New Membership Program for Joining Forces

The affordable housing crisis is growing across the nation. We are seeing this in Evanston—more people coming to Connections for the Homeless for help, more struggling to maintain housing they can’t afford, and more who have lost their homes. Our programs are full, and more people are living outside waiting for an opening. Without more affordable housing, we--Connections and the community--cannot meet the need.
​ 
And for more affordable housing to be created, more people need to be demanding it, finding ways to make it happen, supporting action, and fighting opposition. We need your help, and we’ve developed a new membership structure to make it easier for you to get involved.  ​

At the Heart of Membership: Taking Action  
The point of our advocacy is to get decision-makers to make decisions that support housing affordability. The best way to influence decision-makers is to have them hear from the people who matter to them—those who vote, who fund their campaigns, whose opinions they respect. Those people are you! 

Joining Forces is rolling out a system that will support members in communicating with local and State-level decision-makers at the right time and in effective ways to encourage them to support affordability.  

Here’s how it works: ​​

What the Committees Do 
Joining Forces’ Committee Members become experts in the topic of their committee. They then work together to do the following: 

• Find the best research, best practices, and actual examples of progress related to their topic and share what they learn  
• Design campaigns to further progress toward affordability—at the local and/or state levels. Campaigns can include educational materials, proposals for legislation, training, advocacy toolkits—whatever will help decision-makers and advocates to make change. 
• Follow progress on housing issues in the community and State levels so they can educate advocates as issues evolve and let them know when it’s time for action. 

• Create updates for the Mobilization Team, so that people can stay up to date on our advocacy topics and be ready to take action. 
• Create Calls to Action for the Mobilization Team so that a unified body of advocates can raise their voices to decision-makers as they are determining their votes on a housing issue. 

The Committees we have in place include: 

• The State Policy Committee
• The YIMBY Committee 

• The Zoning Committee 

You can learn more about these committees on our updated website. 

What the Mobilization Team Does 
​We encourage all Joining Forces members to be part of the Mobilization Team. This team does not have a lot of meetings and has the following requests for its members:  

• Attend a workshop to plan how to choose advocacy actions that match your interests, skills, and schedule 

• Keep up to date on current affordable housing issues by reviewing Joining Forces Updates, and use those Updates to plan when and how you might want to advocate 
• Respond to Calls to Action according to your plans. 

 
Here’s what it would look like: ​

What We Are Asking of Members 
Anyone and everyone can join the Joining Forces mailing list, come to monthly meetings and speaker events, and use these to learn more. However, we ask those who want to take action as part of Joining Forces to become Members. 

Members are asked to do the following: 

1. Fill out a Membership Form. In response, you'll receive more information and invitations to some training.
2. Attend two workshops—Affordable Housing 101 and Advocacy 101.  
3. Consider joining the Mobilization Team and feel welcome to join any of our committees. 

In return, we provide access to research on current housing issues, campaign information, and personalized support as needed to make the most of your time as an advocate. 

You can learn more about membership and other ways to get involved on our website. 

Other Joining Forces Activities for All Subscribers 
Joining Forces will continue to do the following, all of which are open to all subscribers to our mailing list: 

• Monthly Update Meetings—the first Wednesday of each month. We provide updates on community- and State-level affordable housing issues, with plenty of time for discussion. 
• Speaker Events—frequency and dates still being planned.  
• Monthly Newsletter—featuring stories on research and campaigns, links to affordable housing news, profiles of our advocates, and more. 

Any Questions about Membership 
Please send a note to our Membership Manager at joiningforces@connect2home.org. ​