Welcome to the first Moms Next Door Dispatch! 

To help build our power together, to be there for one another, and to, well, help lift our nation up and out of this mess, we’ve started a new national pilot program to rise up together and connect locally: Moms Next Door. Sign up now to get these monthly dispatches in your inbox and learn new ways to connect!

What’s the Moms Next Door Dispatch? Each month, you’ll receive the Moms Next Door Dispatch (Scroll down!) – a monthly toolkit that will arrive in your inbox to provide you and your community with ideas on how to self-organize and take action; as well as a way to process and make sense of all that’s going on; AND ways to remain calm, find joy in community, and recharge as we build a brighter future!

And this is our very first Dispatch! Below, you’ll find a special link to sign up to attend our first-ever Moms Next Door Monthly Organizing ZOOM meeting – and when you scroll down, you’ll find the menu of five ways for you to engage this month, on your own – or with your friends and family:

1- MONTHLY ORGANIZING ZOOM MEETUP: Our first monthly organizing ZOOM is happening this month on Wednesday, March 26th at 8 pm ET | 5 pm PT. Sign-up here. We’ll co-create actions that work in your community, share tools and tips, and answer questions about your organizing plans. Look forward to seeing you!

2- ACTION OF THE MONTH: Drop off a storybook from moms across the nation at the office of your local member of Congress. You can do this on your own or with a small group of friends. The stories you’ll be dropping off show why Congress should not cut key programs that fuel our economy and lift our families – like Medicaid which covers 72 million Americans – to give even more tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy.

* This is easier than it might appear at first! When you sign up HERE, we’ll snail mail you the book of stories along with delivery instructions, including how to find the location of your nearest member of Congress. (When you get your storybook and deliver it, take a picture and post on social media with #MomsRising to show Congress that there’s a rising movement!)

3- FUN, JOY & POWER:

• Gather Up: Hold A Coffee or Playdate & Call Your Members of Congress to tell them families don’t want more tax breaks for billionaires and no cuts to Medicaid! Just gather a couple of friends, grab your coffee, and start dialing from your cell phones together. (Don’t forget to take a picture and post it on social media with #MomsRising to inspire even more moms to rise).
• Build Action Into Your Existing Clubs: Gather with your local knitting group, soccer team, or gardening club and call Congress while you’re together – and then take a picture and post it on social media with the hashtag #MomsRising to double your impact. 
• Here are our two call-in actions for this Dispatch for you to use with coffee, crafts, or even at your kitchen table:

1. Click Here to Call Congress to say: No cuts to Medicaid (which covers 72 million people!)
2. Click Here to Call your Representative and tell them to: Choose families over billionaires
3. Check back in on our MomsRising blog to get the latest news, petition actions, and more call-to-congress actions (and more!).

4- WHAT WE’RE READING THIS MONTH - BOOK GROUPS: For people wanting to start book groups for change, or just looking for good books, we have two recommended books this month, one fiction, and one non-fiction: Unbecoming by Seema Yasmin is a terrific fiction book, and Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change by Angela Garbes is an excellent non-fiction read. *When you meet up to talk books, take a picture and post it on social media with #MomsRising to show others that they aren’t alone!

Need some book ideas for the kiddos in your life this month? Here you go: 

• Yes! No! A First Conversation About Consent (ages 2-5): Written by early childhood professionals, this book includes anatomically correct images/identification and bridges conversations on body safety and consent in age-appropriate frameworks. 
• The Magical Yet (ages 4-8, also available in Spanish): A beautifully illustrated book with diverse representation working kids through the concept “I can’t do this” by reframing it as a cute fairy-like figure called the “magical yet” - an embodiment of the belief that if we keep trying, we can get to where we want to be. We encourage you to frame this around the changes we want to see too! 
• Show Me History: Frida Kahlo (age 8-12): Encourage a love of history with this accessible graphic novel biography of the life of Frida Kahlo for Women’s History Month (March)!

* Want to support your local bookstore? Use the Bookshop finder to locate the local bookstore closest to you. You can also use Bookshop.org to find women, Black, AAPI, LGBTQIA+-, Latine, and Indigenous-owned bookstores to order from online to support. 

5- MUTUAL SUPPORT OPTION: What is mutual aid? Different from charity—which is where resources usefully flow in one direction from donors to recipients—mutual aid is community-driven and reciprocal, built on community-based solidarity. And many parents and caregivers are already doing this! 

To see mutual support happening around you, all you have to do is look at your local PTA, community spaces, child care center, meal trains, community gardens, and even kids’ birthday parties to know that moms are the original mutual support organizers. You likely already have what you need to support your family, your community, and the movement in the months and years ahead. In creating communities of love, we also want to turn them into communities of support, protection, and action to prepare for what’s ahead. 

* MUTUAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY OF THE MONTH FOR YOU: This month, our mutual activity is to create or donate to Free Libraries. Your free library can just be lending – or borrowing – a book (or two or three) with friends, family, and neighbors. You can also donate or borrow a book from your local Buy Nothing Groups. For an example of a big Free Library project, check out the 904 Forward project in Florida, which has gone as far as building free libraries with communities directly impacted by public school disinvestment and censorship.

Thank you for being here. We are looking forward to strengthening connections and community in refreshing, educational, and joyful ways with you in the coming months! Don't forget to sign up to get the Moms Next Door Dispatch in your inbox next month, if you haven't already.