In every state, tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people are directly impacted by the criminal justice system. In some neighborhoods, nearly half of the families on every block have someone who is incarcerated, or on probation or parole. What changes could be made if we were organized to demand fairness in the criminal justice system and better solutions to crime?

Community organizing creates collective power and uses that power to make concrete improvements to the lives of those in that community. During the civil rights movement, bus boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and other collective actions were critical to desegregation and passage of the Voting Rights Act. Grassroots organizers today are developing other tools and tactics for connecting people and confronting power, but the core principle of collective action remains.

If you see an injustice, you don’t need to be a part of a formal organization to organize. You do, however, need to be able to track down information about the problem and have a knack for bringing people together to help solve it.