Indivisibles,

After our network showed up in force to celebrate the anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act in August, we took a step back to assess our impact and figure out the right next steps for the Powering Progress campaign. And now, we want to pull back the curtain for a moment and share our top findings: 

1. 1:1 conversations are key. Tactics where Indivisibles are able to directly connect with their neighbors -- like community tabling and canvassing -- showed a lot of promise. The overwhelming response from community members was one of happy surprise: folks didn’t know about the benefits, and when they hear about them, they’re more optimistic and engaged. We’re going to do this more! 
2. Press without conflict is hard. It’s particularly hard to get earned media for events celebrating the Inflation Reduction Act. Press loves conflict… but education and celebration events don’t have as much drama as other types of campaigns. We are going to lean away from flashy events meant to get earned media on this particular campaign. Instead, we’ll lean into press strategies like letters to the editor and op-eds, plus online disinformation disruption, that we can still use to shape the broader narrative, and which we saw initial success on during August. 
3. Our messaging works. Our campaign uses non-partisan, race class messaging to share how the clean energy and healthcare benefits that we’ve fought so hard to secure for our communities are helping communities everywhere – across race and place. We wanted to be sure this messaging framework was working, so we partnered with our friends at Data for Progress to test it out. The results: our messaging increases support for an active, inclusive government among a persuadable audience (folks not entrenched in either political party) by 8 points on average. So we feel solid in our messaging approach, which you can read more about here.

We’re thrilled to continue Powering Progress and have a plan for October that incorporates all these lessons. In the coming month, we’ll be launching a neighbor-to-neighbor canvassing program to encourage more one-on-one conversation (October 25!); holding a training on Race Class Narrative to build our messaging skills (October 16!); and learning how to combat local-level disinformation spread by bad actors to decrease our trust in an active, inclusive government (October 11!). See more on all of these upcoming training opportunities below.  

But wait, why are we excited about celebrating a bill that’s over a year old? Two reasons: 

First, we’ve got a strategy to build a bigger “us”: The benefits in this historic legislation -- remember, it’s the biggest climate bill ever and the biggest healthcare bill since the Affordable Care Act -- give us a rare opportunity to show folks who aren’t already in our coalition what’s possible when the government partners with communities to uplift all of us, no matter our zip code. By celebrating concrete improvements in people’s lives as the result of the Inflation Reduction Act, we will increase the number of people who support an active and inclusive government and are therefore harder to target with racialized divide-and-conquer messaging. This is the core strategy of the Powering Progress campaign, and it’s as powerful as ever. 

Second, we’ve got timely hooks and new things to celebrate: It takes a while for new laws to bear fruit, and one year later, the impact of the IRA is blossoming across the country! There are new benefits, projects, grants, and/or rebates announced every month -- since the beginning of October alone, we’ve already seen the roll-out of free vaccines for folks on Medicaid, big moves to push Big Pharma to cut prescription drug costs, and new ways for folks to receive financial assistance to make their homes energy efficient!  

If you’re ready to help harvest more support for the Inflation Reduction Act and a government committed to doing right by all, here’s how you can get involved:

1. Join us to knock on a handful of doors in your neighborhood on Wednesday, October 25 at 6:30pm ET/3:30pm PT! Neighbor-to-neighbor canvassing is a great tool for connecting with your community and celebrating the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act through educational conversations. Join our kickoff call for this program on Oct 25th where you will learn how to talk to your neighbors, and celebrate the IRA’s historic investment in clean energy and affordable healthcare. Register here.
2. Attend our Big Truths Call on Wednesday, October 11 at 6:30pm ET/3:30pm PT. While trick-or-treaters knock on doors for candy, we’re gearing up to treat our neighbors to some tasty disinformation disruption! This year, we’ve talked about the impact of local lies on our schools, climate and health. Now we can -- and must -- speak out in our own communities. Join featured speaker Progress Now and Indivisible experts as we launch our first neighborhood disinformation debunking actions, including how to knock on doors for more than just candy. Register here. 
3. Join us for our Race Class Narrative two-part training series. Join us for a 2-part introductory training to learn how to use Race Class Narrative Messaging in your work. The right regularly uses racial fear as a tool to exploit economic anxieties and turn people against one another, and turn them against a government that works for all. The Race Class Narrative messaging does just the opposite. This training will run on Monday, October 16 from 8-9:30pm ET / 5-6:30pm PT, and will include a combination of lecture-style time and active participation/contribution from attendees. Indivisible's RCN training is heavily influenced by the materials and knowledge of our partners at We Make the Future. Register here for part 1 of the training, and once you’ve done that, sign up for part 2.

Together, we can fight disinformation from people trying to spread lies about climate change and the IRA and ultimately unite and heal our communities. Commit to do what you can to help at this time, like knocking on doors or attending a training, and remember -- we can’t do all this work without you. 

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team