Reaching out to others
Talk to family and friends about the Bill
Campaigns really get going when MPs receive personalised emails and letters from lots of different people. So talk to the people around you about the CAN Bill and encourage them to write to their MP too. Your friends, family and neighbours are a good place to start. This is also an opportunity to open up conversations about the climate and ecological emergency. A key part of our campaign is education and dialogue. We want to get people talking and learning about things like how we account for our emissions, citizens’ assemblies, fairness in transition, and the links between the climate and nature emergencies. That way, we gradually make these concepts part of our culture, and getting them into law becomes more and more likely.
In these conversations, it’s important to keep an open mind and heart. Not everyone will be receptive to these ideas. Even if they are, they may not have the time and energy for these conversations. So it’s important to tread carefully and to listen to the priorities of others.
Join forces with other campaigners
Many hands make light work. It’s also much more fun to campaign as part of a group. So you might want to team up with friends in your constituency, and support each other by reading through each other’s emails or talking through parts of the Bill. There are also hundreds of people around the UK already working on the CAN Bill. Chances are there are some in your constituency. You can find other campaigners and campaign groups on our local groups map. For more on campaign groups and local CAN Bill Alliances, go to that section of the Guide.
Attend an online campaign share
If you’d like to share your ideas or ask questions of other campaigners or the central Bill team, why not join us from 15:00 to 16:30 on Wednesdays for one of our Campaign Shares? These gatherings are for everyone, whether you’re interested in joining the campaign or have been actively working on it for a while. It’s a great way to feel inspired and get a sense of what the campaign is about – people often comment at the end of the sessions how much they’ve got out of it. You can register here. We limit numbers to about 20 people each week to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak and be heard.
Contact local organisations and businesses
Another way to build the campaign is to approach existing groups and organisations and ask them to publicly support the Bill or even contact your MP themselves – whether your nearby ‘friends of the park’, your running club, neighbourhood wildlife group, local environmental groups or local ethical business. They can also join the campaign as an organisation on the website. It’s a good idea to start with groups you, your friends, family or work colleagues already belong to before branching out.
Individual campaigners contacting organisations in this way have been an important part of growing support for the Bill. The next step up from this is to work actively with these organisations on a local campaign for the Bill. To find out more about that, go to the section on Building a local alliance.
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