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Social Change Chicago
One of the benefits of working with so many communities in so many contexts around is building a broad network. The festival organizers turned community service providers gave know-your-rights training to 1,000 organizations nationwide. In the deep South, they canvassed door-to-door to get out the vote. They engaged 250,000 voters across the country, distributed more than 550,000 pounds of food, and shared countless resources. This provided a broad national network of diverse activists, organizers, community-based organizations, and service providers.
“When we started working with RISE around vaccines, it felt like we had in-roads everywhere. We would get into these conversations like, ‘Do you know rural farmers in the South?’ and we were like, ‘Yeah. We were just there!’ so we were in a good position to provide introductions,” Belcore explains.
Building connections and establishing networks gave Social Change reach; being community-directed in meeting needs helps them earn trust.
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