Welcome to the October Dispatch! Thank you for being a part of our growing, powerful Moms Next Door program!

What’s the Moms Next Door Dispatch? Each month, you’ll receive the Moms Next Door Dispatch (Scroll down!)—a monthly toolkit that will arrive in your inbox to provide you and your community with ideas on how to self-organize and take action, how to process and make sense of all that’s going on, AND how to remain calm, find joy in community, and recharge as we build a brighter future! Sign up now to get these monthly dispatches in your inbox and learn new ways to connect!

Here’s the October Menu of 5 ways for you to engage this month, on your own or with your small group near you:

OCTOBER ORGANIZING ZOOM MEETUP

Join us on Tuesday, October 21, 2025 at 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT on Zoom for the final Moms Next Door session of the year before we pause for the holidays. This is a chance for us to all reconvene and review what we’ve learned over the past few months and get primed to take action this winter season. We will be recapping the wonderful guests who have joined us, the number of leaders we have connected with across the country, where to find these amazing resources, and so much more. This will be our final workshop session of 2025—and we’ll be starting up again in early 2026. We hope you can join us!

ACTION OF THE MONTH: Make Sure Your Community Is Ready To Vote! 

• It’s Election Season! Flex your voter registration and GOTV muscles and make sure your community is ready to vote. With elections just around the corner, it’s critical to have the resources, ideas, and information to ensure your voice and the voices of our community are heard through the most powerful of civic tools, the right to vote. Check out our guide to all things voting. 
  • Don’t miss these fun crafts, activities, and ideas to celebrate voting with your kids!

FUN, JOY & POWER

• Stand in your pumpkin power this Halloween! Carve a message to your family and your neighbors this fall with MomsRising pumpkin carving templates. This printable packet includes kid-friendly pumpkin carving templates inspired by big ideas like civic engagement, protecting health care, and families over billionaires. Just pick your favorite stencil, tape it onto your pumpkin, and carve away. It’s a fun way to spark conversations about making the world a better place, while lighting up your porch with a strong and glowing message. Download the template packet here!

WHAT WE’RE READING THIS MONTH

For people wanting to start book groups for change or just looking for good books, here’s what’s in our October library:

*When you meet up to talk about books, take a picture and post it on social media with @MomsRising to show others that they aren’t alone!

• Non-fiction Pick: Defectors by Paola Ramos – A deeply reported, personal exploration of how race, identity and political trauma have influenced the rise in far-right sentiment among Latinos

• Fiction Pick: Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou – A witty satire that covers cultural appropriation and white supremacy on a college campus. 

We’ve got lots of great book ideas for the kiddos in your life this month! Here you go: 

• Don’t miss this great resource! Diverse Books for All is a national coalition working to increase access to affordable, high quality children’s books by and about diverse races, cultures, identities, and abilities. They provide lots of resources and recommendations! Here are a few on our list: 
  • Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You / ¡Solo Pregunta!: Sé diferente, sé valiente, sé tú by Sonia Sotomayor (Ages 4-7) 
  • Soul Food Sunday by Winsome Bingham (Ages 4-8)
  • A Place to Stay by Erin Gunti (Ages 5-9)
  • Evelyn Del Rey se muda by Meg Medina (Español) (Ages 5-7)
  • Rooftop Garden by Danna Smith (Ages 3-7)
• Check out Voting and Our Kids, a cozy fall reading list to educate the future voters in our lives!
• For those of you who joined our Moms Next Door September Workshop, when we heard from Lina Acosta Sandaal on “Parenting Amid Political Turmoil,” please check out these kids books she provided about finding calm during school lockdown drills.
  • Not Like Every Day by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic (Age 4-8)
  • One Thursday Afternoon by Barbara Dilorenzo (Age 3-7) 

*Want to support your local bookstore? Use the Bookshop finder to locate bookstores near you and women, Black, AAPI, LGBTQIA+, Latine, and Indigenous-owned bookstores online.

MUTUAL SUPPORT OPTION

What is mutual aid? Different from charity— where resources usefully flow in one direction from donors to recipients—mutual aid is community-driven and reciprocal, built on community-based solidarity. And many parents and caregivers are already doing this (think: your local PTA, community gardens, or even kids’ birthday parties). In creating communities of love, we also want to turn them into communities of support, protection, and action to prepare for what’s ahead. Curious how to get started? Here’s how to create a mutual aid pod in your community!

MUTUAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY OF THE MONTH: Trick-or-Treat Mutual Aid

Halloween isn’t just for candy—it’s a great time to connect with your neighbors and kick off community care ahead of the holiday season. Use trick-or-treating as an opportunity to bring people together:

• Host a Halloween drive where neighbors “treat” each other by donating to a mutual aid fund, food pantry, or warm clothing collection.
• Encourage neighbors to drop off supplies at your house as the season begins.
• Hand out flyers on Halloween night for an upcoming food, supply, or holiday gift drive.

Small actions now can build relationships that last all season and beyond. Whatever you chose, you’ve got this!

Thank you for being here. We are looking forward to strengthening connections and community in refreshing, educational, and joyful ways with you in the coming months!

P.S. Missed the September dispatch and looking for more resources? Check it out on our blog.