics and they will change over the years. For example, OpEds in papers used to be really powerful. Now they have to really hit a specific audience in order to work. But broadly, I think it's important to get a strong email list together (Telegram or Slack channel) of people who are ready to help support your tactics throughout the weeks and years. Keep this audience engaged and active.

We are a grassroots activist organization that relies heavily on our members joining working groups and volunteering their time. There are organizational working groups, including graphic design, video, administration, language justice, and fundraising and campaign working groups, such as those for individual tenant associations, to hold a developer accountable for stealing a Black family's home, or for our police accountability work. Each campaign working group has its own leadership structure, meetings, literature, and social media campaigns. It is from our general membership and working groups that E4F’s core leadership body is derived from. Our current leadership team age range is 17 -55 and is a mix of students, homeowners & tenants .

I think you have to really focus on finding peoples' strengths and giving them opportunities to shine in those strengths. This requires flexibility in your efforts and tactics, but it's the only way to get the best out of a small, focused team. For example, we had one young woman come to us with such amazing graphic design skills that we had to dramatically increase that side of our awareness or it would have been a waste of her talents and drive for the cause.

Over the last 10 years, we have learned that 911 calls can lead to police murders & to stop displacement, you got to pay peoples' rent. Since 2018, E4F has served as a Brooklyn-wide Alternative to Calling 911 hotline, which allows people in emotional distress, due to domestic, anti-Asian, anti-LGBTQ+ violence or a mental health crisis, to be supported by trauma-informed interventions instead of dealing with the NYPD. We perform re-locations, mediations, eviction defense, etc. In 2022, we had 102 rapid response interventions. As of 7/3/2023, through grassroots fundraising we spent : $10,568 in back rent for court-involved tenants $15,900 for fire survivors $1,825 for storage units $39,596 for hotel rooms & groceries = $67,889

Keeping the messages short, simple and relatable is key. Giving people multiple ways to engage, at their level of comfort, increases participation while getting the message out to smaller (but multiple) audiences.