Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection (Spiral Bound)

Biographical Note:

Deepa Iyer is a weaver, frontline responder, storyteller, and guide. Deepa currently helms the Solidarity Is program at the Building Movement Project, where she creates narratives, provides trainings, and facilitates networks around social change and solidarity practice. Her political and community homes include Asian American, South Asian, Muslim, and Arab spaces. Deepa served as executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) for a decade and has also held positions at Race Forward, the US Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and the Asian American Justice Center. Her first book, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future received a 2016 American Book Award. Deepa's debut children's picture book, We Are The Builders!, will be released in the fall of 2024. Deepa received an honorary doctoral degree from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and has taught classes on race and the law, twenty-first-century social movements, and civil rights struggles of Asian Americans at Columbia University, Hunter College, and the University of Maryland. An immigrant who moved to Kentucky from Kerala, India, when she was twelve, Deepa graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School and Vanderbilt University.

Preface

The Time Is Now

Introducing the Social Change

Ecosystem Framework

Mapping Social Change Roles

Frontline Responders

Visionaries

Builders

Disrupters

Caregivers

Experimenters

Weavers

Storytellers

Healers

Guides

For Now, and for the Long Haul

Appendix:

5 Steps to Use the Framework

Uses and Permissions

More Maps and Notes Pages

Gratitude

Process Note

"Given the world we live in right now, more and more people are becoming outraged about injustice. Deepa Iyer's Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection provides an approach that can benefit those who want to turn that outrage into effective and sustainable action. It's a roadmap for anyone who's ready to be part of a broader social movement." --Mariame Kaba, Founder and Director, Project NIA; Author, We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

"I have found the social change ecosystem map to be so helpful for individuals and organizations to gain clarity about what role they are playing and why. This book is a guide that should be part of the toolbox for anyone seeking to make change at individual, organizational and systems levels to advance equity." --Monisha Kapila, Founder and Co-CEO of ProInspire

"As an anti-oppression educator and DEI professional, Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection is an invaluable resource for folxs seeking to shrink the gap between their campuses' stated commitment to anti-racism and their actions. As a classroom resource, it offers young people wisdom from organizers and advocates on the frontlines of our current social movements. For any educator and professional seeking to help build the anti-oppression capacity of their students, colleagues, or community Social Change Now is an excellent place to start!" --Jazmin Pichardo, Assistant Director of Diversity Training & Education, Office of Diversity & Inclusion, University of Maryland

To engage in social change at this moment in time requires consistent attention, deep reflection, and committed collective action. Social Change Now is a powerful roadmap for individuals and organizations who are ready to deepen their commitment to social justice from racial justice advocate Deepa Iyer.

We are living in a period of overlapping social, economic, and environmental crises, accompanied by failures in public systems and institutions. It's not surprising, then, that when we attempt to engage in social change efforts, many of us feel like we are on a seesaw, swinging from outrage to overwhelm. For those who are just beginning their social change journeys to those who are weary and disillusioned, how can we effectively anchor our commitments to equity, solidarity, and justice?

This is the entry point for Social Change Now, Deepa Iyer's heartfelt offering to individuals and groups seeking to initiate or deepen their actions in service to social change values. Relying on two decades of work supporting social movements, Iyer introduces the social change ecosystem framework, which includes a map of ten roles, from builder to storyteller to disrupter to experimenter, as well as practices to identify values and strengthen our social change ecosystems. Since its original publication, people and organizations around the world have used the framework to respond to the pandemic, express solidarity during the uprisings against anti-Black racism, and support multiracial coalitions struggling for reproductive rights, immigrant and refugee protections, and climate justice around the world.

Social Change Now goes well beyond presenting ideas and frameworks. It's also a practical guide that contains detailed descriptions and real-world examples, reflection prompts with room to write responses, and accessible tips that can immediately be put into action. Social Change Now is a resource that will accompany individuals and organizations not only in times of crisis, but throughout their lifelong social change journeys to build connected communities and equitable systems in our world.