Small Steps, Big Impact: The Power of Squads
Our current Squads, all operating on different timelines and time zones, are hard at work contacting voters. Just last week, our Squads sent over 600 postcards to Arizona. The week before, to Pennsylvania. They called in their friends, their neighbors, and even the people at their church to join them in action.
After a successful first month of Squads, I want to take a moment to introduce myself and Squads, a Fieldwork program we re-launched in March. I’m Jessica, a Fieldwork Associate with Common Power. Maybe you’ve read my name floating around in the remote world or seen my face at a couple of trainings for the last couple of years, but today, I’m happy to be leading our Squads program.
So what is “Squads”?
Squads first emerged in 2020 as a response to the pandemic that left us with few opportunities to engage in community. We reimagined what fieldwork could be and learned how to participate in democracy in innovative ways: phone banking, text banking, and postcarding in our little Covid bubble. Now, four years later, we’ve made it past the pandemic but we didn’t forget the lessons we learned along the way.
In 2024, we’re feeling the anxiety and pressure to win. And while there’s a lot of energy for action, it’s hard to know exactly where to put it. Where do we start? How do we decide which election, issue, or candidate is the ONE thing we should be focusing on?
That’s what Squads is for.
Squads are the perfect way to direct your energy into productive action all year round. We curate specific action opportunities that will best impact the national map and we feed them to you on the regular. Instead of waiting for November to come, every day becomes an opportunity to make a difference in the world around you. It's like having a personal roadmap to activism. And the best part is, is that you can share it with your friends and family.
Squads are how we make fieldwork sustainable.
Saving democracy isn't exactly a walk in the park. It's tough and tiring, believe me. Even though I love this work, I still feel the burnout creeping in at the end of every week. And when I think about the dedicated teachers, the working parents, the stressed-out millennials, and the rebellious teens — all finding time in their packed schedules to join our cause, it genuinely blows my mind.
Our program isn't about making democracy feel like a chore. It's about making it fun, bringing friends together, and making a difference while we're at it. It might sound complicated, but I promise it's not. It’s actually the simplest thing in the world.
Imagine this: you and your friends, all gathered together to drink wine and watch The Bachelor on a Tuesday night. Why not add some postcarding into the mix? Instead of having just the weekly couch gossip, why don’t we also send some texts to voters together? Get a group of friends and go gather some petitions for a weekend. Squads are what you already do in your everyday lives but with the bonus of a little action.
How does Squads work?
Every time we send out a newsletter, we offer work to influence the most important elections at that given time. We keep our eyes out for special elections that fly under the radar but end up tipping the balance of a state legislature. We look at where the momentum is at and see how we can amplify grassroots efforts. We do the research and figure out the best time to send texts or mail a postcard in time for voters to receive and get to the polls.
Squads are all about doing small, easy actions together to make a BIG impact.
If it's once a week or even once a year, the little steps you take today add up and will make a difference in November. So I hope to see you out there, with your own Squad, taking action and having fun while you’re at it!
