Below are resources to help you get started, find your next step, or to expand your action capabilities even further! We work everyday towards strengthening our democracy, we hope you’ll join in.
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Starting Out:
Attend a Municipal or a Local Board meeting.
Often, there are many local governing bodies that take votes with no one present. By attending the meetings of your borough or township, school board, or even the county commissioners, you are not only learning about what is involved- you’re also reminding them that they report to the constituents. If there is something that needs brought to their attention, you can speak to them during the public comment period.
Calls to Legislators.
Calling your representatives about upcoming votes gives you a say in the process and let’s them know what their constituents expect from them. It is true that the staff members for your representatives that are taking your calls are tallying the ‘fors’ and ‘againsts’ that people call about! Us the site 5 Calls to help find phone numbers, locate scripts on specific issues, and to be able to report if you can’t get through to your representative! https://5calls.org/
Flag Anti-Democracy Posts Online.
Did you know you can report social media posts for promoting anti-democracy rhetoric? Click on the three buttons in the top right hand corner of the post to report it! Doing this helps stop the spread of hateful rhetoric online that is working to tear our democracy apart.
Take Free Civic Courses Online.
Its true: an informed citizen is a powerful citizen. There are numerous courses online to help you understand our governing documents, how the civic process works, and even how legislation happens. Here are come links to get started:
https://pll.harvard.edu/course/we-people-civic-engagement-constitutional-democracy
https://www.coursera.org/learn/civic-engagement-american-democracy
https://civiced.org/we-provide-free-and-low-cost-civic-education
Read Books on the History of Fascism, Democracy, and Authoritarianism.
Here are a few to get you started:
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley
The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton
The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right by Enzo Traverso
From Fascism to Populism in History by Federico Finchelstein
How to Read Hitler by Neil Gregor
Twilight of Democracy:The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
Make a Plan to Vote with your Friends.
Voting is crucial to a Democracy, are you and your friends voting in every election? Pennsylvania has 2 every year! Make a plan to go together, or make a plan to check in with each other the day of the election to keep everyone accountable.
Align your Spending with your Values.
Support businesses that align their donations and support with your own. We recommend shopping local when you can and supporting the small business owners in your community. If that is not possible, we recommend checking this site as a starting place to learn more on companies that others have been boycotting due to their monetary donations or the actions they have (or failed to have) taken: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts
Share Credible and Factual Information Online.
Sharing posts on social media? It only takes a minute to fact check what is out there. Ensuring what you are sharing is accurate and true helps stop the spread of misinformation.
Research Upcoming Legislation and Read Representative Voting History.
Do you know how your representative votes on bills?
Find out what is coming up here:
US Senate: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/legislative_home.htm
US Congress: https://docs.house.gov/floor/
PA Senate: https://www.palegis.us/senate/session
PA House: https://www.palegis.us/house/session
View legislators voting records: https://www.votesmart.org/
Attend Lectures to Expand your Knowledge.
Find local lectures online through higher education institutions, local historical groups, and more to learn about a multitude of issues from different perspectives.
Taking it up a Level:
Write a Letter to the Editor.
Writing a letter to the editor in a local newspaper enables your voice to be shared throughout the community on a topic you care about- local, state, or national level!
Share What is Happening on Social Media in your Posts.
Individual stories and experiences add a lot of context to current event. Share these to help share these stories, but also write your own posts on issues. If you have a personal component to something that you are comfortable sharing, consider doing so. If you see someone else post theirs, share it. It is especially crucial to share posts that contain crucial information for citizens but isn’t being picked up from the news- videos are the best to share and verify their sources. We recommend fact checking, but we also know that protests, ICE deportations, and more have been underreported. Help get the word out!
Attend a Protest.
Attending a protest is a direct action, no experience is needed to just jump into one! Be sure to follow local laws and remain peaceful. Causes are harmed by violence. If you’d like, you can make a sign on whatever you have laying around to bring with you (it can be on cardboard, poster paper, etc.) or you can show up as you are. Make sure you bring water and review these tips: https://www.hrc.org/resources/tips-for-preparedness-peaceful-protesting-and-safety
Call out Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation when you see it.
Regardless of who is sharing these things, it is important to call these out right away to prevent the further spread of this detrimental misinformation.
Host a Book Club on Relevant Topics.
Did some reading from our “Starting Out” section? Why not have a book club with your friends to discuss these books with each other? Having critical conversations when reading helps to understand the texts better, but also increases the understanding among people you are close to.
Talk to Friends About Local Races.
How well do you know your local candidates? How well do your friends? Discussing local races with those you surround yourself with helps you learn more, and helps reminds your friends that not only there is an election coming up, but that these are the candidates that align with your values. If you are struggling to find candidate information, we recommend starting with our Candidate page: https://snydercountydems.com/candidates-information/
Share Reading Lists/Podcasts with Friends.
Assemble those books and podcasts that you have been learning from and put it out there for others to utilize! Shared knowledge is powerful knowledge!
Flood the Social Media Algorithms with Democracy.
Social media companies want to keep people online- that’s how they make money. To do that, posts with the most engagement are ‘bumped’ to appear to more people. Refrain from commenting on or engaging with anti-democracy posts, and instead engage on those that are factual, support your values, and do not contain hateful messaging. By ignoring the harmful posts entirely, they won’t keep cycling the news feed.
Bring a Friend to an Event.
