Supercharging grassroots political action in our communities 📢Nicole àBeckett, SameSide - a podcast by Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, People & Company, Kai Elmer Sotto, Maggie Zhang, Mia Quagliarello

“You don't have to be a celebrity or a mega influencer to take action and host an event. A hundred people or a thousand people don’t have to attend. It can be five people. That impact is still impact. ” - Nicole àBeckett 

Just after the 2016 U.S. election, many people were saying, “I want to do more to get involved but I don’t know how.” Nicole àBeckett and her brother, David, knew there had to be a better way to bring people together for action on issues that matter. 

They started SameSide with a simple idea—to incorporate civic engagement within existing communities. Based in LA, Nicole worked with a local named Phil in March of 2017 to host the first event. 

Phil had a large network of friends and rallied them just after the Women’s March to campaign for Sarah Hernandez, a candidate for Senate in California. Together with SameSide he paired phone banking with a brewery tour. While phone banking was intimidating to some, the brewery tour with friends nudged fifteen of Phil’s buds to cross the threshold to activism. 

Through SameSide, this accessible activism model has been employed at scale. SameSide offers hosts the tools to learn and take action on issues. A host's job isn’t to be an expert; it’s to convene people around something they care about. The Standard Hotel is hosting pool parties advocating for gun safety.  A woman celebrating her birthday wove in efforts to support ending the rape kit backlog in California. 

We talked with Nicole about how she has empowered hosts with tools to gather folks around what they care about to take action.

Highlights, inspiration, & key learnings:

• Origin story. The beginning of integrating civic action with existing experiences and communities.
• Supporting leaders. How Nicole instills confidence and educates hosts on civic issues with issue baked tool kits.
• Ramping up the purposeful and participatory in activities. The tools Nicole offers hosts to make events action-focused.
• Leaders roadmap. Nicole utilized email campaigns to plant the seed for folks to take their first action and work up to hosting.

👋🏻Say hi to Nicole and learn more about SameSide.

✨Say hi to Marjorie Anderson, “Get Together” correspondent.

📄See the full transcript 

This podcast was created by the team at People & Company. 

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