We Stood Up offers workers, builders, activists, and organizers the opportunity to share a first-person story from their work and world. From inspirational stories to strategic insights and powerful solutions, this series is your biweekly moment to breathe, receive collective wisdom, and reinforce the community solidarity we all need to keep pushing toward a just and equitable future.

Change doesn’t always arrive in dramatic moments. Sometimes it’s the small wins—the coworker who finally felt heard, the meeting where every voice shaped the outcome, the quiet policy shift because someone refused to stay silent.

As bell hooks reminded us, “joy is a form of resistance.” We honor and hold space for those stories here.

Not just the landmark victories, but the quieter ones. Stories of solutions found in the community. Moments where solidarity made the difference. Glimpses of what a more just world already looks like in practice.

In We Stood Up, we invite submissions from workers, builders, activists, and organizers, to share what you’ve done and what you’ve learned, regardless of prior journalism or writing experience.

Submissions can answer one more of these questions:

• What small win reminded you that change is possible?
• How has joy sustained you in this work this season?
• What solution did your community build together that others could learn from?
• How do you cultivate and protect solidarity when things get hard?
• What barrier did you face, and what did you discover on the other side of it?

In written words, this could be a first-person essay. However, we honor all forms of storytelling. This could be visual or oral, multilingual, visual, or other—any medium to uplift voices and stories that resist.

NPQ offers $300 for published pieces in We Stood Up, which is dedicated to showcasing grassroots voices. Please review our submission guidelines and submit your pitch in the form below. We accept submissions on a rolling basis.