Building Your Community:
Welcome to Red Wine & Blue’s TroubleNation!
Connection is at the heart of organizing. Extremists want us to feel isolated and alone — but when we come together, we’re unstoppable. The antidote to division is community building.
This is why Red Wine & Blue launched TroubleNation — our national grassroots organizing program — to supercharge your power to build community locally.
We make it easier than ever to get started. Whether you’re forming a new group or growing an existing one, TroubleNation will help you find other Red Wine & Blue members who live near you and share your frustration with the rise of extremism in their communities. We offer everything you need — exclusive content, training, event opportunities, and connections with grassroots leaders across the country. Best of all, groups remain independent while benefiting from Red Wine & Blue’s support.
Oklahoma TroubleNation group, Good Trouble Tulsa
As of April 2025, Red Wine & Blue has over 700,000 women in our network and over 800 TroubleNation groups in all 50 states (and even a few abroad for American expats who’ve had enough)!
With new members and groups joining every day, our movement is unstoppable. Even if you feel alone where you live, we guarantee you are not!
Why Community Matters
In these chaotic times, group members need a safe gathering space that they can depend on. In the community groups we form, people want to:
- Make friends
- Feel less isolation
- Vent frustrations
- Share ideas
- Learn new things
- Take action in their community
- Build collective power
Take a quick look at what our experts have to say about why community matters so much!
Remember that many people are surrounded by individuals who don’t share their values or perspectives. They might even be living with them! Finding your group can give them a support network that provides hope and encouragement.
How to Build Community
We recommend investing time in building a solid foundation for your group — and that means creating community. Think about this work in three stages: building community, sustaining community, and growing community, keeping in mind that your group will constantly be flowing back and forth between these stages, and can even be in multiple stages at one time.
Growing Your TroubleNation Group
Connection is at the heart of organizing. Extremists want us to feel isolated and alone — but when we come together, we’re unstoppable. The antidote to division is community building.
Sustaining Your TroubleNation Group
Connection is at the heart of organizing. Extremists want us to feel isolated and alone — but when we come together, we’re unstoppable. The antidote to division is community building.
Starting Your TroubleNation Group
Connection is at the heart of organizing. Extremists want us to feel isolated and alone — but when we come together, we’re unstoppable. The antidote to division is community building.
A Note on Joy and Hope
Keep in mind that sustaining your group means being intentional about self-care — both individually and collectively. Don’t forget to take time to check in with each other and make sure you are all getting the support you need.
Avoid the trap of despair. While it’s easy to feel a sense of gloom and doom about all the things out of our control, we can’t get stuck in that feeling. It might be tempting to throw up our hands and hide under the covers, but remember the people throughout history who have fought to make this country the free, safe, and vibrant place we know it can be.
Be engaged, and let go of what doesn’t help. Stay informed without getting sucked into the cycle of doomscrolling and cable news drama. Think outside of the (news) box by finding trusted sources like Heather Cox Richardson. Subscribe to the newsletters and podcasts of organizations you trust to keep you informed (like ours!). If you find yourself getting frustrated and angry, walk away. Talk to a friend.
Stay hopeful. Authoritarianism needs fear to be successful, so focus on finding hope wherever you can. Celebrate wins, no matter how small. Toast to joy. Turn up the music. Take care of yourselves and each other.
“Hope is not an emotion. Hope is a stubborn commitment to possibility.”
Building Your Community and Secret to Effective Messaging Links
Application to start a group
Good Neighbors Getting It Done in Western New York
MailChimp for group emails
Signal for group communication
PowerPoint Vision Boards
Join Or Die Documentary
Marshall Ganz skill-building workshop
The Activist checklist for online and offline safety
Betterworld for fundraising
PayPal Money Pool
Community service step-by-step guide
Canva for graphic design
QR Code Monkey
Creating a Story of Self