If Today Is Hard, Start Here.
You do not need money, and you do not need a team, to take the first step tonight.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911. There is no webpage!
To Eat. Call 211 or go to 211.org. It is free and confidential. They can help connect you with food, meals, pantries, and other local resources. You can call for yourself or for someone else.
Find shelter. 211 can also help connect you with housing and emergency shelter resources.
Sleep safe tonight. If you are sleeping in your car, search “safe parking program” + your city. Some communities provide designated places where people living in vehicles can park overnight legally and more safely.
If the crisis is inside you, please reach someone, try to connect.
Please seek help. I love you and know we can be better towards each other, we deserve to be, we’re all Americans!
All of Good Heart are Welcome.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988 — available 24/7
Veterans Crisis Line
Call 988, then Press 1 — available 24/7
Crisis Text Line
Text HOME to 741741 — available 24/7
The Trevor Project
Call 1-866-488-7386 — crisis support for LGBTQ+ young people, available 24/7
Trans Lifeline
Call 1-877-565-8860 — peer support for trans and questioning people
Monday–Friday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Pacific
11 a.m.–7 p.m. Mountain
12 p.m.–8 p.m. Central
1 p.m.–9 p.m. Eastern
When you are steadier, come back to this page.
What follows: how a neighborhood stops living only in crisis and starts building something that lasts.
It is free to begin. One person can start, and other people can join when they are ready.
Four Ways People Arrive Here
I need help right now. Use the resources above first. When you are steadier, come back.
I am ready to do something where I live. Start with the smallest version below.
I want to understand how this works. Read The Work.
I have something I can bring. Time. Skill. Money. Knowledge. Equipment. Property. Relationships. Professional experience. A vehicle. A garden. A few hours. Something else useful. Read Altruism Is Not a Donation. It Is Participation.
The Smallest Version of Seven Years of Change
1. Name one need.
2. Name one ability or resource already present.
3. Choose one safe and lawful action you can complete within seven days.
4. Write down what happened.
5. Come back. Keep what worked. Correct or stop what did not.
You can begin alone, by telephone, by text, at a table, or with people you trust.
You do not need seven people to begin.
Not sure what a first action could look like? See what people are already doing.
How One Person Becomes Seven
One person begins with one need, one existing ability or resource, and one useful action.
One or two people may join because the work reveals that they are needed. Do something useful together. Check what happened. Then do the next useful thing before worrying about becoming an organization.
If the need keeps returning and people keep returning to do the work, real responsibilities begin to appear: coordination, resources, technical knowledge, records, lived or professional expertise, technology, and communication.
That is how a local Team of 7 forms.
Seven is the working team that can grow from the work. It is never the price of admission.
What You Could Choose to Become a Part Of
The Seven Years of Change Platform - helps communities turn needs, abilities, relationships, and resources already present into useful work and, where that work can last, into paid work and community ownership.
It will be hard work. None of this is supposed to be easy.
Some things will work. Some will fail. People will disagree. Plans will have to change. Resources will be scarce. Sometimes the useful thing we tried will turn out not to be useful at all.
What we do with that is how this works.
We record what happened. We keep what worked. We correct what did not. We take responsibility for mistakes. We learn. And we stay with the work.
If enough of us do that - in our own communities, in our own ways - through December 31, 2032 of Seven Years of Change, we will not know exactly what the country will look like at the end.
But we will know what we built, what we learned, what we own, and what we are capable of doing together.
The first three places we build are:
Nutrition. Housing. Transportation.
Green is the boundary around all of it.
The work belongs as close as possible to the people doing it and the communities living with its consequences.
A local Team of 7 does local work. The women-held governing structure protects the shared promises of Seven Years of Change. It does not own or command a neighborhood.
And Seven Years of Change itself is temporary.
The platform leaves. What communities build is meant to stay.
Read The Work ->
Read Why Women Lead ->
Start With What Is True
Before deciding what to build, find out what is already there.
What do people need?
What can people already do or contribute?
What useful people, relationships, businesses, organizations, buildings, land, tools, vehicles, knowledge, and public resources already exist?
What is missing?
Who - or what - is being left out?
You do not need a committee, a meeting, or seven people to answer those questions.
One person can begin.
The Community Survey gives you the complete method for doing it.
The Wednesday Night Dinners
You cannot heal a neighborhood alone, and you were never meant to.
Wednesday is a reminder, not a requirement. The point is not the day, the dinner, or the size of the table. The point is giving useful work a rhythm people can return to.
The Ten-Minute Wednesday Table
No dinner or ninety-minute meeting is required. Call, text, or sit with one or two people you trust.
Ask:
· What is one need close to us?
· What can someone already offer?
· What is one safe, lawful action we can finish before next week?
Choose the action. Name who will do what. Check in again within seven days.
That is enough to begin.
For Those Who Can, Share a Table
Host a dinner. Make it Wednesday if Wednesday works. Keep it simple. Everyone can bring something to share. No one has to cook a feast, and the table does not have to be full to be enough.
The first part is for each other. Eat. Talk. Find out who is there and what people are carrying.
Then turn toward the neighborhood. Use the Community Survey. Compare what people see. Name one need, connect it with one ability or existing resource, and choose one practical action.
Do not try to solve the whole neighborhood in one night.
One need. One ability. One resource. One gap. One action. One week.
Then call it. Go home. Rest. Come back when you can.
Do that for a few weeks and something begins to reveal itself. The people who keep returning may be your team.
You did not recruit them into a structure first. You did useful work together, cared for one another, checked what happened, corrected what did not work, and returned.
That is how a Team of 7 can begin.
Where to Go From Here
You do not have to build all three pillars. You do not have to solve everything. You do not have to wait until seven people are standing in the room.
Start with what is true.
Choose something useful.
Do it safely and lawfully.
Write down what happened.
Come back.
Correct what needs correcting.
Then do the next useful thing.
You are not promising to fix a neighborhood. You are saying you are willing to help do useful work with other people and see what can be built from there.
Choose Your Next Door
Need the smallest possible first action? -> People Are Already Doing This
Take the Community Survey ->
See The Work ->
Already took useful action? Share what happened and what you learned.
Build, Protect & Keep the Work ->
Have something to bring? Read Altruism Is Not a Donation. It Is Participation. ->
One person can begin. The team forms through the work.
For People and Planet. Until Green Is How We Live.