Hello!

I’m Kim, and I am the president of Indivisible NWI (Northwest Indiana). Back in the beginning of April, we were asked to be part of the Powering Progress pilot program -- specifically, to work on the Inflation Reduction Act Hype Campaign. Our steering committee, knowing how important messaging is, decided immediately to jump in.

Let me tell you more about why we’re so invested in this campaign and what we’ve been working on, and if you’re ready to join, I hope you’ll register for the upcoming Powering Progress campaign call on Thursday, July 13 at 8pm Eastern Time/5pm Pacific Time.

Getting started 

The pilot program had three main tracks: canvassing to educate the community about the IRA; celebrating the legislation through local media, events and other initiatives; and advocating for local schools to take advantage of funding for projects for the health of their students. Knowing that Indivisible groups’ real strength is public-facing tactics and public events, we chose to take on the celebrating part of the assignment. But at the same time, we all know how important educating the public is, so we took that part on as well through our meetings, events, and public speaking to groups. (And as it turns out, the Powering Progress campaign is now focused on just those public celebration and community education tactics over the summer!)

We are very excited about the work that we have done with Powering Progress, and we would like to share it with Indivisibles nationwide in hopes that it may help in the work that you are doing in your local Indivisible groups. (And if you're not connected to a local group yet, we've got information on how to find one down below!) We took the following steps to create and execute our plan for the program:

1. Research – Indivisible provided us with great resources, but it helped that one of our members was a former librarian and fantastic at doing research to find everything we needed to know, up to date, regarding the Inflation Reduction Act, what was in it, and how it related to affordable clean energy. Once our group did this, we began to share with the entire chapter.
2. Handouts – We created handouts to distribute at every public meeting, every event, and to every group that we spoke to.
3. Letters to the editor – We asked those who wanted to get involved to send letters to the media in the three counties that we serve. We ended up with letters published in seven different media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune!
4. Social media – We created simple, colorful, to-the-point graphics, including a link to more information, and asked members to share through their personal pages and networks in addition to our group’s accounts. We also shared these posts with partner organizations as well to expand our reach.
5. Leading public meetings – We took time at our public meetings to give talks informing everyone on the IRA and its benefits.
6. Engaging new groups – two of our members spoke to our local unions to explain the IRA and invite them to get involved in celebrating it.
7. Planning events with elected officials – We invited Congressman Frank Mrvan (IN-1) to do a public forum with us to speak to our members and the public about the IRA and its affordable clean energy provisions. We also have a second forum planned with State Representative Earl Harris Jr. to talk about what the IRA is doing for Northwest Indiana. 
8. Connecting effective messengers with those who need to hear the message – We set up Congressman Mrvan with a local rail workers' union to personally deliver the message of what the IRA is doing for our community.
9. Organizing community events – We recently partnered with community organizations to offer a health, wellness, and vaccine fair to the public. We had a booth to do voter registration and invited another group to do civic education. We gave out handouts on the IRA and affordable clean energy to all attendees.

We are very enthusiastic to have worked on this project because we know that it's essential to show people that government can improve all our lives when capable leaders are in charge. And we will continue to do more -- we have found that our members were very happy to be asked to do something tangible. The more things that we planned, and the more we asked, the more members of our group seemed to get involved and excited about getting this information out to the community. And as we have offered more ways to get involved, our membership has grown. It started with a small group doing the planning, and then expanded to involve our entire chapter to get it all done.

Our group has been part of Indivisible since the very beginning. We all agree that it’s one of the best things we have ever done. We work across three counties in Northwest Indiana to bring information, education and more to our community. We are known to other groups here as being the people who can educate others on issues and legislation -- and to provide real and true information.

What you can do!

There’s never been a better time to join in. Click here to register for the Powering Progress call on July 13 to learn more about this work and connect with like-minded activists who are ready to get involved. There will be information and resources provided to get you started.

And know that we need you in this work for the long haul. After you sign up, find your local Indivisible group and attend their meetings. If you don’t have a local group, think about creating one. At the least, join another group through meetings online and attend training sessions. Commit to do what you can to get the information you need to be able to talk to others about what is important, and to find people just as committed as you are so you can work together. Indivisible is community.

Sincerely,

Kim Eldridge and the Steering Committee
Indivisible NWI