A long, dark winter and an intense strain of Coronavirus forced our nascent movement to exist behind laptop screens for its first four months. But now, Omicron is fading behind us, spring has sprung, and it's time to take this movement into the real world. We're about to pilot Street Teams, in which volunteers bring the solutions to fix our democracy into their local communities. 

Have you ever been handed a piece of literature on a street corner, or stopped by a booth at a county fair? That's a street team, and we're about to launch Forward street teams in a major way.

Our pilot program will first launch in California, Texas, New York, Michigan, Rhode Island, Oregon, Utah, Nevada and Washington DC. All kinds of resources (t-shirts, palm cards, tri-folds, buttons and more) are currently being shipped to state leaders in those communities, and I'm about to complete work on a volunteer and street team captain training program.

This first effort will be far from perfect. The training will be flawed, volunteers will miscommunicate about meeting locations, and I'm currently wincing as I track a shipment of fifty t-shirts intended for Bend, Oregon that seems to be approaching South Bend, Indiana. I wish I was kidding.

This is okay: we're ironing out the wrinkles now, in the early spring, so we can take a much-improved program nationwide by June. By the summer, I envision volunteers manning tables at festivals and fairs around the country, handing out literature on street corners from Seattle to Miami, and developing real relationships with brand new Forwardists in every one of the fifty states and six territories. I couldn't be more excited.

If you want to take the Forward Party onto the street, smash the big red button below to join the street team program. Assuming you're in one of the places listed above, our team leaders will reach out to you immediately. Otherwise, we'll absolutely be putting you to work in the very near future. Stay tuned!