How do we think systemic change happens?

I was at a community conversation hosted by GPAS last night, where we were aiming for the "uncomfortable, but not dysfunctional" level of discourse about the No Kings rallies. At one point, someone said they had a curiosity about how everyone else in the room thinks social change happens.

So today I thought I'd just share a brief overview of RSFIC's theory of how we're trying to shift our culture.

Everyone is starting to understand that, because of our unhealthy relationship with nature and each other, our current way of life is not sustainable. More and more people are starting to take that literally, and understanding that our current way of life will end.
Our attention is regularly drawn to the national and global scale, where we are powerless. The biggest leverage points we have for meaningful change are hyper-local - our city, our block, our home.
Therefore,
- We should get our money off wall street and into our community
- We need to reconnect as humans. Meet our neighbors, speak face-to-face, borrow from each other, do each other favors, have fun together, re-build networks of trust.
If RSFIC provides achievable steps towards appealing new ways of life by...
- helping neighbors get organized to make local change,
- helping celebrate people who are growing solidarity, relocalizing power, consuming less, demonstrating integrity, and demonstrating humility,
- facilitating skill- and information-sharing, and
- connecting local money to local people...
then...
- we'll build capacity locally for constructive collaboration and conflict
- money will circulate through our local community rather than be extracted to huge multi-national companies that don't care about our community
- folks will save money by borrowing and sharing, which will reduce other secondary costs like transporation and marketing
- the community will be more resilient in disasters because neighbors have networks of trust and know who needs help/who can help

We'll create more diversity and faster feedback within our culture locally. Diversity and faster feedback will organically bring us towards right relationship with nature and each other in incremental, achievable steps. Whichever new ways of life we develop together will be more resilient and sustainable.

TL;DR: Let's try out new ways of life before our current way of life gets any worse.

Ok so like literally what is RSFIC doing then

We do specific things that are part of our long-term theory of change. Here's a sample for the next couple months - come join us for one or all of them!

Neighborhood Projects

We just want to help you realize you have quite a lot of power over your neighborhood. The first step is just doing something with your neighbors. Here's 30 specific, recent examples from Iowa City. It's hard, but each step can be learned and executed by anyone. We've helped start over 200 of these projects, just let us know if you want some help thinking it through!

RSFIC Garden

We're improving our relationship with nature in our South District lot at 1927 Keokuk St. Thousands of people use the space, a group of highschool students and their combination geometry / construction teachers are building a stage, and we're bringing in plants that will support themselves and the struggling wildlife in the area.

Please help us get the beds ready and plant some plants! Saturday, May 16th, 9:00 AM, 1927 Keokuk St. Virginia, Fred, Jen, Martha, Colleen, Lilli, Ryan, and Angela are already signed up, it should be fun! Bring gloves, a water bottle, and yourself!
Have extra plants? Martha, our architect and overall design leader, has created a list of plants that would be great to introduce to the space. Check out this list!

This space fits into our theory of change - being part of gathering with people for a shared purpose grows solidarity and organically improves our relationship with nature.

Stories of Community

Another specific thing we do is celebrate people who are growing solidarity around them in all different sorts of ways. Saturday, May 30th, 12:30 PM at FilmScene (Chauncey), we're highlighting three specific groups in Iowa City. Each has a very different purpose and approach, but they all demonstrate people who are going out of their way to work together in a non-commercial way. Please come and help us celebrate them! Our theory of change is that this builds capacity for local cooperation, helps people see how we can save money by borrowing and sharing, and makes us more resilient in disasters because we'll have stronger networks of trust! Details here.

The Gathering Space

Affordable space is a major barrier to solidarity in this town, but we found a way to make it a lot cheaper: keeping it simpler and charging less for it. Thanks to Roger for helping us welcome a group in this week and making sure they knew how to leave it in great shape for the next group! Check out the upcoming events, both hosted by us and by other people, in the space!

And, introducing the next stage of RSFIC's programs!

Thursday, June 4th, 5 PM, in the very same back yard that Garden Day and the student builders will help prepare for us, come hear what we have planned for the next iteration of our work. Bring the kids and family, we'll have dinner and music to go with our mysterious news!

How do YOU think change happens?

I've been hearing the phrase "tend the part of the garden you can reach" a lot recently. What do you think? What power do you personally have to make change?

Peace,

Riley