What we imagine GroundUp WR to be is an inter-activist platform for holding politicians to account. In many of the areas we see non-profits, especially the shelter and homelessness non-profits, there is a balance between doing the required actions of feeding people and advocating to government. These two tasks are at odds, and many wonder where to focus their attention. On the one hand, action is needed now. On the other, the only action that will ever be enough is government action that is brought about by advocacy. This advocacy role can be supercharged by acts of solidarity between groups, which many can lose sight of when so focused on direct need. GroundUpWR wants to connect these groups, share resources, and provide a space for solidarity, in addition to calling out politicians who are not serving us.
Our motto is that we are all learning how to be effective activists. We are not perfect activists or organizers, but the issues we are facing now, from affordable housing, police brutality, racism, homophobia and transphobia, Climate collapse, and capitalism are too dire for us to wait until after we have learned. We strive to learn FROM DOING activism and organizing. We will be messy, we will be loud, we will change our minds and our positions, and we will put out work and things that have typos or are incomplete. But this is better than doing nothing at all. We are all learning, and if we let perfect get in the way of action, we have already failed.
Everything we do is a work in progress (including this website). Join us in a progressive political awakening of Waterloo Region.
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