Introduction
CCL groups our organizing activities into five "levers" of political will. You can read more about them on the five levers page on CCL Community. This page highlights our chapter's work as it relates to the five levers.
Lobbying Congress
CCL is all about building relationships, and it even empowers us to build relationships with our members of Congress!
We meet regularly with our members of Congress. All CCL volunteers are welcome and encouraged to participate in lobby meetings; the only requirement is to complete the Climate Advocate Training first.
When our elected representatives host town hall meetings, we make a point of showing up and asking about climate change. Sometimes we even get to take a picture with the representative!
Media relations
CCL volunteers write letters to the editor relating current events and articles to climate solutions, and we often get published! Here in Silicon Valley East, we most commonly write to the Mercury News and the East Bay Times, and we sometimes also write to smaller papers such as the Tri-City Voice. This is a great way to get our climate message in front of thousands of local readers.
And of course, CCL offers training. Silicon Valley East chapter members can join our work meetings (scheduled in between chapter meetings) for training customized for our local papers. CCL Community also has a resource page for letter-writers.
We use social media to share chapter activities, local climate action opportunities, and interesting articles and videos related to climate change.
Grassroots outreach
We go out into the community to spread the word about climate solutions and how to get involved with CCL. Here we are at the Hayward farmer's market.
Sometimes we get to table in gorgeous spaces! This was the Alum Rock Earth Day celebration.
Grassroots outreach also includes giving presentations. CCL offers training and support for people who want to learn how to give a good presentation about climate change. We connect with other groups in our local community who want to hear about our work, and we offer to give presentations to their members.
Grasstops outreach
Part of CCL's strategy is for local leaders to voice their support for climate solutions in general and for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act in particular. Our local Tri City Democratic Forum has voted to endorse the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act after hearing a presentation from our CCL chapter.
Chapter development
We meet monthly on the 2nd Saturday of the month at 4 PM. We offer an orientation for new members at 3:30 PM before every chapter meeting.
This was our March 2022 meeting, our first in-person meeting after two years of virtual chapter meetings! We met outdoors to keep the COVID risk low. We're planning to do a hybrid approach going forward with some vitural meetings and some in-person meetings, so that we can balance the convenience of meeting online with the stronger connections we build in person.
Most months, we schedule a work party in between our monthly meetings. Members can choose to attend to get training from chapter leaders or to work on CCL tasks.