Small Steps For Big Change
by Charla Grenz Solheim
You know that one person who seems to do it all? They attend all the rallies and protests. They knock on doors. They get petition signatures. They have all the stickers from every election since the previous century (for young people, that means the 1900s).
You…are not that one person. You go on a social media post-sharing bender and occasionally get into a fight with a stranger online. You yell at TVs, your computer screen, your phone, that podcast, or the radio. You vote. You follow the news. Maybe you even write a blog or have an ongoing text thread with your sympathetic friends.
You need to do something. But you don’t know what it is or where to start. You start to feel guilty. Or hopeless. Or overwhelmed.
You have the passion. But you may not have the time or the information.
Welcome to the Small Steps For Big Change Series. Where you’ll find simple ways to get involved that will not require you to quit your job, ignore your loved ones, or miss that next season of whatever-you’re-watching-on-a-streaming-service.
WRITE LETTERS OR POSTCARDS
Yes, it’s really that easy. Research has proven (this article cites information all the way back to the beforetimes aka 2016) that it works. Letters or postcards encouraging people to register to vote, reminding lapsed voters to get engaged in the next election, or turning out the vote in special elections or local elections are very effective.
I discovered this civic hack during the Kamala Harris campaign in 2024 because a friend hosted a letter-writing party at her house. I couldn’t attend, but she emailed me a packet of letters to sign. All I needed to do was print them out, handwrite the person’s name, sign and write a short note on the letter, address the envelope, add a stamp (bonus: the stamps were celebrating the Constitutional Convention anniversary, so that was fun), and get them in the mail before a certain date. The hardest part was making sure I lined up the right envelopes with the right name on the letters (hey, don’t judge–it was a stressful time).
There are plenty of places to go online for this, but here is a shortlist:
