Action #7/10 – We Belong Together

Today, we are sharing action item #7 from the Women’s March 10 actions/100 days campaign.

Action 7 in our 10 Actions / 100 Days campaign, We Belong Together, is centered around the concept of unity and family, and the belief that children have a critical role to play in the resistance movement. This action is part of a collaboration with National Domestic Workers Alliance, WeCount!, PowerU, the American Friends Service Committee, #LoveArmy, MomsRising, FLIC, Make it Work, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, UndocuBlack Network and the Women’s Refugee Commission.

The foundation of our movement is rooted in the bonds that we share with each other, with our families — those we are born into and those we choose — and with our communities. We believe that families and children should live free from fear of discriminatory policies that threaten to divide us, and tear parents away from their children. Children have a unique vantage point in experiencing what is happening in our society, and their voices on these issues are particularly powerful.

Young activists and youth engaged in their communities are not only the future – they are the present.

Last week, a group of 40 Latinx and Black youth set out by bus from Miami to DC, with stops in Atlanta and Raleigh, to call on local leaders to stand strong against current immigration policies that threaten to tear their families and communities apart. Their journey culminated at the front of the White House, where they were joined by fellow youth from DC, New York, Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Together, they created an interlocking Unity Circle, a safe space to demonstrate their commitment to unity and to each other.

For Action 7, we invite you to join us in participating in the We Belong Together Kids Week of Action. Unite with children and families across the country, empower young activists and commit to making communities a welcoming place for all.

Here are four ways you can participate:

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE

1. Create or join a #WeBelongTogether Unity Circle in your community. During the week of action, we encourage kids and youth to form circles and link arms around spaces they seek to make safe and welcoming for all, such as schools, parks, playgrounds, city halls and congressional offices, to demonstrate how young people are uniting against dangerous policies that threaten to tear communities apart. Invite local leaders to join your circles – teachers, school officials, mayors, city council members, for example – and commit to enacting or fighting for policies that support and defend young people in their communities. See the We Belong Together Organizer Toolkit for more suggestions for creating a Unity Circle.

2. Educate yourself and engage with young people about how discriminatory policies are affecting their lives, especially kids of color and refugees. We’ve included a list of resources for you below.

Immigration and Deportation

Betraying Family Values How Immigration Policy at the United States Border is Separating Families

8 Ways the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders Harm Refugee Women and Children

The Short Immigration Guide to How Arrests & Convictions Separate Families

Know Your Rights: What to Do If Immigration or the Police Come to Your Door

ICE and Border Patrol Abuses

Immigrants’ Rights and Detention

Children With Immigrant Parents

Criminalization of Youth of Color

Miami Youth Speak Out on the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Intro to Restorative Practices

Expanding Sanctuary: What Makes A City A Sanctuary Now?

An Immediate End to the Criminalization and Dehumanization of Black Youth

Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected

Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Juvenile Justice System

The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story

After-School Education: Teaching Tolerance

Immigration Myths

Exploring Young Immigrant Stories

Countering Islamophobia

The Motivation for Movement

What’s a Sanctuary City Anyway?

3. Write postcards to elected officials. Gather a group of friends or plan a classroom activity to write postcards to your local elected officials. (Visit the link here to find your elected officials.) Ask them to support laws that keep families and communities together. Click the postcards below to print and download – feel free to color in the second one created by Devika Sen – or create your own and share them on social media using the hashtag #WeBelongTogether.