Activism for All
Activism requires everyone to take part, whether in big or small ways. Though it can be intimidating and challenging, it doesn't have to be so. Grab a buddy, volunteer. Or meet new friends through your advocacy work. Become a part of your local community. That's where our strength is.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of ways to get involved in your local community (inspired by a local flier). Feel free to send us new ones to add at virginiacommunitysolutions@gmail.com.
Check your eligibility, register online, and vote. Voting can take place in person or by mail.
Call, meet, write and/or email your (local, state, and federal) representatives. (Hint: This website has templates on our issues page!)
Take a Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) survey for potential road or transportation related projects in your neighborhood.
Attend town halls, school board meetings, city council sessions, general assembly (GA) sessions, and/or lobby days. (run by many different advocacy organizations)
Become a poll worker for election day. (many poll positions pay)
Volunteer and/or donate to campaigns for candidates who will represent your interests.
Volunteer and/or donate to organizations, to grassroots groups, or at events that help your communities and protect your rights. For example, you can email us at virginiacommunitysolutions@gmail.com to volunteer with VAOA and help us maintain the website.
Embed yourself in your community, make friends, have fun!
Boycott companies.
Attend and organize protests or sit-ins.
Join a union, if possible.
Educate yourself.
Educate others.
Shop locally.
Do not under any circumstances betray your values or the VAOA.
Data Privacy and Reporting Guideline
Pledge to Communities
More than ever, it is crucial that government, the media, and grassroots organizations alike maintain as much data privacy of community members as possible. Techniques such as web scraping and artificial intelligence (AI) make it easier than ever to amass large amounts of information extremely quickly from the internet. Sharing or posting sensitive information can lead to irreparable harm. As the saying goes, 'Once on the internet, always on the internet.' As a result, we invite public, private, and volunteer organizations to take our Data Privacy and Reporting Guideline Pledge, especially when handling public protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII). PHI is defined by the HIPAA Journal as “an individual's health, treatment, and payment information, and any further information maintained in the same designated record set that could identify the individual or be used with other information in the record set to identify the individual.” PII is defined as information that, when used alone or with other relevant data, can identify an individual.
How the Data Privacy and Reporting Guidelines pledge applies to organizations depends on the type and scope of their organizational responsibilities. Please see some examples below:
Media may pledge to report suicides according to research-based ethical reporting guidelines (see the AFSP's compiled guidelines). Violating these types of guidelines may inspire copycat suicides or otherwise harm suicide survivors.
Covered entities and business associates must follow HIPAA guidelines per federal law to prevent harm.
Government and other agencies who produce annual reports on sensitive topics may suppress aggregate counts that are below a certain threshold.
Agencies and organizations that use sensitive data may limit or silo access to such data based on employees' and contractors' job responsibilities. Additionally, they may store and send sensitive files encrypted.
Police departments may take the data privacy pledge and omit any PHI of those who are missing when creating missing posters. The general public may not find this information helpful or understand specific diagnoses. Once a loved one is found, they may find that the diagnosis they worked hard to keep private is now known to their entire community.
Organizations that take the pledge will have a seal displayed on their website with a link to this page. Have an organization you would like to take the pledge? Send us their contact information to virginiacommunitysolutions@gmail.com. Fill out this form to add your organization's name to take the pledge.