ADVOCACY TOOLS

Engage on Social Media

Many of us spend a lot of time connecting with family, friends, colleagues, elected officials, and even strangers via social media platforms. There are many ways to use your social media presence to spread the word about the dangers of nuclear weapons — and motivate others to take action.

We encourage you to follow and promote Back from the Brink on one or more social media channels.

• Facebook: Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War
• X (Twitter): @BackFromBrink
• Instagram: @BackFromBrink

See below for some sample posts you can share, and don’t forget to tag us! Social media is also a great way to express your views as a constituent directly to your local and state elected officials, as well as your members of Congress. Social media handles for decisionmakers can often be found easily on their legislative website.

Sample X post: The threat of #nuclearwar is urgent and growing—risking our communities, environment, and the very future of civilization. Fortunately, @BackfromBrink is building a safer and more just world free from these risks. Learn more and join the #BftB campaign: https://youtu.be/fk22jxem6ik

Sample Facebook post: The threat of nuclear war is real and urgent, yet the United States plans to spend billions on new, destabilizing nuclear weapons while critical social, economic, and environmental programs are underfunded. Back from the Brink is sounding the alarm and proposing simple solutions for a safer, more just world. Get involved at preventnuclearwar.org. https://youtu.be/fk22jxem6ik

Shareable content

Back from the Brink has also created original media content that you can disseminate on various social media platforms. You can find links to our original posts with the content for easy sharing and re-posting.

	Faith — Perspectives Video. Learn and share what motivates people of faith to get involved in the nuclear abolition movement in this short video.   Share post on Facebook Share post on Instagram Share post on X
	Youth — Perspectives Video. Learn and share what motivates young people to get involved in the nuclear abolition movement in this short video.   Share post on Facebook Share post on Instagram Share post on X
	Educator — Perspectives Video. Learn and share what motivates educators to get involved in the nuclear abolition movement in this short video.   Share post on Facebook Share post on Instagram Share post on X
	By the Numbers: The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Arsenal. This short animated video highlights how many weapons are in the U.S. nuclear arsenal in contrast to how many people have the authority to launch them–just one.   Share post on Facebook Share post on Instagram Share post on X
	Assumptions vs. Reality of Launching a U.S. Nuclear Weapon. This graphic series explains the current policy for launching a nuclear weapon in the United States–and why it’s immensely risky.   Share post on Facebook Share post on Instagram Share post on X

Leverage Local Media

How information is shared and exchanged is changing rapidly, both globally and within communities. Traditional media outlets, such as your local newspapers (daily, weekly, or alternative) and local radio stations and public radio affiliates, are still important vehicles to raise public awareness, share information, and shape public attitudes.

Write a letter to the editor (LTE). LTEs to your local or regional newspaper are an effective and easy way to reach a large audience about nuclear weapons abolition. They can help you reach more activists in your area who would be willing to join your movement and bring the issue to the attention of your elected officials.

Check out the Union for Concerned Scientists’ guide Writing an Effective Letter to the Editor for some helpful tips. And, for ideas about how to make the case that nuclear weapons are important to your specific community, email us at info@preventnuclearwar.org.

Engage with other content providers. Local podcasts, blog sites, or community listservs can also be effective platforms for advocacy. We can help identify those local outlets and provide background and contact information.

Gather Campaign Endorsements

Gather endorsements from local elected officials

Central to Back from the Brink is the belief that nuclear weapons matter to people at the local level. We have the power to encourage our local and state officials to push for policies that will keep us all safe from the consequences of nuclear weapons. Your mayor, city councilors, state senators, and representatives — they all need to hear from you.

Contact your local elected officials. You can find their contact information at www.usa.gov/elected-officials or your city, town, or county’s website. Identifying and reaching out directly to your elected officials’ key staff people can often lead to success.

We also have sample language you can use to guide your communications. You can go to File > Make a Copy to edit the language in Google Docs, or File > Download to make changes using document editing software on your computer.

