Activist Resource Hub

Election Day is Tuesday, November 5, 2024, and the stakes could not be higher.

Voting is a fundamental right and a cornerstone of American government. Our democracy works best when all voices are represented.

If you're eligible to vote, be an ACLU voter. Vote all the way down the ballot for governor, statewide elected officials, and propositions, as well as local officials and measures. Support new laws that will promote and strengthen our rights. Reject those that will turn back the clock.

Click here to see our endorsements and learn more about how you can prepare yourself and friends for the election.

Defeat Prop 36: Proposition 36 is a California ballot initiative for November 2024. It is a prison spending scam. We have already started organizing to fight back against this regressive and harmful measure that will fill our prisons and cut resources for important public safety, public health, and rehabilitation programs. Sign up to host a house party, text bank, or take another action to defeat Prop 36.

How to Fight Local Surveillance: You can stop secret surveillance in your community. Together, we are achieving important victories against secret and dangerous surveillance. We are raising awareness of how surveillance technology like drones, stingrays, and facial recognition exacerbate discriminatory policing, suppress dissent, and facilitate harm to immigrants and people of color. 

Land Acknowledgment Toolkit: A land acknowledgement can be a simple, powerful gesture to honor Indigenous peoples and lands and recognize our shared history. Land acknowledgements, when done carelessly, can do harm. Check out our best practices to help craft your own land acknowledgement.

My School My Rights: In California, public school students have rights to protect their ability to access their education. These rights can protect you in different ways from keeping you safe against bullying to ensuring you have access to resources at school if you and your family become unhoused. On this website, you can learn more about these rights and what you can do to protect your rights if your school violates them.

Sheriff Accountability: Sheriffs hold massive power in California counties over jails, law enforcement, emergency services, court-ordered evictions, and more. They are elected officials who must be accountable to the public that they serve. State law mandates that county boards of supervisors oversee sheriffs’ offices. AB 1185, which took effect in 2021, gave counties the authority to establish civilian oversight boards to assist supervisors in that role. As more counties join, we will continue to learn and assess best practices. See what we've gathered so far.

Police Decertification: In 2021, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 2 (SB 2), the Kenneth Ross, Jr. Police Decertification Act of 2021. SB 2 established a statewide system to decertify or suspend officers who have committed serious misconduct. If you've had a negative or abusive interaction with a police officer, we encourage you to use the new law to report the situation. Learn more about the process here.

Tribal Regalia Toolkit: In California, you have a right to wear tribal regalia and other items of cultural or religious significance at your high school graduation! Students’ right to wear tribal regalia at graduation is protected by California law. There are ways to fight if your school tells you otherwise. Learn more about your rights and how to advocate for them in our toolkit.

Often, the most impactful change you can make is through engaging in efforts at your city, county, or even school board level. The ACLU NorCal Organizing Team is working with advocates throughout our region supporting them to lead local campaigns for justice against police abuse, local budgets that lead to real opportunity and safety for all residents, and more. You have the power to make change, and these toolkits can help. Need support? Contact changemakers@aclunc.org

Here you'll find some of our recent and most popular trainings and webinars. For more content, you can visit our page on YouTube. 

• Accountability and Transformative Justice 101: Transformative Justice is a practice for responding to harm and violence without creating more harm and violence. It is the very opposite of the police and carceral systems that tear our communities apart and can be practiced on a community — or interpersonal — level. In this workshop, we develop an understanding for how transformative justice practices can transform our relationships and our communities.
• 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.
• Campaign Planning: Setting Goals and Identifying Targets: During this training, we 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?
• California’s Hidden History of Slavery - The Case for Reparations: A video from the ACLU of Northern California's Gold Chains campaign, tells a story that was deliberately left out of official California histories. Watch and learn why reparations are not only just but necessary.