Whether as an admin or member of a community, being an ally to your fellow community members is an important step in creating thriving, inclusive communities.
Tips for being an ally in your community
Helping to educate yourself and others with reputable resources on topics like anti-racism, the history of oppressed groups, immigration policies, etc. is the first step toward creating a healthy dialogue.
Use your voice to share information, resources, organizations and places to donate, and educate others on how they can do the same. Providing a safe space for fellow community members to interact and share their diverse experiences is an important part of leading and interacting in communities. Lifting the voices of your fellow community members and calling out discriminatory and disrespectful behavior is our obligation as community members and allies.
For more on education and resources, check out the Lift Black Voices Hub, LGBTQ@ Facebook Page, Military and Veterans Hub.
Now more than ever, local and diverse businesses and organizations need the help of their community. Think about including diverse businesses in your community or sharing their information in yours and other communities.
Whether local or online, there are a lot of businesses that are owned by, benefit from, are donating to, or are employing people from diverse backgrounds. Do a bit of research or ask your members to post their favorite businesses that are owned by, operated by or are donating to help:
- BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)
- LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersexed, Agender, Asexual, Ally and more)
- People with disabilities
- Veterans
- Age diverse groups
- Immigrants
- Women
You can create a post in your community to crowdsource a list of businesses and organizations. Many people have also started creating Units on local, diverse businesses and organizations they can support.
Next time you host an event, think about how you can bring business to these places. Perhaps hosting a get together, lunch, ordering food from, or creating opportunities to work with these businesses. Keep in mind that raffles, contests or paid advertising (by group admins) goes against Facebook Community Standards, however, Branded Content is available for Public Groups and the Brand Collabs Manager allows you to connect with brands looking to promote their products and services.
As a community leader and member, you are there to listen as much as you are there to share. Being an active member of a community is often about learning, listening and implementing and sharing what you’ve learned.
We are always growing and evolving and it’s important to ask for feedback as to how to be a better, more inclusive and effective leader. You can do this via an anonymous survey (such as a Survey Monkey or Google Form), simple Messenger ping or even polling your community on how you can improve the group. Remember, your community is there for you as much as you are there for them!
“Our group has a rule that in order to listen properly when you first join our online community, we have a silent period for three months. It’s a type of discipline...of listening and learning.”
- Latasha Morrison, founder of Be the Bridge
Tools to promote inclusion in your community
Units can be used to organize groups of posts into sequences that can be revisited anytime. They’re great for creating central places to find resources. For more on how you can use units in your community, read more here:
How to set up Units:
- Go to your group and click on Settings
- Go to Units and create your first Unit. Name your Unit and decide if this is optional or if members of your group need to see it
- From here, you can create your Unit, such as “Local Businesses” to compile all the posts and resources your members share
Polling your members is a great way to learn what matters most to your community and get suggestions. For example, you can poll your members on how you can help support diverse businesses, or ask for feedback or ideas on how to continue to support diverse voices.
To set up a poll:
- Go to your group and open the composer tool
- Click on the “Poll” option and type your question which could be “What business do you know of that has diverse ownership?”
- Add options using the “settings button” to decide whether you’d like to allow members to choose multiple or add their own options.
