What does your garden look like?
Whether you’re on your own or have a group of others to plan with, begin your campaign by mapping out the landscape:
- What are your opportunities (what strengths you have, any political opportunities coming up, any events you could tie a campaign into, what issues are really pressing etc)?
- What are your networks (who do you know personally, what other groups of people are you connected to in some way etc)?
- What are your skills (think as widely as possible – almost any skill could be used in your campaigns!)?
Sowing seeds
Next you will need to plan your campaign.
- First pick your issue to focus on.
- Think through who’s potentially on your side; how will you get them involved?
- Who are the decision makers/power holders?
- What exactly do you want as an outcome?
- What do you want to achieve as a small first step to achieving this?
- Can you come up with a step-by-step strategy to achieve the first step? eg, what will you try first, and if that doesn’t work, what next, and if that doesn’t work, what next..?
Getting a bigger harvest
Raising the profile of your campaign and getting more people involved will help your campaign grow bigger and faster! Think about meeting regularly for socialising and planning actions, preferably in a time and place that other people could easily find you and join in. Take regular actions towards the campaign goal, and publicise it (eg on a blog, social media and in local newspapers and other media). You could even contact other groups in advance that you think might be interested in joining in with the action to invite them along. Welcome anyone wanting to get involved with you and let them know how they can get on board, and give them opportunities to help with the next action.
You can download our guide to growing your own harvest of justice below!