The Activate Alabama Summit
August 20th | Central Presbyterian Church
Activate: Switch on; Operate; Start up; Start off; Switch on; Trigger; Initiate; Actuate; Mobilize; Stimulate; Call up
What
We are a nonpartisan political action movement dedicated to bringing women and their allies together to solve Alabama’s problems. We are committed to electing progressive leaders, mobilizing voters, and moving our community and state forward.
Who
Empathic, loving, caring, doers of the world. You may normally choose to stay above the fray because it feels unmovable, because it feels impossible. But you have had enough. You want to do something.
How
Our goal is to bring real people together to share and listen to PERSONAL stories on big issues and then to use those stories as fuel for change. We will connect and engage with organizations who already have boots on the ground. We will take steps to build bridges and create real change by taking Action.
Manifesto
Political theater separates us into us versus them. It feels like ACTION would risk humiliation, ostracism, isolation, income, visibility, and shame.
But these issues are PERSONAL. And the risk of not doing outweighs the risk of doing something. And It is time to make the big, hard, ugly, scary, fearful issues REAL and PERSONAL with other REAL human beings. To share. To listen. To understand. To articulate and confirm what we value. What matters to us. What matters to ME, to us.
When issues become PERSONAL, we cannot ignore them. We do not have to agree. It is time to understand. It is time to choose intentional, visible ACTION. We need to be engaged in political and civic spaces. We need our legislators to hear our voices so that we can move Alabama forward.
But where do we start? What can we do? What is enough?
When our values are clear we are unable to passively or idly watch or ignore. PERSONAL stories help us UNDERSTAND what MATTERS, what we VALUE, and then we ACT.
The Activate Alabama Summit is creating a safe, shared place for us to come together to learn more about the ways the personal issues are political issues. We will learn how to get actively engaged in order to effect meaningful change in our community and state.