You have been through the Just Neighbors program, as a participant or facilitator.  You understand the problem of poverty, its causes, and its devastating effect on families.

What now?  What can you do to transform your knowledge and compassion into action?

Eight Things You Can Do
 

1.	Keep the Group Together Don’t lose contact with one another.  There is strength in numbers. Together, you can reinforce one another’s convictions and you can share the effort involved in the action you take.  Exchange phone numbers and e-mail adresses.  Continue to meet regularly.  Enjoy the company of others who have chosen to act to help their neighbors in need.
2.	Focus on Action As a group, ask, “What are we going to do about it?” When you meet, you are sure to want to discuss everything you’ve learned between meetings. Those discussion are important.  However, there must come a point at every meeting when, as a group, you ask that vital question about action. Every meeting should end with a plan for action before the next meeting, either as individuals or as a group.
3.	Connect Find out about local and national advocacy groups.  Prepare a list of advocacy campaigns in which the group can participate.  Gather information to present to the group.  Invite representatives of advocacy organizations to speak about advocacy opportunities.  Consider contacting these organizations:    Poverty USA    Six Strategies    Institute for Research on Poverty    Economic Policy Institute    National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice    National Living Wage Resource Center    National Low Income Housing Coalition    Southern Poverty Law Center    Children’s Defense Fund    Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign Join a “sweat equity” house-building program.  The most well known program of this type is Habitat for Humanity, but there are others as well. Work to form a partnership with a congregation of a different race. If most of the members of your congregation are of one race, consider reaching out to another congregation to participate in a joint action initiative.
4.	Learn Find out about the employment situation in your neighborhood. Talk to a municipal councilperson, the local chamber of commerce, or a labor union. Ask about the major employers in the area and the major obstacles for low-income families. Examine your state budget. Call the statehouse and request a copy of the state budget. Examine the expenditures for areas that would support low-income families, such as affordable housing, job training programs, and subsidized daycare. Find out about the housing situation in your neighborhood. Go to the Out of Reach report to learn the “housing wage” for your community. Speak with a local politician, union leader, or community development organization (CDC) about the gap between prevailing wages and housing costs in your community. Start a housing study group in your congregation. Learn about the housing situation in your neighborhood, and form links with local volunteer or advocacy groups working on the housing issue. Learn more about the National Housing Trust Fund.  This fund would serve as a permanent source of revenue for the production of new housing, and the preservation or rehabilitation of existing housing that is affordable for low-income people. Find out about the racial situation in your neighborhood. Consider where people live, where people work, where people socialize — and with whom — in your community. Where and how are the important decisions made and by whom? Join a study circle on race. A study circle is a group of people from different backgrounds who meet several times in a facilitated group to talk about an issue. Study circles on race are designed to go beyond “getting along better” to tackle the institutional and public dimensions that require collective action as well as individual change. Find out about the situation for children in your neighborhood. Talk to teachers, social workers, coaches, or others who work with children in your neighborhood. Ask them about children in need, what obstacles they face, and what would help them and their families. Find out about the wage situation in your neighborhood. Examine the wage structures of institutions in which you are involved, including subcontracted work, and speak up for those who are not earning a living wage. Educate yourself about corporate practices. If you find that a corporation has disagreeable practices, consider withdrawing investments or future purchasing from that company.
5.	Educate and Influence Write letters to the editor. Read the news and respond to articles about conditions that affect the working poor. Support your letter with facts. End with a positive suggestion about assisting the working poor. Write to your representative or senator and your state legislator or governor. Write to your state officials in support of policies that would benefit low-income families.
6.	Act Locally Join a mentoring program. Adult-and-youth and adult-and-family mentoring partnerships help to ensure future success by connecting low-income individuals with helpful resources. Start a job-support program in your organization. Ask local social-service agencies what needs are not being met in your neighborhood. Job-support programs include clothes closets that provide business attire for job interviews, résumé assistance, job interview coaching, computer courses, and other skill-training courses. Organize a living-wage campaign.  If there is no living wage campaign in your area, consider starting one by using a local coalition of congregations as a catalyst. Start a food pantry in your congregation. Many congregations have formed coalitions to provide a centralized location at which low-income families can obtain groceries on an emergency basis. Share a skill.  Social service agencies are often looking for volunteers to assist a family with computer training, résumé writing, budgeting, or tutoring. Be creative!  For example, if you’re skilled in photography, you could provide family portraits at low or no cost. Support a local community development corporation. Community development corporations (CDCs) are nonprofit organizations located in distressed communities — both urban and rural — that work to improve those communities. Address institutional racism locally. You probably belong to a number of institutions — for example, a congregation, a club, a community board, a workplace. Are these institutions diverse?  Is leadership shared equally? Consider what you can do to improve the diversity of the membership and the equity of the decision-making process. Give financial support for daycare or preschool programs. Offer financial assistance or scholarships to children who may not otherwise be able to attend a daycare or preschool program. Enter into a partnership program with a school in a low-income area. Many communities have programs that sponsor partnerships between businesses and schools. Congregations can also enter into such a partnership, providing tutoring help to students, after-school care and material needs. Contact your local school board for more information.
7.	Keep in Touch with the Just Neighbors Family We would like to be a part of your success story, and we would like you to be connected to other groups that are using Just Neighbors to make a difference. Please contribute news, suggestions, and success stories to this site. Just click the link at the top right of this page. Be sure to check the Just Neighbors News Page often!
8.	Spread the Word Help us bring the Just Neighbors program to the widest possible audience. Help to build the growing community of people who are using Just Neighbors to educate, motivate, and empower groups to make a difference for people in need. Tell a friend, neighbor, or relative about the program.  Contact local groups and institutions and offer to present the Just Neighbors program, or a specific portion of it.  Consider    congregations    schools, public and private    colleges and universities, public and private    fraternal organizations    service organizations    clubs    unions You will find many more ideas for spreading the word on the Promotion Page.