Local organizing for relationship-building, community support, and resource sharing are crucial to the success of any movement. The Self-Directed Education movement is based in grassroots organizing and community coming together to support one another. This is exactly the kind of organizing that The Alliance for Self-Directed Education (ASDE) seeks to support and be supported by through the SDE Efforts (formerly local SDE groups) initiative.

This project started in 2017, as a way to bring folks together around local organizing. Over the years, we have naturally shifted, expanded, and formed new ways of interacting and supporting one another, and have decided to rename this initiative SDE Efforts, and expand the ways we support folks in their efforts. SDE Efforts can include launching a new program, planning a play meetup, starting a co-op, starting a deschooling cohort, envisioning and facilitating programming for teens, launching a local advocacy group, starting a center, and so much more. This meetup is meant to be expansive and a place where we can think radically together about all the ways to engage in SDE and bring SDE to our communities in caring, supportive ways. We want to think beyond the boxes of what this can look like and find radically new ways to be in community together, and SDE Efforts is our place to have a support system for folks engaging in this work.

ASDE supports local organizers to help catalyze the formation of groups, projects, and other efforts aimed at supporting and promoting Self-Directed Education in their local communities. These groups and efforts are autonomous entities and may or may not choose to incorporate. SDE Efforts are legally distinct from the Alliance for Self-Directed Education, but are free to use the website and resources of the Alliance to further their local efforts and to communicate.

SDE Efforts can take many different forms. They can be parent support groups, discussion groups, play meetups, or even advocacy groups. There are SDE Efforts that support the community by providing a safe space for parents of self-directed children to talk about their joys, struggles, and ask one another questions. There are efforts that are sharing SDE through showing videos, sharing books, and discussion. There are other efforts that are working towards normalizing and popularizing SDE in their city.

Have questions about how to form a group? Want support thinking through your idea for a new SDE Effort? Wondering where to meet, how to plan meetings, or how to gather interest? Want to know if there is a group in your area?

Please bear with us as we are shifting and rewriting our materials. The ideas and supports in these handbooks and FAQs are still relevant, but do not currently cover the expansive ways SDE Efforts are showing up in communities.

Next steps:

• Find existing groups in the Resource Directory
• Read the SDE Efforts Handbook
• Visit the SDE Efforts FAQ
• Ask a question on the Local SDE Groups Forum
• Email Bria If you would like to join the monthly online local SDE group organizer meetings
• Email Bria, our Executive Director, at bria@self-directed.org with any questions!