Graphic of three photographs: one with a woman on the phone, another of a protest outside, and another of a person holding a phone in their hands

Be The Change: Take Action in 2021

Change happens because of people like you. Join our people-powered movement for justice, equity and freedom!

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No matter your level of experience, there is an opportunity for everyone to get involved: 

  • Sign up for our general volunteer e-mail list to receive information about upcoming trainings, virtual events, and opportunities to take action. 

  • Join us for a text or phone bank. Our Outreach Team helps us mobilize voters to contact their lawmakers, turn people out for online events, and connect people to ACLU resources. We host at least one phone or text bank a week.

  • Chapters are the grassroots team of the ACLU, organizing locally across Northern California. They host events to build community and educate the public, cultivate partnerships with local organizations and leaders, and work with staff to move forward ACLU campaign goals and civil liberties priorities. Learn more at one of our upcoming info sessions

Upcoming 2021 Training and Events Calendar 

Please sign up for individual trainings and events below. You can sign up for one or all: they’re free! Check back here for recordings and an updated calendar as we add new trainings and events throughout the year. If at any time you have questions, please email changemakers@aclunc.org.

November

  • Culture Shift | Trainings for Equity and Racial Justice: Land Acknowledgments and Indigenous Justice 101
    Land acknowledgments can be a first step towards rectifying the centuries-long attempt at complete erasure of Indigenous people in the United States. When done well, land acknowledgements can serve as a reminder that all land that is now the United States is occupied Indigenous territory, bring visibility and awareness to Indigenous leaders advocating for freedom and justice, and serve as inspiration for audience members to learn and get involved. When done inappropriately or un-thoughtfully, land acknowledgements can unintentionally cause more harm to Indigenous peoples. Learn how to integrate land acknowledgments into your organizing and gain a deeper understanding of indigenous justice and decolonization Register for the training on Tuesday, November 2nd here.

  • Trainings for Change Makers: Analyzing Public Policy
    Public policy has a huge impact on all of our day-to-day lives, but reading and understanding it is challenging. Find out how to decipher public policy with staff from the ACLU California Action legislative advocacy team, including the difference between a resolution and ordinance, subtle shifts in meaning because of words like may or shall, and how to spot key words and phrases to understand the impact of legislation that affects you. Register for the training on Tuesday, November 9th here.

Past 2021 Training and Events Calendar 

January

  • Thursday, January 28: Be an ACLU NorCal Change Maker: 2021 Campaign Priorities
    Join the ACLU Organizing Team to learn what’s at stake in 2021, how we plan to move forward a powerful agenda, and how you can be involved. This event has passed, but you can view the recording here.

February

  • Trainings for Change Makers: Meeting with Elected Officials
    Your elected officials work for you! Learn how to effectively meet with your elected official and talk to them about the issues that matter to you. After the training, we will provide you the materials to meet with your State Senator or Assemblymember to talk about ACLU legislative priorities. This event has passed, but you can view the recording here.

March

  • Culture Shift | Trainings for Equity and Racial Justice: Combatting White Supremacy in Progressive Spaces
    White supremacy is deeply woven into the politics and society of the United States, including in spaces where we are fighting against white supremacy. Join us for a discussion about how white supremacy shows up, even when we don’t intend it, the impact, and practical tools you can develop to interrupt and dismantle white supremacy. This event has passed. Please contact changemakers@aclunc.org for the slides or more information.

  • Trainings for Change Makers: Opportunities for Advocacy in the Local Budget Process
    The local budget processes in your city and county are opportunities to make your voice heard and advocate for issues important to your community. Join us to learn how you can make the most of this opportunity! This event was cancelled, please see the Training for Change Makers event in May or watch a similar webinar here.

April

May

  • Culture Shift | Trainings for Equity and Racial Justice: Outreach Through a Racial Justice Lens
    Learn how to avoid tokenism, build trust through action, and create transformational relationships in your outreach. This event has passed. Please contact changemakers@aclunc.org for the slides or more information.

  • Training for Change Makers: Local Legislative and Budget Process
    During this training we will talk about how local government works -- Board of Supervisors, City Council, City Mangers, Commissions, and Advisory Boards. Who has power, how do we shift that power, and how do we hold our elected leaders accountable? How do we influence the budget process to get funding for our communities? Join us with a special guest from Vessels of Vallejo to understand how you can make democracy work for your community.  This event has passed, but you can view the recording here.

June

  • Training for Change Makers: Redistricting 101
    What is redistricting? It is one of the most important democratic processes of 2021! Redistricting is the redrawing of district lines from which public officials are elected, like city council or school board districts. Redistricting matters. The way lines are drawn will not only impact who your community has the power to elect, but ultimately, your ability to shape the local, state, and federal policies that affect your everyday life. Join us to learn how you can engage in this process to advocate for district lines that are truly representative of the community. This event has passed but you can view the recording here. 

July

  • Culture Shift | Trainings for Equity and Racial Justice: How to Have a Good Anti-Racist Meeting
    Having conversations about race can be really hard for us as individuals or for other people we are trying to engage in dialogue. Discussions about race can bring up a lot of discomfort for people not normally impacted by racism or anti-Black racism, but that discomfort can create the space to learn and grow. In this session, we are joined by facilitating partners Jolana Watson and Jazzmine Hardges-Garner to talk about building comfort with discomfort in order to have productive conversations about race. This event has passed. Please contact changemakers@aclunc.org for the slides or more information.

August

  • Training for Change Makers: Redistricting 201
    Ready to take a deeper dive and up your advocacy skills to engage in the redistricting process? If you joined us for the June Trainings for Change Makers (Redistricting 101) and want to help advocate for district lines that are truly representative of your community, join us for this training where we will provide more in depth detail about what you can expect in the process and how you can advocate to ensure that district lines are drawn fairly and in a way that maximizes community power to shape the policies that affect everyday lives. This event has passed, but you can view the recording here.

September

  • Culture Shift | Trainings for Equity and Racial Justice: What is Respectability Politics
    Be a lady. Be professional with your language. Activists of today need to protest the way Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr did if they want to be taken seriously. These phrases are commonly said to set expectations about who deserves respect and fairness. But these expectations can reinforce systems of racism and sexism, even if that’s not the intention. In this workshop, we will explore the subtle ways in which the politics of respectability unfold in social justice movements, alienating impacted people, and derailing movements to build collective power to achieve freedom, justice, and equality. This event has passed. Please contact changemakers@aclunc.org for the slides or more information.

  • Trainings for Change Makers: Campaign Planning: Setting Goals and Identifying Targets
    During this training, we’ll cover how clear goal-setting, identifying target decision-makers, and people power are critical to achieving meaningful change. What’s your visionary goal, and how do your short-term goals get you there? How can we identify the local decision-makers who can give us what we want and build the power to influence them? This event has passed, but you can view the recording here.

October

  • Trainings for Change Makers: Immigration Detention
    Immigration detention is fundamentally cruel and unnecessary. Despite recent progress on the state level to enact immigrant-friendly policies, our state still has seven immigration detention facilities: six of them privately run and one run in collaboration with Yuba County. In this training, join us to learn how you can advocate with your member of Congress to call on the Biden administration to take action to close some of these facilities.This event has passed, but you can view the recording here.

  • Trainings for Change Makers: Campaign Planning: Power Mapping
    Power mapping is an important tool to figure out how you can persuade and influence your target to give you what you need to achieve your campaign goals. It is a necessary part of building a campaign strategy. In this workshop, we will cover making sure you are targeting the right decision-maker for your campaign goals, several models of power mapping, and how to use publicly available data to map networks of influence and persuasion. This event has passed, but you can view the recording here.