Ukrainians Boston🇺🇦

Guide to Community Action

by Ukrainians@MIT

ukrainiansboston@gmail.com

Please use as a reference, apply to YOUR university, suggest improvements to the guide.

How to:

Host a Call your Representatives Event

• Provide free food so people want to come! At MIT, heads of residence halls have been happy to fund this as long as students themselves did the political organizing. Many other funding sources specific to your school are also possible, ask around for options!
• Give a short talk with background on the war. Not everyone has been checking the news all the time, and you want everybody to feel welcome at the event and feel like they know enough to talk about the cause on a call or email. Give timeline of the conflict, current numbers on refugees, mortalities, etc., and what has been done so far internationally and in the U.S.
• Provide links to find who your senators and representatives are, and direct links to contact info for those in your state.

• House: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
• Senate: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

• Encourage people to call rather than email, but emailing is better than nothing. A call is very either likely to go to voicemail, or be answered by an intern who will just take your name, listen to your concern, and thank you for calling. It’s not as stressful as it sounds!
• Rather than providing a copy-paste script, which is easier to screen out, encourage people to write their own. Doesn’t have to be anything complicated–just state your name, why you care about the issue, state support for the U.S. government’s actions in Ukraine and list some additional actions you want the government to take. Some options for these actions (e.g. more military aid, further sanctions) should be listed on the slideshow and explained.
• This approach can be expanded to encouraging people to contact businesses as well. Adjust demands to include things like stopping trade with Russia, and give specific instructions for contact info.
• Link to example presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/155OSQ5Sw2g8KPATzUlUA5dlznav7dRLefQzqDRvloFk/edit?usp=sharing 

• This was used early in the war and includes numbers and demands that are out of date, as well as a script that is out of date. Please use this as a reference and make your own!