“Every action, no matter how small, is like drips on a rock. Over time, they can carve a canyon through even the thickest, most immovable layers of rock.”

-Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand Action 

Upcoming Events

 Friday Funday 

 Action Hour

Join us for in-person Action Hour each Friday 4-5pm at NU Kitchen on 19-23 Pleasant Street (next to Loretta). We’ll write postcards to voters in the sunny, comfortable cafe, with access to an incredible menu of coffees, teas, baked goods and more. The deadline for voter registration before the Arizona Primary is July 5; let’s reach as many voters as we can before the deadline!

Rescheduled Fundraiser

On Friday, June 17, at 7pm, join us for our rescheduled fundraiser at a home in West Newbury. The weather should be beautiful for an outside gathering with like-minded friends and activists.

Your donation of $25 to attend the fundraiser will be used to help I-RISE pay for things like space rental, our Zoom subscription, and postcard stock. It also will be allocated toward donations to non-profit organizations dedicated to voter protection like Common Cause and the New Georgia Project. 

Click here to RSVP. We look forward to seeing you! If you already RSVP’d, you are all set! We’ll email you with the new address.

 Volunteers Needed - Canvass Saturday!  

We all know that we have to keep our Democratic Senators and Congresspeople in office. Win Blue New Hampshire offers the opportunity to help reelect Senator Maggie Hassan and Representative Chris Pappas. 

Join us for canvassing in Exeter, NH on Sat, June 18 from 10-1. We can carpool and canvas in teams. Never canvassed before? We’ll team you with a door knocking expert. This is a real way to make a difference in two crucial elections.

Email indivisible.rise.newburyport@gmail.com if you’re interested in participating. 

Screening at Monthly Meeting

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

7-8:15 pm. Register here.

Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight To Vote (2022) by Robert Greenwald (Director of Outfoxed, Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Making A Killing: Guns Greed and the NRA) is a powerful 44-minute documentary about the growing threat of voter suppression and election sabotage to our 2022 midterm elections. We have a unique opportunity through Common Cause to show this film at our June 21, 2022 meeting, and we hope you will join us. Register to join us on Zoom.

In 2021, 19 states passed 34 new voter laws following the Big Lie of the 2020 election. The film focuses on this recent wave of voter suppression and subversion laws being enacted in states, and how the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp provides a blueprint for today’s voter suppression laws across the country. The film includes perspectives from voters in Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Georgia that highlight how these new laws will affect their constitutional right to vote. We’ll follow the film with a brief discussion and a description of ways that we can help.   

Statewide Activist Gathering

On Sunday, June 26, 2022, from 12 - 4pm gather with more than 50 local activist groups from around Massachusetts at the 1st Annual IMC IndivisiGather event!

Socialize, get inspired and unify with other MA activists to do the work that it will take to win the midterms, protect voting rights, and make a difference in the fights for reducing gun violence, protecting women’s reproductive rights, and saving the environment. Meet with, listen and learn from keynote speaker Ezra Levin, Indivisible Cofounder & Co-Executive Director.

There will be lunch, family fun activities, political actions to take at the event, and informational tables set up by various groups. The event will be both outdoors and inside with Covd precautions.

Sign up here. Email Indivisible.Rise.Newburyport@gmail.com if you’d like to arrange for carpooling.

Critical Issues

Our primary focus has been on voter rights and increasing voter turnout in swing states. However, there are key issues front and center in headlines which demand attention and about which we want to share actions:  

Ending Gun Violence
 

Artists Unite Against Gun Violence

TODAY, Thursday, June 16 at 6-8 pm, join a PEG Center for Art and Activism event at which Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America advocate Ann Hasser and Everytown activist and gun violence survivor Gregor Gibson will discuss the epidemic of gun violence in this country, its impact on survivors, and actions we all can take to help making a difference. The event is sold out for in person attendance, but it is not too late to register here to attend by Zoom.

These presentations are part of a 2 month long focus on gun violence and gun safety, with the PEG Center displaying an exhibit of the works of 15 artists whose work focuses on these issues. The exhibit is co-curated by Doris Madsen of the Massachusetts Chapter of Moms.

Take Action with Moms 

Moms Demand Action and its Gunsense Action Network have prepared a one page document listing ways to get involved, whether you have 5 minutes or several hours to help. Ideas include signing up for their mailing list, attending a rally, making calls,utilizing a special skill, and more. Review the list and find what works for you here.

Protecting Reproductive Rights

Help Texas Women

On Tuesday, June 28 at 7:00 pm, the Indivisible Mass Coalition statewide meeting will feature Sisters United Alliance (SUA), a Texas based, data-driven organization focused on empowering women to vote. With TX having some of the country’s most stringent abortion laws (as well as voter suppression laws and tactics), getting the 600,000 non-voting women who are registered Democrats in that state out to vote can make a huge difference!

Come learn about SUA’s innovative strategy to get these women out to vote and how you can get involved in partnership with the IMC’s Feminist Action Team. Register here for the meeting. 

For more action ideas fro the IMC Feminist Action Team, check out the group’s Bans Off Our Bodies Action Toolkit here. 

Ongoing Activities

Write Postcards to Go

In addition to Action Hour every Friday, write more postcards through our Postcards-to-Go program. Pick up a packet of 50 postcards, we’ll email addresses and scripts as you need them, and you provide postage. To learn more and join our Postcards-to-Go writing team, please email us at indivisible.rise.newburyport@gmail.com or come to Action Hour where we’ll have packets of 50 cards and will explain the details.

 Texting Hour

Thursdays 3:00-4:00 pm. Register 

With the list of travesties in this country seeming to grow almost daily, the number and variety of texting campaigns also is growing. As always, we’re reaching out to people to encourage voter registration and voting in upcoming primaries. With recent disturbing news, there also has been texting to encourage engagement in the pro-choice movement and texting is starting up to remind people that electing more Democrats is critical to finally enacting common sense gun control laws. 

Register here to join us on Zoom any Thursday at 3:00-4:00. If that time is not good for you, we are happy to meet with you one-on-one at a convenient time. Email indivisible.rise.newburyport@gmail.com with your availability and we'll find a time that works to train you individually.

Phone Banking 
 

We are continuing to make calls to register voters in Arizona and Florida before their deadlines in July for August primaries. We’re also continuing to make voter protection calls with Common Cause, reaching out to voters to support ranked choice voting, recruit poll monitors, and more.

We hope you will join our phone banks on Monday (to register voters) or Wednesday (Common Cause) afternoons. Click on your preferred day and type of calls for more information and to register. Email us at indivisible.newburyport.rise@gmail.com if you have questions, would like to train individually, or want to learn about additional phone banking options. 

Stay tuned for new WI phone banks beginning in July, when we’ll be making calls to friendly Democrats to recruit them as volunteers for the Wisconsin Democratic Party. These will be great calls to get started with phone banking if you have been reluctant to do so.  

Please sign up here to volunteer with I-RISE. Choose among numerous options and devote as much or as little time as you prefer! Every bit makes a difference! 
 

• Bookmark our Event Calendar for events sponsored by Indivisible-RISE and allied organizations.
• Find us on Facebook  and visit our website.