By Sam Lambert
When I was younger, I would often listen to my aunty tell stories of her adventures. She was fiercely anti-war growing up in the time of Vietnam and often traveled to protests. I recall saying, more than once, that I wish I lived in such a historic moment, with the chance to make a difference.
As I get older, I recall all of the historically significant events that did in fact occur throughout my lifetime. What was my role and what will I tell my children when they ask how I engaged? The truth of the matter is that I was steeped in work, raising children… surviving. Does voting and the occasional email to an elected representative count?
In short? Yes, it most certainly does. If that is all you have the capacity for, that is enough. But many people are asking for more, something beyond doomscrolling and petition signing. It wasn’t until 12 years ago, at the urging of my then teenage daughter, that I found myself volunteering at an urban community farm that was donating their produce to a nearby food pantry that prepared and distributed meals to families living in shelters without kitchens. It was something we did together and that eventually, my entire family took part in. Those days are fully embedded into our collective family memory.
Those early days taught me something else. As we spent more time at the farm, which was located on a local rail trail, we encountered more and more people. These strangers turned neighbors turned friends became integral to my relationship with my community. I began to understand my neighborhood in a way I couldn’t from within the four walls of my home and the boundless landscape of the internet. The threads of friendship soon became a web of support. We began engaging in new ways with our local government, forming a coalition to address education disparities. We built relationships with local elected officials and ran to replace the ones that were not representing us effectively. We became a hub of mutual aid when the pandemic came knocking. We fed ourselves and our neighbors while teaching our young people how to do the same. We continue to organize and fight for safe and welcoming communities. I didn’t have the word for what we were doing at the time, but have since learned that all of this was the result of social infrastructure, those third spaces that support and maintain community-building.
When prospective or existing volunteers reach out to ask me what they can do, how they can make a difference, my response is generally this. Find those spaces. If they don’t exist, help create them. As we learned, they can be virtual if necessary. Lean into the issue areas that you feel passionate about, but be open to exploring how they intersect with those you are less familiar with. Find organizations that have a structure and the resources to plug in to an existing team or to get started building your own (shameless plug: Massachusetts Sierra Club is one!).
Building the world we want will be very difficult if we don’t build the foundation of community first. It is central to what we do here at the Club and if you are ready, we are waiting! Let us know if you are interested in joining a team, attending an outing, or scheduling a local meet-up. A member of our team can meet with you one-on-one to explore what options and resources are available.