Now is the time to act locally

Since we launched She Will Fight, one question keeps coming up: Does local action really matter right now?

The news is relentless. One confusing new policy after another. One natural disaster after another. One constitutional crisis after another. And leaders on both sides of the aisle who oppose any of it face retaliation. It’s exhausting, and it makes tuning out feel like the only way to cope. But that’s exactly how democracies crumble. Not with one big event, but with millions of people slowly stepping back.

So yes, acting locally still matters. In fact, it’s the only thing that does. We won’t fix this with a single headline or hero. We fix it by reconnecting, rebuilding, and refusing to give up on each other.

What we mean by local action

We mean donating to food banks. Helping someone navigate their voter registration. Showing up to town halls. Getting emergency training. Helping a neighbor in distress.

We mean running for office, and stepping up to organize your community. Volunteering for a political campaign.

But we also mean book clubs. Stop signs. Church dinners. Supporting small businesses. Sports leagues. Cookouts. Community subreddits. Saying hi. All of it, all of it, is local action. Literally.

Because community work increases our social capital; that is, our ability to communicate with and rely on our neighbors, our feeling of trust and belonging, our belief that we can make a difference.

The great Bowling Alone, which details this decline, was written 25 years ago. But social media, disinformation, the pandemic, the decline of local news, and extreme political and economic divisions (among other things) have really put a whammy on it since then.

Fear, misinformation, isolation, and distrust have never been higher. And that’s what fascism and authoritarianism feed on. This is why civic engagement is a crucial pillar of a healthy democracy. It’s proof that people haven’t given up on each other.

How to take local action effectively

Failures of democracy show up as local emergencies. Here’s how we can work within our communities to be prepared.

Advocate for what you need.

The devastating recent floods in Texas are an example of why showing up is so important. Back in 2016, leaders in Kerr County wanted to install a siren system to improve flood alerts. Some 50 community members showed up to say sirens were too noisy and too prone to false alarms. Kerr County has a population of about 50,000, but those 50 people won the day because they were the only ones engaged.

This is how local politics works. We have to say what we need, loudly and regularly and directly to our leadership, so that our leadership reflects all of us.

(By the way, participation wasn’t the only problem with the emergency alert system in Kerr County by a long shot. The Texas government also repeatedly denied state funding for an emergency alert system. But it was definitely a factor.)

Work to shift local government.

On the national level, we can vote, protest, boycott, and speak out regularly for what we believe in. And we should do all of those things. But locally, we can work with our neighbors to actually rewrite how our government works.

Ten years ago, Barcelona was in crisis. The political group that had been running the city for 40 years was affiliated with the national party. Both the city and the country were dealing with recession, a housing shortage, and unmanaged tourism. But in 2015, a new group, Barcelona en Comú, gained control of the city by involving as many citizens as possible to create a hugely popular platform. In the decade since, Barcelona has been able to resist national policy and protect its citizens’ rights.

Meanwhile, just last week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released a city directive that created several new, local ways to support people targeted by ICE. And at the state level, officials are furiously working to defend immigrants’ rights, preserve education funding, and protect disaster prevention programs, among many, many other things.

Create trusted ways to help each other.

What would happen if political violence broke out on your street? If there was a hurricane and the usual help didn’t show up? If your vote was tampered with? Do you know where to go? With misinformation and disinformation rampant online, how will you get your information? What if it was happening to someone else in your community? How would you hear about it? Would you know how to help?

This is where community organizing comes in. We can create networks and programs to help ourselves. Mutual aid is nothing new. We see it throughout history in everything from the Underground Railroad to AIDS advocacy to bail bond support to neighborhood watch to pandemic support. We can also work with local governments and existing programs to help people learn bystander intervention and emergency training.

We can’t prepare for everything that might happen. But we can build strong networks of people who trust each other. That’s why bonding socially with your neighbors is also crisis preparation. After Hurricane Helene, a group of gay DJs stepped up and was able to help faster than the National Guard. What could your book club or pickleball team do one day? And what more might you be able to do if you started talking about it now?

Step up, organize, and lead.

Right now, we need people who are willing to step up. If you’re even thinking about organizing your community or running for office someday, this is the time to get serious. Our democracy needs people who are ready to lead—not later, but now.

Wondering what that looks like? A few of the key skills that go into community leadership include:

Powermapping. Who does what? Who do you call in which type of emergency? What are their priorities?

Spotting the leverage points. What’s actually up for grabs? What moments, budgets, or decisions could shift if the right people showed up?

Widening the circle. How do we stretch beyond our echo chambers and grow those who are part of the solution?

In other words, you don’t need a degree in urban planning to step up. You don’t need experience. You just need to be a problem-solver with an urge to help.

Taking action right now matters more than anything.

Yes, we’re tired. Yes, we are scared. Yes, we still have to go to work and be productive as it feels like the world is ending. Yes, nothing seems like it’s enough.

But think of it in terms of your health. As a nation, we’ve been neglecting our social capital and civic engagement for a very long time. Right now, we need some urgent care. But we also need to start taking better care of ourselves regularly. Civic engagement isn’t one and done; it’s a practice. Even the little actions matter.

Every action you take is good for your actual health, too. You need a sense of belonging and civic muscle for your own well-being. And the more you participate, the better you feel.

We need to reweave our national fabric. We need to increase our social capital. If we all participate in our community, if we voice our concerns regularly, organize, and vote, we can still do this. We can bolster our democracy, strengthen our constitution, and come out on the other side happier and more connected, ready to do the work of rebuilding.

And if the threat grows deeper, if there are bigger challenges ahead, then right now we’re building a local foundation for resistance that will help us organize and fight back with everything we’ve got.