Things are hard for a lot of people right now. We see violence on the news and in our communities. We worry about our own families, as well as our friends and neighbors. Lots of us struggle to make ends meet. In hard times, sometimes it can feel like there is nothing that we can do to bring about the kind of world we are longing for.

But even when things are tough, many who care about our world and democracy are finding ways to resist abuses of power, unfair treatment, and the silencing of free speech. People are protesting, boycotting, and taking part in creative, nonviolent efforts to push back against misinformation and promotion of fear and division. Refusing to be sidelined, many everyday people are staking a claim to our democracy.

Times like these do call for resistance in many forms. Yet, it is also essential that we keep our eyes on the prize: the world we are hoping to build. Resistance is necessary, but it isn’t enough to create a world where everyone belongs, where people are free and safe, and where we are able to create the kinds of communities and country where we want to live. If we want things to be different, we have to create space to dream about what is possible to build together and have a hand in that work.

Creating the World We Long For

In Dayton, Ohio, we see this dreaming and building in many of our neighborhoods. In West Dayton, for instance, the grassroots nonprofit Sunlight Village is repurposing an old church, turning it into a hub to support and empower young people. Nearby, Co-Op Dayton supports community-led initiatives from the member-owned Gem City Market to the Westside Makerspace. Across the city, the Dayton Metro Library offers programming as well as free space to efforts like the Dayton Tenant Union and Dayton United for Human Rights to host trainings, celebrations, and storytelling sessions for people to dream, share, and work together on things they care about.

There are people in communities all over—rural, urban, and everywhere in between—that are doing the quiet work of building democracy, even if they never even call it that. This can look like seniors reading to preschoolers, parents watching each other’s kids, coaching a youth athletics team, offering casseroles to our neighbors who are shut in, providing a ride to the polls on voting day, or joining the 12-step meeting where church members support each other’s recovery. Day in and day out, millions of people work to build a fair, just, welcoming, and safe world where we want to live.

Finding Our Place in the Building Project

One of the promises of an inclusive, fair democracy is that we take care of one another and build our shared future together. Most people want to live in a world where laws mean something, where we can pick leaders we believe in, and where communities and everyday people can achieve their dreams and goals.

In hard times, it can feel impossible to dream of things like a garden, a house of our own, a shared meal with loved ones, or a stable economy so we can provide a good life to our family. It is the very things we dream of that give us fuel for both resistance and building. Nobody wants to build a life or a political system on what we are against. We are inspired and able to be strong when we can collectively imagine a different way and when we can experience firsthand what that “something different” is like. We don’t have to wait for other people to build this for us. Throughout history, everyday people like you and me have been doing this together, step by step.

Deepa Iyer is a writer and advocate who developed the social change map, where she outlined 10 roles that community members can play as we work together to build a world we want to live in. These roles are:

• guides
• storytellers
• healers
• disrupters
• caregivers
• builders
• visionaries
• frontline responders
• experimenters
• weavers

As we imagine the communities we want to live in and the world we want the next generation to grow up in, we can take heart that there is a place for everyone in democracy and community: the guides, the healers, the visionaries, the caregivers, and everyone in between. By our actions and our words, we can affirm, day in and day out, that every person has a role to play in bringing about a fair, safe, and prosperous world, no matter our background, identity, or politics.

While there is a lot to resist and fight, there is also much that holds us together: Most people value honesty, family, belonging, safety, and bravery. The vast majority of Americans believe in democracy and agree on key democratic values like being able to speak our minds and compromise.

It can be painful to experience and witness the ways that democracy isn’t working for most people. Yet, as old systems fail, it presents the chance to reimagine and build what a truly inclusive democracy could look like. What will rise in place of the old systems that are crumbling? What can we build in this unique moment in history?

Elizabeth Gish is senior program officer for Democracy and Community at the Kettering Foundation. John Dedrick is executive vice president and chief operating officer at the Kettering Foundation.

This post is part of a series from our Democracy and Community focus area that shares practical ideas and inspiring stories about how everyday people can create healthy, fair, and democratic communities where everyone is safe and everyone belongs.