Invite someone with when you attend an event! By engaging in events focused around political and civic participation, you are drastically increasing the likelihood that the person you brought with will go to vote in the next election.
Direct Impact:
Host a Candidate Meet and Greet.
The best way to learn about a candidate and to get to know them is by hosting a candidate at your home or somewhere local and get to know them! Invite a group of people- friends, neighbors, family, people that live in the district that the candidate is running in- and spend some time hearing their plans for office. Local candidates especially benefit from being right in front of voters to answer questions about themselves and their campaigns.
Organize a Community Service Event.
The most impactful thing you can do for your community is community service. Clean up a park, pick up litter, help a small business freshen up the outdoors space of theirs, do a food drive, do a winter coat drive, the possibilities are endless. Community service creates engaged citizens, and engaged citizens are ones that vote. Community service also increases exposure to local issues and research has shown a direct link between community service projects and voting habits. Need help with obtaining materials or getting the word out? Let us know! Our email is snydercountydems@gmail.com
Register Voters.
Voter Registration drives are important to ensure that as many people are registered as possible who are eligible to vote. Free voter registration forms can be picked up at the Elections Office in Middleburg and we recommend supplying the stamps for a no cost burden on new registrants. Additionally, Pennsylvania does online voter registration that is easy and free to use. By encouraging people to participate in Mail-in Voting, they will get a reminder each election that it is time to vote by having their mail-in ballot arrive right to their home! You can access the PA Voter Registration Online Form here: https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/Pages/VoterRegistrationApplication.aspx
Write Letters to Fellow Voters.
Writing personalized letters to voters who are the least likely to show up to the polls has a huge impact. Contact us at snydercountydems@gmail.com to have a list of people who are the least likely to vote created for you to work off of.
Volunteer with a Campaign of Organization.
One of the most valuable resources of a campaign, organization, or cause is its volunteers. Join a campaign team, and organization like Indivisible, or even our own committee group to start taking a variety of actions that are most beneficial in the moment!
Volunteer as a Poll Worker.
The integrity of our elections is crucial in maintaining our democracy. Contact our County’s Election Office to find opportunities: https://www.snydercounty.org/departments/elections/
Organize a Car Pool to the Polls.
Ensuring everyone votes is immensely important. Do your friends have a way of getting there? Do your neighbors? Set a time for you all to go together! Make it a day- go for breakfast, see a movie, walk in a park- reward yourself for completing your civic duty!
Donate to Candidates and Causes.
We don’t mean thousands of dollars….. microdonations on a reoccurring basis go incredibly for for groups going out and doing this work. $5 a month especially, added up among a large group of people on a monthly basis, give financial stability to groups and give a financial security for them to fall back on more so than one large donation. We believe in a give-what-you-can structure. Groups are grateful for every individual dollar donated to them.
Join our Committee or Another Value-Aligned Organization.
Volunteering, as we mentioned above, is crucial. However, this one is taking it one step further- becoming a member of a group tells them you are ready to put in some real work to make change in your community. This doesn’t mean hours and hours each week, but for example with us, it gives you the ability to vote on what we do as a committee member, it gives you access to more tools, and gives you an inside scoop with more resources on how to be someone that makes a difference.
Run for Office!
The most impactful thing you can do is to run for office. Local elected officials are the backbones of our community. They make the big decisions on taxes, road repairs, parks, initiatives, and more. Taking office puts you in the best position to make change in your community. Contact us for a Run-for-Office Workshop, to talk through what office may be a best fit for your skills, and more. We can be reached at snydercountydems@gmail.com
Behind the Scenes (with us!)
Button Making.
Help us make buttons for people to wear! We make them for candidates, for our stand as a fundraiser, and for issues we care about.
Write Postcards.
At certain times of year, we need a lot of manpower to write postcards to voters in our County! Keep an eye out for these events or reach out that you are interested.
Send New Voter Mailers.
Help us with mailers to new registrants to welcome them to our county! This is a once a month action for us.
Attend our Events.
Whether you are new to our community, or you have attended in the past, keep an eye out for events where you can take actions or find out more information. The link here will take you to our registration page: https://www.mobilize.us/snydercountydems/
Join our Facebook Group and Follow us Online.
Keep up to date with what is happening online through our social media pages! We also have an organizing group that you can request access through on our Facebook Page under Groups.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snydercountydemocrats/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snydercountydemocrats/
Resource Search to help us Build our Resource Page.
We are putting together resources like this page to help people find actions, media, events, and more to get involved. We always appreciate contributions. You can send them to snydercountydems.com for us to add them to this webpage: https://snydercountydems.com/resources/
Write Press Releases for Events and Happenings.
We are calling on those with journalism or writing experience to help us have a larger media impact! Let us know if you’d like to assist by reaching out to snydercountydems@gmail.com
Join our Sub-Committees.
Sub-Committees are where our work gets done. Whether its with our Events, Elections, Technology, or other groups, you can join us and help us out! Start by attending our Monthly Meetings either in person or virtually. Find those meetings here: https://www.mobilize.us/snydercountydems/
Deliver Yard Signs.
At select times of year, we deliver yard signs for free to people that want them to support our candidates- but that takes people to make it happen. If you like driving and listening to your music, this may be a good route for you- they are contactless deliveries! Reach out to us to get started.
Phone Bank.
During certain times, we will run phone banking for candidates. Keep an eye out for these- they can be done from your own home! We will train you on our system and provide you a script to assist. You can do as many or as few calls as you are able!