Building bridges to belonging.
Belong is a public conversation about belonging and political engagement. As a space for co-imagining what belonging in our country can look like, it’s intended to be a bridge to the loving society where the most marginalized among us feel invited, included & centered. And where our institutions and structures empower all of us to thrive.
Through the power of coalition-building and coalition-voting, Belong encourages all of us to join hands and cross the bridge of this election toward a society where we all belong.
We believe elections
are bridges from
protest to policy.
Together, with Inspire Justice, and in collaboration with The Cultural Engagement Lab, Belong is launching content intended to get out the vote by inspiring us to see voting as being fundamentally about protecting our right to belong.
By releasing political ads on social media, raising money for 866OURVOTE through t-shirt sales and by providing information for how to go about voting, we intend to do whatever it takes. After the election, we will continue creating content as well as facilitating conversations with thought-leaders, organizers & artists to continue building the bridges we need — because as critical as this moment is, we are also thinking about the next moment and the ongoing work of building we are called to do.
New content will be posted here on an ongoing basis.
Protect our right to belong.
Protect our future.
Protect the election.
Protect each other.
Take action.
Vote
Create a voting plan: vote by mail, early and in-person, or on Nov. 3rd.
Research your candidates + key ballot initiatives in your state.
Check here for resources.
Voting Pods
Create a voting pod with family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers.
Hold each other accountable to your voting plans. No voters left behind!
Share your voting story with a pic or video using one of our hashtags:
#VoteForBelonging
#WeBelong
Claim
Claim & express your right to belong with a Belong t-shirt.
100% of the money goes to 866OURVOTE for Election Protection.
“Throughout my life, I’ve found myself in a conversation about identity and civic engagement that, for me, boils down to this idea of belonging: who gets to belong to our social space and who doesn’t, how we belong to each other and how we don’t.”
— Dawn-Lyen Gardner
Actor∙Writer∙Producer∙Activist
Dawn-Lyen Gardner founded Belong from a deeply personal place. As the great-granddaughter of an Alabama sharecropper and the daughter of a Chinese immigrant born and made in the diverse crossroads of Los Angeles, California, she has lived at the intersection — a convergence point of multiple cultures & identities.
She has long sought spaces for reconciling these parts of herself, spaces for honest and brave conversation, and she has come to know that she’s anything but alone in her search.
Then, a few years ago, a light turned on when she encountered the idea of othering and belonging, largely through the work of civil rights lawyer and thought leader, john a. powell. She began to see belonging as the political motivator of our time — a powerful framework for the very conversations that she and so many of us are looking for….
