What Do We Do Now? One Idahoan's answer.

A blueprint for creating a support network

Today, we are pleased to share a guest contribution from Kristal West who transformed her post-election grief into meaningful community action. When many of us ask "What can we do?", Kristal offers inspiration and a practical roadmap based on her own experience.

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The World Seems Broken, So What Do We Even Do?

I keep seeing activists online say, “Build community and do mutual aid.” Which is great advice, but who knows how to do that or what exactly it even means?! I didn’t. 

I’ve been punch-drunk with dread and grieving a lot of the time since November 5, 2024. My husband is a federal employee, so I had personal concerns, but I also had a lot of fear for marginalized groups, especially our trans comrades and immigrants. These fears were founded, as we are seeing in daily headlines. At some point though, doom-scrolling and texting about my outrage to my friends didn’t do anything but make me feel worse. I knew I needed to DO something. 

I’ve noticed that my generation (I’m elder-Millennial/young Gen-X) struggles to connect in person. I’m sure that our relationships to social media and COVID have worsened that. Many of us aren’t as close to our families as past generations or simply don’t live near them. So, in November, I decided to build a group of friends to meet regularly, take care of one another, offer help to our community, and take political action. I felt that if we pulled together, we’d all make it through the coming years better off. I knew I had a lot of close friends who were feeling scared and angry and yearned for somewhere to put that energy.

I decided to build a group of friends to meet regularly, take care of one another, offer help to our community, and take political action.

I looked around and saw many groups doing good work in Idaho, but nothing like what I had in mind. The big difference for my group would be that it would be personal, intimate, vulnerable. I wanted people to feel comfortable coming to the group and saying, “I can’t pay my power bill this month. Can you guys help me?” Or, “I need help with a project in my yard.” The groups I saw, when I looked around, were all focused on helping people outside the group, which is important, but I’m not sure it builds the type of lasting community that I was hoping for. There was a need here.

The first thing I did was outline what I wanted to do with my husband: have our friends of all ages - kids, retirees, fellow millennials - over on a regular schedule to our house to have a potluck, discuss how we are and what’s happening with politics, and how we can help each other and our community. He was excited about it, luckily. Then I decided that we’d need an informal newsletter to keep us all updated (and to put my over-consumption of news and events to work) and make it easy for the group to take action. I typed up the first edition of the newsletter with an outline of how I envisioned our meetings going and what I wanted our group’s values to be. These are the values I chose: 

• Community
• Hope
• Bravery
• Democracy
• Inclusivity
• Accountability
• Empathy
• Civic Engagement
• Collaboration
• Resilience

One other thing we did is plan on doing something fun at the end of meetings like playing a game or doing a craft. We wanted some lightness and the opportunity for strangers to bond. The first meeting we played Pictionary. It was easy and light. Another time we made protest signs.

The big difference for my group would be that it would be personal, intimate, vulnerable.

We invited over our core group of friends and the first meeting was a hit! There were nine of us and we were able to share food, commiserate, and make our first plans. We wanted to make sure our core group had our vision solidified before we started to grow the group. The second meeting was even better. We had around fifteen people. We got deeper into the issues and in my newsletter/meeting outline, I educated my friends on what I was learning about the local activism community, our state legislature, and how authoritarianism works (and how to fight it), from Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny. We also chose a name for our group: Stronger Together.

It became clear that the group would need more space quickly because everyone had someone, or multiple someones, they wanted to bring. I spoke with a couple of churches near our house, selected the best option, and scheduled our next meeting there. I plan to keep our group at around forty people. I think that is probably the maximum we can have and maintain the intimacy and vibe we are going for.

What has shocked me is how intense the hunger for a group like this is. I’ve mentioned it a couple of places online and the number of requests I’ve had to join the group have been overwhelming. Too many for us to accommodate, unfortunately. I do share my newsletter with anyone who asks though. Ultimately, this is a good thing because I always envisioned our group staying small, and hopefully inspiring the creation of other groups, and remaining loosely connected with them. The groups could help each other out if there are larger needs, but still remain agile and intimate.

So, now it’s your turn. Yes, YOU. Believe it or not, you have everything you need to start your own mutual aid and political action group right now! You don’t need anything formal. You don’t need money. All you need is to ask your friends to join you regularly (we are meeting every other week) to check in and see if there’s anything you can do to take care of each other or your greater community. Tailor your group to focus on the issues most important to all of you, to meet at times that work for you, and to generally be what you all need. 

My husband and I have a small house. It is not fancy and we are halfway through a painting project in the main part of the house. It didn’t matter. We had to squeeze in a couple of awkward card tables and folding chairs. It was fine. Just like at your grandma’s house on Thanksgiving when you were a kid. It’s okay if you have to skooch by with your paper plate and space is tight. It’s okay if one person doesn’t have time to pick up food that day to bring and it’s okay if people wear sweats. The idea is not to make it formal so that it’s difficult to come in times of hardship. So that it is as comforting and comfortable as possible.

Here’s something I didn’t anticipate: it’s been the best medicine for me and my dread and grief. It has brought me joy, purpose, and comfort. We have many friends who are federal workers and they are hurting. They are being villainized and attacked in the media daily, by the richest man on the planet. They are being emotionally terrorized at work. One of them said to me, on her way out of our second meeting, “I feel supported. I have been feeling helpless and angry watching my friends go through this, and now I feel supported.” I’ll tell you what, nothing could have filled my cup like that did.

People are hurting and scared, but they are also fired up to get to work supporting each other. Get out there and have a little fun making the world a better place. Focus on the vision of what the world could be and do the things that will help us get one step closer to that every day. Now is our time to shine and take care of each other.

"People are hurting and scared, but they are also fired up to get to work supporting each other. Get out there and have a little fun making the world a better place."

Follow Kristal West on Bluesky 🦋