How do you want to make a difference?
Takoma Park Mobilization’s working groups are autonomous interest groups that initiate, plan, and execute most of TPM’s activities. Most working groups meet twice a month and all groups welcome new members. Whether you have an idea about what we should be doing or you just want to help, email the working group that will help you to get mobilized and find out when their next meeting is.
Breaking Bread, community dinners: breakingbread@tpmobilization.org. More coming soon!
Communications/Outreach/Organizing/Logistics (COOL): COOL@tpmobilization.org. The Communications Group makes sure that all members of the Mobilization are informed about the activities of TPM’s various working groups and committees, through all forms of print and electronic media. Whether you’re a writer who wants to report on the Mobilization using emails or FaceBook posts, Twitter feeds, and the Mobilization’s website, or a technical specialist interested in playing with electronic media to exploit their communication potential, welcome to our newsroom.
+ Artists and Graphic Designer Subcommittee: art@tpmobilization.org
+ COOL Tech Team: TechTeam@Tpmobilization.org
Education & Training Group: education@tpmobilization@org. The first goal of the Education & Training Group is to utilize the knowledge and skills of residents of Takoma Park to provide educational opportunities for TP Mobilization members and our community who are interested in local activism and progressive causes. The second is that the group will act as a resource and a model to support similar educational activities within and outside of TP Mobilization. A few more focused activities are part of this group:
- Subcommittee on Diversity, Inclusion, Bias and Anti-Racism Training
- Nonviolent Action Study Group
- TP Mobilization Book Group
Electoral/Constitutional Committee: electoral@tpmobilization.org. The electoral/constitutional working group is concerned with issues at the core of our democracy, such as redistricting, voter suppression, and the role of money in politics.
Environmental Committee (TPMEC): environment@tpmobilization.org. TPMEC is full of dedicated people who work hard to make our environment safe and healthy, focusing especially on curbing climate change. We are energized by working together to give all of us the collective power to make our community and our planet safe for everyone.
We’re currently working with a coalition of groups called Maryland Leads on Climate, which is compelling Maryland political leaders to take dramatic action on climate change by making it a major issue in the 2018 state elections and beyond. In the past we turned Marylanders out for the People’s Climate March and helped the Maryland Sierra Club strengthen the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Immigration and Muslim Solidarity Committee: immigration@tpmobilization.org. The Immigration and Muslim Solidarity Committee works to support and partner with our immigrant and Muslim neighbors in a number of different ways. The group is currently composed of four subcommittees:
- Direct Support, which provides direct services (such as connections to lawyers, court accompaniment, fundraising, etc) to immigrants in our communities;
- Sanctuary Movement, which focuses on building a network of individuals, faith-based organizations, and other organizations to offer sanctuary to immigrants threatened with deportation;
- Muslim Solidarity, which works with our local Muslim community to counter Islamaphobia and educate others about Islamaphobia;
- Legislation, which works to lobby at the local, state, and national level in support of policies that protect immigrants, such as the Trust Act, the DREAM act, and more.
Indivisible: indivisible@tpmobilization.org. The Indivisible Working Group engages in the political process in ways that promote the progressive agenda of the Takoma Park Mobilization. We engage our community by creating or identifying opportunities for people to participate in the political process. This might involve volunteering in campaigns, organizing or participating in rallies, lobbying members of Congress and state lawmakers, and candidate forums. We work with other Indivisible groups nationwide, as well as other local partners, to resist the Trump agenda and accomplish a progressive agenda.
Other issues we care about:
Economic Equity: economic@tpmobilization.org
Health Care: healthcare@tpmobilization.org
LGBTQ+: LGBTQ@tpmobilization.org
Stand Up!Show Up!, rapid response to hate crimes and racism: SUSU@tpmobilization.org
Women: women@tpmobilization.org
Resources for activists
Former congressional staffers reveal best practices for making Congress listen
Open Sourcing Social Change: Inside the Constellation Model
Mijente: Expanding Sanctuary: What Makes a City a Sanctuary Now?
Local to Takoma Park:
CHEER 2017: Takoma Park and Long Branch Goals 2016