Elected officials can easily endorse us via this online form on our website.

Don’t forget to follow up. If you don’t get a response within two weeks, contact them again. It might take some persistence to get your message heard. If emailing doesn’t seem to be working, try calling or mailing a letter.

Amplify your voice by building a team. If your elected officials hear a similar message from a group of people, they may be more receptive. Who else in your community can you recruit? Can you organize a meeting with local officials?

Gather endorsements from groups and organizations

Ask groups and organizations to officially endorse Back from the Brink. Close to 500 already have! You can view the full organizational endorser list for inspiration on who you can reach out to — the list spans academic, civic, environmental, faith, health-focused, peace, policy groups, and more.

Groups and organizations can endorse us via this online form on our website.

We also have sample language you can use to guide your communications. You can go to File > Make a Copy to edit the language in Google Docs, or File > Download to make changes using document editing software on your computer.

Try growing your existing relationships and reaching out to new groups to forge lasting, mutually beneficial partnerships.

Pass a Local Resolution

The cornerstone of the Back from the Brink campaign are the municipal resolutions passed in cities and towns throughout the United States by our distributed network of organizers. More than 70 municipalities and states have passed Back from the Brink resolutions or proclamations already, with many more in progress.

The guide below offers some suggestions and best practices for how to pursue these efforts effectively. You’ll note that we haven’t numbered the sections, as this may be different depending on your group’s particular circumstances and what is best suited to your local context.

Back from the Brink is here to help support you at any and every stage of the process. We can help you get started, connect you with groups who have experience with local resolutions, and provide advice on how to maximize the impact of your advocacy and community organizing. Just contact us at info@preventnuclearwar.org.

Establish Goals and Desired Outcomes

Determine which elected official or municipal legislative body (such as a town or city council or county board) that you would like to engage. If possible, start close to home, so that you begin the process with the inherent power that you have as a constituent. If you want to approach a legislative body, familiarize yourself with the terminology for its prior statements of support on other issues. Many municipalities refer to such statements as resolutions, but others refer to them as memorials, or proclamations, or statements included in their administrative record.

Draft the Resolution

A sample resolution can be found here which you can customize for your municipality.

You may wish to include “whereas” statements about your municipality’s history related to nuclear disarmament, the health and environmental impact of a nuclear weapons-related facility if there’s one nearby, or the staggering nuclear weapons-related costs to taxpayers in your municipality (check out the Nuclear Weapons Community Cost Calculator). 

Thoughtful “whereas” statements that highlight the intersections between nuclear weapons and other issues – such as climate change or economic, environmental, and racial justice – can strengthen your resolution and help you build a diverse coalition of support. The only requirement for the resolution to be considered part of the Back from the Brink initiative is that it includes support for all five points in our policy platform. We also strongly recommend language indicating that the municipality will send a copy of the resolution to that area’s congressional delegation and the President (per our sample resolution).

Our sample resolution includes an optional “let it be resolved” calling on the United States to embrace the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Municipalities that include this statement in their resolution will be included in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ Cities Appeal, which is a movement to gain support for the TPNW from cities throughout the world that was inspired by Back from the Brink.

Building Relationships with Allies/Forming a Coalition

Identify and reach out to your existing partner groups and other community leaders to seek their involvement and ideas before approaching the elected officials that you want to work with on this effort.

1. Ask organizations in your area to endorse Back from the Brink. Peace, faith, health, environmental, policy and justice groups are natural allies, but you may want to reach out to other local civic organizations as well. A sample request for endorsement is on our website.
2. Review the list of organizations that have endorsed Back from the Brink on our website. Many have chapters or members throughout the country, possibly near you, who could join you in your efforts.
3. Contact Back from the Brink organizers at info@preventnuclearwar.org and we will help connect you to others in your area.

Build and strengthen relationships with local groups working on other critical social issues. We encourage you to connect with other groups early in your efforts, and to be creative in how you connect nuclear weapons to the issues they focus on.

