Simple Ways to Get Involved in Civic Life

With inspiration from a synodal missionary

Then-Bishop Robert Prevost wading through floodwater in Chiclayo, Peru in 2023

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s second election I posted this question:

I sensed that Trump’s draconian second term would leave some folks dazed and wishing for ways to make a positive difference. Suggestions I received are summarized below (with a few choice quotes). I hope they help you to serve and contribute to your community, especially if you feel overwhelmed by the state of the world.

Walk more where you live

“You see your community and interact with others differently when you’re on foot.”

“Know what’s going on in your neighborhood by walking in it.”

Pick up trash that you come upon

• This was the most common suggestion

• “It makes an immediate impact and I feel good.”

• Consider bringing gloves and a bag with you

• Better yet, clean up a local park

Report problems like potholes and fallen signs

• Do not assume someone else will

• Your city or county likely has an online portal to report infrastructure issues

• You might be pleasantly surprised by how quickly your municipality reacts

  • I reported debris in a bike lane and it was all gone within a few days

Connect with your neighbors

• People with a dog or kid pulling them outside tend to know their neighbors

• Your human presence helps your neighborhood feel like a real neighborhood

• You will be surprised how many people say they see you around if you walk or bike

Volunteer

“If you mostly work on computers, I recommend looking for opportunities that let you connect socially and/or involve some kind of physical labor (can be mild!), as these provide immediate psychological rewards as well as (potentially) long-term impacts.”

At a homeless shelter

• We made care packages, it was surprisingly easy, we got everything at Costco:

At the polls

• Be an election worker

• There may be paid options

At the library

• Help out at your local public library branch

• Consider joining the local library foundation

• Create a little free library and stock it with classics

At a local hospital

• Push wheelchairs

• Donate blood (but not while pushing wheelchairs)

At a school

• Can be low-commitment

• Mentor youth in writing

• Read to little kids

To promote native plants

• Sign up to remove invasive species and plant native ones

• Volunteer at a native plants nursery

• Check if your county or city has a master gardeners program

Work with others toward a common goal!

• Maybe you could help build a YIMBY group

Join an official civic body

Serve on a local government commission or board

• Might take up less time than you expect

• Examples:

  • Zoning appeals board

  • Parking board

  • Planning commission (actually a big time commitment)

  • Housing commission (see above)

  • NIMBY truth and reconciliation commission (just kidding)

Participate in your neighborhood civic association

• Influence the system from the inside!

• Be a positive voice for housing and safe streets

• Not for the faint of heart but funny stories almost guaranteed

• Could include subgroups like a historical committee

Seize opportunities to build relationships

“Find a thing that needs doing and just go do it. The other night our Girl Scout babysitting got cancelled last minute. I emailed every parent I knew at all and had their kids over so their plans still happened.”

• Get to know people who are civically engaged

• “In other words, make it fun!” said a leader of my own YIMBY group

Addendum: Hosting & Meal Trains

Building community is a worthy pursuit unto itself, and somehow hosting a party is becoming a lost art. Invite your neighbors over! Have a potluck! Host a salon with a predetermined topic, or a book club (I recommend Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum).

My dear wife/editor realized that we could just have a party, so we did, and it was great (though we learned to limit parties to three hours). She has begun hosting tea parties for new moms in our neighborhood, which have been a big hit. First-time parents, particularly moms, are vulnerable to feeling profoundly isolated and overwhelmed.

Providing food or extra childcare is especially helpful to parents of young children. We watched our goddaughters for a few hours while our friends unpacked after moving. Organizing a meal train is becoming standard practice for new parents or a family facing seriousness illness or loss (hot tip: schedule food every other day at most).

As an adolescent, I assumed that changing the world meant doing big things on a big stage. Now I would rather be a big fish, or rather a useful fish, in a small pond. Last year I got to place op-eds in USA Today and Newsweek which was cool and gratifying, but I am not sure it made much of a difference, and how would I know if it did? I have realized that we can have the biggest impact on the people immediately around us.

Spending less time on screens helps a lot. For Lent this year my wife and I avoided social media. I like the change in my relationship with tech and hope it will continue. In case you are Catholic, or Christian, the Litany of Trust helped me recenter after the dire tariff week.

Pope Leo XIV’s Call to Synodality

My inspiration to write about these issues now was another election, in Rome.

Participatory politics, a concept I previously mentioned and originally drew from a wonderful essay, “On Cultures That Build,” felt like a constructive response to the cruelty and chaos promised by Trump’s second term. It means people come together to solve problems directly, rather than just petitioning government or other leaders (“management”) to act. Pope Leo XVI’s election gave me a new way to think about participatory institutions.

Leo’s first papal address repeatedly invoked synodality, from Greek roots meaning to travel or journey together, which in context means a participatory Church with active roles for local leaders and lay people.

To all of you, brothers and sisters of Rome, of Italy, of the whole world, we want to be a Church of the Synod, a Church that walks, a Church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close, especially to those who suffer.

He was presumably building on the Synod on Synodality, a controversial deliberation that concluded last year and was the most consequential event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council. But his call was still fresh and broadly appealing.

I have been cautious about tying my housing advocacy and interest in urbanism to my faith, since faith should come first. There is a grave risk of tainting it with politics or simple self-righteousness and pride. On the other hand, housing does feel like my vocation. And urbanism feels like it makes the highest and best of use of my abilities.

Is YIMBY ultimately petitionary because we are lobbying government to deregulate housing? I have concluded it is fundamentally participatory as a grassroots movement. That authenticity has given authority to our subversive, countercultural message of abundance and market-driven development. Politicians need the YIMBY movement more than we need them, because our story — of the housing crisis and the solution — stands on its own, upstream of politics. May we continue to walk together.

P.S. The first 50 minutes of this video are an obscure interview of Leo from 2024, enjoy!

Thanks to my 1,131 subscribers, especially my 18 paid subscribers. If you enjoy this blog or want to work together please contact lucagattonicelli@substack.com. I founded the grassroots pro-housing organization YIMBYs of Northern Virginia and live in Alexandria near DC.