California State Network of Indivisible Groups
Guides, toolkits and tools worth the time — for someone at their first meeting, and for whoever is running it. Everything here is published by someone else; we just keep the list honest.
Demonstration page. Every link here is real and was checked on 23 August 2026, but the selection is an example of what this page could hold, not a decision about what it should. Swap freely.
Start here
3 resourcesIf someone just joined and asked what to read first, this is the answer.
Indivisible
Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink
The founding manual: five chapters on how constituent pressure actually moves a member of Congress, plus step-by-step instructions for forming a local group.
Indivisible
Guide for New Groups
A 30-60-90 day checklist for a brand-new chapter: first meeting and roles, then one-on-ones and decision-making, then campaigns and working groups.
Indivisible
Group Leader Toolkit
The entry point to the full toolkit: sample first-meeting agenda, downloadable sign-in sheet, a first action plan, and press and social basics.
Running a chapter
6 resourcesMeetings that end on time, and people who come back to the next one.
Indivisible
Kickoff Meeting Agenda
A ready-to-run agenda for a group's very first meeting, down to naming the group, assigning five specific roles, and committing to one action before anyone leaves.
Indivisible
Keeping Your Meeting On Track
Facilitation techniques for drawing out quiet members, handling someone who dominates, and parking off-topic items without shutting people down.
Indivisible
How to Make New Friends (Recruiting New Members)
A recruitment plan template built around moving someone from connection to consideration to commitment, plus retention practices that head off burnout.
Indivisible
Hosting In-District Events
Event-hosting playbook: goal-setting worksheets, formats from rally to vigil to car caravan, and a checklist covering permits, sound, first aid, and safety marshals.
Disability & Philanthropy Forum
Planning Accessible Meetings and Events
Checklists and templates for in-person and virtual events, including sample wording for asking attendees what accommodations they need.
University of Maine CCIDS
Planning Accessible Meetings: Checklist and Guide
A free fillable checklist covering online events, plain language, service animals, and gender identity. The oldest item here, from 2020, but still the current edition.
Skills and training
5 resourcesSelf-serve material a chapter can run without bringing in an outside trainer.
Indivisible
Everyday Organizing Support
Trainings-to-Go slide decks a chapter runs itself: Recruitment 101, The Art of the One-on-One, Canvassing 101 and 201, Press Basics, plus FAQs on legal structure and event insurance.
Indivisible
Phone Banking Resources
A video walkthrough of the dialer plus a trainer deck, so a first-time caller can make their first call and an experienced volunteer can train the next one.
Indivisible
MiniVAN Mobile Canvassing Guide
Door-knocking mechanics: app setup, a five-step launch checklist, how to code every result, and realistic benchmarks like 40-45 doors per paired shift.
Community Tool Box, University of Kansas
Writing Letters to the Editor
When to write, how to structure it, why to stay under 300 words, and what makes an editor actually print it.
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
Letter to the Editor and Op-Ed Best Practices
The two formats side by side with target word counts, and how to coordinate submissions with partner groups so you don't crowd each other out.
Congress and accountability
5 resourcesGetting a specific human in office to answer a specific question.
Indivisible
Town Hall Guide
Before, during, and after a member of Congress's town hall: finding the event, prepping questions, seating your group for visibility, and pressing for a direct answer.
Indivisible
District Office Visits
Four steps for a district-office meeting: booking it, picking one issue Congress is voting on now, deciding who speaks, and documenting the visit afterwards.
5 Calls Civic Action
5 Calls
Your representatives' direct numbers with a written script for each current issue. A call takes about a minute.
U.S. House of Representatives
Find Your Representative
The official ZIP-code lookup, returning your House member with links to their site and contact form.
USAGov
Find and Contact Elected Officials
One official page linking to federal, state, county, and city contact databases, for when the target is not Congress.
California specifically
3 resourcesSacramento runs on a different calendar and a different set of levers than Washington.
Indivisible CA: StateStrong
California Legislative Guide
How a bill actually moves through Sacramento — the committee path, the real deadline calendar, gut-and-amend — and how to act on it: tracking bills, position letters, testifying.
Indivisible CA: StateStrong
StateStrong Resources
The state resource hub: rep lookup, legislator scorecard, a LegInfo research tutorial, and a priority bills database with call scripts.
Take Action San Diego
Activist Resources
A chapter-built link library across eight categories, from finding your officials to local independent journalism to self-care. A good model for what a chapter page can be.
Rights and safety at actions
7 resourcesRead this before the action, not during it.
ACLU
Protesters' Rights
Scenario-by-scenario answers on what police can and cannot do at a demonstration, with a print-to-PDF option. Updated June 2026.
ACLU of Northern California
Free Speech, Protests and Demonstrations
California-specific guidance on permits, civil disobedience, campus organizing, and police interactions, with a downloadable guide.
National Lawyers Guild
Mass Defense Program
How to request Legal Observer coverage and legal support for an action, plus the hotline manual and know-your-rights trainings NLG runs for organizers.
National Lawyers Guild
Know Your Risks booklets
Downloadable protester and what-to-do-if-arrested guides in Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Urdu, and Farsi as well as English.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Attending a Protest
A before, during, and after checklist for your phone: encryption and passcodes, turning off biometric unlock, blurring faces and stripping metadata before you post.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Surveillance Self-Defense
The full library of privacy guides and threat-model walkthroughs, including a track written for activists and protesters, in 14+ languages.
Signal Technology Foundation
Signal
Free end-to-end encrypted messaging and calls, run by a nonprofit with no ads or trackers. The default for organizing chats.
Immigrant rights and rapid response
5 resourcesMaterial meant to be printed, handed out, and carried — not just read online.
Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Red Cards / Tarjetas Rojas
Free printable rights cards in 59 languages that a person can hand through a door instead of speaking. Nonprofits can order printed cards at no cost.
United We Dream
Know Your Rights: A Guide for Immigrants
What to do if agents come to your home, stop you in public, or arrive at your workplace, plus family preparedness planning and how to document an incident.
ACLU of Northern California
Know Your Rights: If ICE Confronts You
California-focused explainer in English and Spanish, with companion pages on SB 54, immigration court, and ports of entry. Updated March 2026.
Indivisible Ventura
Resources for Immigrants and Activists
Ventura County rapid-response hotline, detention locator, named legal-aid providers, and bilingual family preparedness toolkits.
Indivisible Marin
Know Your Rights
A short rights summary for ICE encounters plus a link to order physical Red Cards for community distribution.
Elections and voting
2 resourcesThe unglamorous infrastructure question every volunteer gets asked at a table.
California Secretary of State
Online Voter Registration
Register, pre-register at 16 or 17, or check an existing registration. Available in ten languages.
Vote.org
Vote.org
Registration status check, polling place and drop box locators, vote-by-mail requests, ballot tracking, and deadline reminders for all 50 states.
Staying in it
2 resourcesBurnout, not disagreement, is what takes people out of this work.
Commons Library
How Do We Keep Going? Activist Burnout and Personal Sustainability
A paper on why organizers quit — overwork, repression, movement culture, no visible wins — with fixes at both the personal and the organizational level.
Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, George Mason University
Thriving Activist Toolkit
Research, articles, videos, and book recommendations on managing stress and staying in the work for the long haul.