For example, you could make the link between police brutality in your city and militarism at the federal and international levels. Or you could link nuclear weapons to climate justice by arguing how, instead of investing billions in nuclear weapons that threaten communities and do not make us safer, we could invest these funds in initiatives that strengthen communities and address climate change, such as expanding clean energy infrastructure or electrifying public transportation. You can learn more about these intersections on our Nuclear Weapons 101 page.

It is important for those of us committed to social justice to show up for other communities in myriad ways: by attending their meetings, offering them opportunities to bring their issues to our networks, and helping to advocate when these issues come before local and state governments. We hope that the relationships that you build while organizing for Back from the Brink will be lasting and mutually beneficial for your community.

Learn the Local Process and Rules

Every legislative body has different rules for how they operate, when and what types of issues can be considered, filing deadlines, legal vetting, etc. Research these rules and talk to the appropriate staff members, such as city clerks, staffers for your representative, or the office of legislative counsel in a state legislature. In particular, research the procedures for resolutions or proclamations, as those kinds of items may have a different process than legislation.

If you have a relationship with a representative on the legislative body from which you’re seeking support, contact that person and ask for his or her advice on introducing a Back from the Brink resolution. 

Ask your local partners or allied groups if they have helpful relationships or experience with that legislative body and if so, if they have recommendations on how to proceed or if they would make an introduction to any officials who have championed their efforts. 

Research the legislative body and prospective resolution sponsors. How have these kinds of initiatives been managed in the past? Which elected official(s) would be most likely to sponsor or introduce a Back from the Brink resolution?

Be persistent and make sure to follow up if your queries go unanswered for more than a week or two. Don’t assume that a lack of response indicates an unwillingness to consider a resolution, as it may simply be that the person to whom you’ve reached out is busy. 

If it appears that getting a resolution adopted by a legislative body is unlikely, you may want to approach a community leader such as a mayor, council president, or your own local representative, and ask if that person will endorse Back from the Brink.

If an elected official agrees to sponsor your resolution, consult with them to make sure you know the date and time the resolution will be heard in the legislative body, including any committee hearings. They may also have helpful advice on which elected officials need extra attention from you (additional calls or a meeting), in order to gain a supportive vote. 

Ask your allies and partners to submit letters of support and to attend and testify at meetings where the resolution will be up for a vote. Learn the rules for public testimony, such as when the testimony is heard (at the beginning of the meeting or just prior to the resolution vote), how community members sign up to speak, and importantly, how much time each community member will be allotted for public testimony. 

Share information on social media to educate your community, and tag elected officials in your posts to put pressure on them to support the resolution.

Connect with Experienced Groups

Reach out to groups who have helped conceive and manage successful Back from the Brink efforts and can share lessons learned and things to avoid. 

One lesson we’ve learned is that while the resolution processes have commonalities, each has also been a little different in its own way. Some have required months of effort and individual meetings with multiple legislators, while other processes were more simple and streamlined. 

We also have several blog posts that highlight local efforts to pass resolutions and proclamations. Check them out for inspiration and insight:

• Working for a City Council Resolution in Watertown, MA
• Maryland’s Nuclear Disarmament Advocates: A Legislative Journey
• Burbank High School Students Win Support for Nuclear Abolition

Share Your Progress

Let us know when your Back from the Brink resolution has been introduced, when it’s up for a vote, and the results of the vote so that we can help support you and amplify your success. 

Take photos during and after relevant meetings, post them on social media, and send photos to us so we can share them too.

If your resolution also included support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, remember to contact the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) at info@icanw.org so that they can add it to their Cities Appeal campaign. 

Finally, remember to thank the elected officials who championed your resolution and the legislative body that adopted it.

Help Build the Movement

Once you’ve had time to celebrate and rest, consider approaching another nearby town or city. Each Back from the Brink success inspires others and helps build our movement for a safer, nuclear weapons free world. 

Consider scheduling a visit with your congressional representative to let him or her know about the growing support in your community for our five policy solutions.