What makes it possible to be together, in a pandemic and beyond?

We’ll get right to the point: Whether you’ve never been to a SURJ NYC event or you’ve been to tons, we need you to fill out this 10-minute survey. Here’s why:

It’s been a long year of hard work—from supporting last summer’s uprisings by orienting over 1,000 new people to SURJ NYC, to powerful organizing of anti-racist voters in the elections last month—all in the middle of coping with new kinds of isolation. It’s no surprise that many of us are longing to get to see each other in person.

We’re all balancing that longing with real risks to our safety, and our levels of risk are different. Vaccinations don’t completely protect any of us from this virus. Some of us are less protected than others. Some still can’t get the vaccine. Vaccination aside—some of us have only been able to be a part of SURJ this year because everything has been online.

The bottom line is this: we want to find safe ways to be together, but we cannot act as if the pandemic is over, and we refuse to return to a “normal” that systematically excludes disabled folks. So we’re taking this moment to step back and check in with our members.

Every one of us has access needs, from where and when things happen to the physical conditions of a space we’re in. This survey will help us learn as much about those needs as possible, so we can radically welcome everyone who wants to be a part of SURJ.

With this in mind, there are two kinds of questions in this survey:

  1. Questions about your comfort with joining events in the next few months, particularly considering Covid-19.

  2. Questions about what you might need to be able to join our events in general; online and in-person, now and into the future.

Whether you’ve never been to a SURJ NYC event or you’ve been to 20 in the last year, we need to hear from you. Will you take 10 minutes to fill out this survey?

Thank you for helping us get better at making SURJ NYC a place for everyone committed to the fight for racial justice.

Onward,

SURJ NYC

P.S. The next opportunity to be together is chapter meeting next week, where we’ll be learning and taking action to end immigrant detention in New York State. Make sure you register here to join us, Thursday August 5th at 6:30pm!