Blue Beginning

Time = Now
Phones = How        

What were you thinking when you joined Blue Beginning? If you’re like a lot of us, it was something like this: OMG, we are in big trouble. I need to do something. When the time comes, I will!

OK, the time has come. In a week we’ll be 100 days from the election we’ve all been waiting for. So what do you need to do? You need to get on the phone. 

Since the Covid pandemic derailed our extensivecanvassing plans, phone banking has become the best tool we have to sway elections. Studies show that a well-run phone campaign can increase turnout by almost 4 percent. Compared to the margins by which the Covidiot in Chief won our midwest battleground states in 2016, 4 percent is huge.

Phone banking can be deceiving: you dial a lot of numbers and talk to only a few voters. But there are dozens and even hundreds of us on the phones every day. We’re like an army: no single soldier wins the war, but together we make a big difference. 

We’ve been running phone banks for a few months now, meeting on Zoom and calling on voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, and in Congresswoman Lauren Underwood’s district in the western suburbs. We’ve built a solid team of enthusiastic phone bankers who tell us they enjoy the teamwork, camaraderie, and opportunity to share experiences and learn from each other.  

It’s time to give it a try. If you’re new to phone banking, we’ll show you how in our popular training class Phone Banking 101. Then you’ll be ready to help us win the most important election of our lives. 

Here is our current (and ever-expanding) schedule of phone bank training classes.
Here is our schedule of upcoming phone banks.

Pick an event and join us. Your country needs you. Now.

Join the Indivisible Chicago Text Team 

Another great way to connect with voters is texting, and in coming months more and more campaigns will be stepping up or stepping into their texting efforts. We want to be ready to jump in wherever we’re needed, particularly in our target states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois. So we’re training and texting now while we have a chance to learn.

Campaign texting is not like thumb-typing a message to a friend. It’s mostly prescripted, highly automated, and relies on software that takes some getting used to. Different campaigns use different platforms and procedures. We’re starting with Indivisible’s program, IndivisiText. Once we’ve mastered it we’ll be able to pivot quickly to other platforms and participate in the campaigns that are most important to us. 

We have training classes scheduled for tonight and next Monday, each followed on Tuesday by a live text bank. Just as we do for phone banking, we’ll meet on Zoom, train you up, get you confident, stick with you while you work, and share our experiences to learn from each other.

Join us! Look here for our schedule of training classes and text banks. And keep checking back, we’re adding new sessions all the time.

Marj’s list: six ways to help at home       

While we struggle with the triple-whammy of a corrupt and feckless federal government, a raging pandemic that we alone seem incapable of controlling (is this what they mean by American exceptionalism?), and a national crisis of conscience over the issues of economic and racial justice, it’s too easy to forget how these interconnected tragedies play out in our own city. At Blue Beginning we tend to focus on electoral solutions to these problems, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the dedicated community activists who grapple with them day to day and block to block. 

Our cofounder Marj Halperin has a special interest in Chicago’s neglected neighborhoods, and she has compiled a short list of community organizations addressing their issues at ground zero. Groups like these are more important now than ever, and their job has never been harder. They need our support and especially our money.

Good Kids, Mad City
“We are the Black and Brown young people united in fighting to end violence in our cities. We call for more resources to underserved communities.” Indivisible Chicago was their partner as GK, MC led Chicago’s March for Our Lives rally after the murders in Parkland, Florida. They’re currently sponsoring a back-to-school drive to pass out supplies (drive-through) and an ambitious 4-year “Reclaiming the Hood” campaign to “buy back our community,” raising money to buy vacant properties along 63rd street, rehab them, and bring in black business and community spaces.

Institute for Nonviolence
On the front lines in Austin, West Garfield Park, and Back of the Yards to support victims of everyday gun violence using the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King. They mediate violent conflicts and respond to shootings with street outreach teams and victim advocates. They provide meals, PPE, and other resources to about 4,000 community members each week.

My Block, My Hood, My City
“Taking care of people, no matter what” includes summer jobs, tutors, and computer donations for teens; senior wellness calls and doorstep grocery deliveries during COVID-19; youth-senior connections; and neighborhood cleanups during the new civil rights movement. Take a youth-led tour of Lawndale and see all-white groups (socially distanced) on their first visits to a virtually all-black community.

Assata’s Daughters
“Black woman-led, young person-directed organization rooted in the Black Radical Tradition.” Providing black youth with political education, leadership development, mentorship, and “revolutionary services” including food, paying jobs, access to mental health resources, and guidance in navigating the structures of capitalism. Chicago Foundation for Women is awarding this group the Rev. Willie Taplin Barrow Emerging Leader Award.

BUILD
I first met BUILD outreach workers at a peace march in Back of the Yards—young Black men looking for ways to help their neighbors. Today they offer “Youth-driven solutions to help people in the pandemic” built around a 4-year entrepreneurship program that helps students develop small businesses and identify opportunities for college education.

Our Everyday
Robert Emmons, the dynamic young gun-safety advocate who challenged Bobby Rush in the March Democratic primary, has established this new PAC, which supports candidates who not only commit to fighting everyday gun violence but have lived experiences that make it a priority issue on a personal level.

Marj would like this to be the start of a conversation: if you know of other such groups, please send us an email and we will share your ideas in this space. 

Visit us at bluebeginning.org. Email us at bluebeginning2017@gmail.com. Check in with our Facebook group for news, events, and action opportunities posted by our members.