Values & how we live them

Blueprints for Change and its Global Grassroots Support Network are values-driven projects. We are all trying to go beyond our comfort zones and usual networks of peers to create something inclusive and empowering for all involved. Through our network of open sharing of knowledge and experiences, we are attempting to revise dominant narratives and archetypes around campaigning and organizing. We also aim to prioritize people-powered change led by those who are most marginalized. To echo the change we are attempting to create, we aspire to the following set of values:

1. Equity. We aim to reflect the many voices and perspectives of our partners in the activist community in our team of advisors, bottom-liners and content contributors. We particularly seek the perspective of individuals who identify as: Black, Indigenous, People of color, women, queer, trans; the voices of those outside of ‘developed’ countries; campaigners working with limited funding and access to tools; and those marginalized in a system of capitalist and white supremacist patriarchy who are building the movements we need for a fairer society. We welcome and ask for voices that will challenge and shake up our notions of how to compile/share experience and what is or is not useful to the communities we are trying to work with.
2. Empowerment. We want everyone participating in this project to feel that they are gaining something useful from the experience. We are conscious of the value of people’s time and ideas and will seek their input on how to create exchanges of time, skill and resources that are fair and productive for our advisors, contributors and bottom-liners. We also value using the development of knowledge and support to empower communities that are marginalized in our broader society, strengthening their experiences and achievements – all to strengthen our global work of change making.
3. Transparency. We believe in open communication, transparency, and honesty in our content, partnerships, attributions and promotion. This is why we have tried to lay out all the thinking and decision-making processes behind the project in this doc. We want everyone to know what they are getting involved with and to challenge the structures as needed. We also believe in revisions to our transparency and overall model, including listening to and adopting feedback from participants.
4. Collaboration. We seek to collaborate with justice-oriented activists and the movements they represent. Our place in the movement ecosystem is to listen to the needs of activists, develop resources to address those needs, and share them freely with respect across borders and issue areas so that we can all win and learn together.
5. Liberation. Through the production and collaboration on support for grassroots justice-oriented activists, we seek to liberate activists and our work from typical challenges in organizing around access – be it access to tools, funding, training and connection. We seek to include all voices, tailor our work across language, timezone, experience and funding status and include additional and ongoing voices and experiences.