436. Building Sustainable Movements for Systems Change - Deepa Iyer

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Meet Deepa. She's played many roles in supporting social movements, weaver, frontline responder, storyteller + guide. Her political and community homes include Asian American, South Asian, Muslim, and Arab ecosystems where she spent fifteen years in policy advocacy and coalition building in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the ensuing backlash. She now leads projects on solidarity and social movements at the Building Movement Project, a national nonprofit organization catalyzing social change through research, relationships, and resources. Don’t miss this conversation that’ll provide the building blocks for building sustainable movements💪

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Lessons learned from building social movements
A guide for reflection and connection
How to build up solidarity practices as individuals + organizations

Today's Guest

Deepa Iyer, Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives, Building Movement Project

“What role do I most often play in social change?”

— Deepa Iyer, Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives, Building Movement Project

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Episode Highlights

Deepa’s story and journey to where she is today (3:30)
Lessons learned from building movements (5:15)
The role of nonprofits in building movements (8:40)
The importance of reflection (11:20)
Overview of the framework within Deepa’s book “Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection” (14:15)
Deepa’s reflections on her own journey using this framework (17:40)
Defining solidarity (22:05)
Deepa’s advice for young professionals that want to be change-makers (26:30)
Resources and tools from Building Movement Project (30:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Deepa’s life (32:05)
Deepa’s One Good Thing: How are we tending to the urgency of now? (34:30)
How to connect with Deepa (36:00)

Powerful Quotes

“What role do I most often play in social change?” -Deepa

“What is the toll and impact of playing that role?” -Deepa

“Solidarity is really a verb and an action.” -Deepa

“How are we tending to the urgency of now? What is our role in this moment?” -Deepa Iyer, reflecting on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King

“We know that we cannot do this work alone and it's going to take a lot of us to lock arms to get our understanding, to have our ears open, to come with compassion and civility.” -Becky