CUNY CLEAR (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) – resources for immigrant and non-citizens

 

There are many ways to be involved in shaping the world around you and helping it become the kind of place that you want to live. You are not helpless or inconsequential!

Things that we discussed in class following the election:

  • Ensure that you’re as well-informed as you can be. Read the news, read the news from reliable sources. Learn about who down-ballot candidates are, even in off-year elections.
  • Vote, even especially in off-year elections.
  • Volunteer for political campaigns that you believe in: give money, campaign, do phone banking, do polling, do canvassing
  • Run for office.
  • Protest. It’s an outlet for negative energy, it’s a way to meet other people who share your ideals, it’s a way to create a sense of community, and it is a public way to demonstrate what you are feeling. Bring comfortable shoes and wear layers.
  • Participate in community organizations and NGOs (non-government organizations) that champion causes you believe in: Black Lives Matter, ACLU, NAACP, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross
  • Contact your elected officials (City Council Members, State Senators and Representatives, Federal Senators and Representatives) via email, calls, and written letters. Put the skills you’ve been developing to be persuasive, effective writers to use.
  • Continue and complete your education, and do so beyond the classroom. Work to be the best version of yourself that you can be. Demand the same from those around you.
  • Listen to people that you don’t agree with. Understand their perspectives. Work to make yourself understood.

 

Here are two links to other resources of ways that you can participate or think even more broadly about actions that you can take: