There’s loads you can do to make a difference, even if you have no money to spare.
So much, in fact, that we’ve split these actions over several posts. Here’s part 2.
Click any of the images to see them at a larger size.
SORT IT OUT
Organisations helping refugees and migrants need help sorting donations and packing aid.
For the more adventurous (or those less tied to duties at home) there are openings for people to travel and distribute goods. The migrant situation changes fast, so check the websites of charities organising the collections and distribution to see what’s needed and where.
Image by Beata Sosnowska
WALK THE STREETS
It’s really easy to organise a march or a demonstration these days, thanks to social media. So, get everyone out on the streets and let’s shout about injustice.
Image by Simon Russell
GIVE UP A LUXURY
In the habit of buying something you don’t need?
Whether it’s your mocha-chocca-latte of a morning or your fast-fashion habit, why not challenge yourself to give it up — for good, or for a set amount of time — then give the money you would have spent to an organisation that really needs it.
Image by Penny Sharp
START WRITING
Our parents wrote to the letters page of their local press.
These days, with online space to fill, many publications are happy to accept high-quality thought pieces from the public.
For local issues, approach your regional press and get your community onside. For national issues, go big.
Image by Keijo Ahlqvist
SHARE YOUR SKILLS
Run a workshop to share your practical knowledge, whether that’s about cooking, gardening, bike repair, plumbing…or anything else that will help people save money.
Image by Jenny Drew
LAYER UP
Instead of turning the heating on, put another layer on. Just like your mum told you.
Image by Danny Noble
MEET THE NEIGHBOURS
Run a zocalo. Named after the Mexican city square, a zocalo is a simple scheme to encourage neighbourhood community.
The official Zocalo website says: “On Zocalo Day we invite you to step out from your home, plonk a chair on the street and get to know your neighbours. Of course, if you want to share tea and biscuits with them, all the better. Zocalos are mercifully free of fund-raising, red tape, council intervention and bunting. And with any luck, at the end of the night you’ll find you’ve acquired a whole load of new friends who just happen to live down the road”.
Some of those new friends might be people who are very much in need of a neighbourhood community, to combat loneliness or because they find it difficult to leave the house.
Image by Amy Lam
LEAVE A DEPOSIT
Shop dropping is the opposite of shop-lifting: instead of taking from a store, you leave something.
Slip a note into a jacket pocket, pin a badge onto a lapel, or leave a drawing between the pages of a book: a political message for a future shopper to find.
Works particularly well for spreading the word on issues like sweatshop conditions, the living wage, and undesirable business connections.
This action may contravene the law in some jurisdictions: proceed with caution.
Image by Kate Charlesworth
SIGN, SEAL, DELIVER
Signing a petition is so easy that it sometimes feels like it can’t be changing anything, but there are many examples of petitions that have reversed policy, halted poor decisions and changed the world.
In the UK, if a petition to Parliament gains more than 10,000 signatures, it must be debated in the House. There is a similar law in Australia.
Once you’ve signed, share: your social circles are influenced by what you do, and sharing can bring in several more signatures.
Image by Nicholas Sputnik Miller
KNOW WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA
Subscribe to an online service so that you’ll always know when an important vote is coming up.
Contact your MP or representative and tell them how you want them to vote — even if you know they’ll be toeing the party line. Get your right-thinking friends to do the same.
If enough people make their feelings clear, your representative will convey that upwards to Parliament.
What if there’s no website like this for your country? You can set one up!
Image by Sarah Mirk
PLANT A TREE
The Woodland Trust gives eight reasons for planting a tree, from providing a habitat for the many creatures that live on, below and around them, to helping with flood defences.
In the UK, they’ll even provide trees for schools and communities, for free.
Image by Abigail Lingford
RESIST IMMIGRATION RAIDS
The Anti-Raids Network list this as one of their recommended actions. We reckon there might be a hundred ‘fun’ or ‘accidental’ ways to do this.
This action may contravene the law in some jurisdictions: proceed with caution.
Image by Nic Vas
All artwork on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
SORT IT OUT
Organisations helping refugees and migrants need help sorting donations and packing aid.
For the more adventurous (or those less tied to duties at home) there are openings for people to travel and distribute goods. The migrant situation changes fast, so check the websites of charities organising the collections and distribution to see what’s needed and where.
Image by Beata Sosnowska
WALK THE STREETS
It’s really easy to organise a march or a demonstration these days, thanks to social media. So, get everyone out on the streets and let’s shout about injustice.
Image by Simon Russell
GIVE UP A LUXURY
In the habit of buying something you don’t need?
Whether it’s your mocha-chocca-latte of a morning or your fast-fashion habit, why not challenge yourself to give it up — for good, or for a set amount of time — then give the money you would have spent to an organisation that really needs it.
Image by Penny Sharp
START WRITING
Our parents wrote to the letters page of their local press.
These days, with online space to fill, many publications are happy to accept high-quality thought pieces from the public.
For local issues, approach your regional press and get your community onside. For national issues, go big.
Image by Keijo Ahlqvist
Draw The Line 