Editor’s Note: Our guest contributor this week is my cousin Stef McGuire. Our connection as adults has been working in community for values we learned in the home and through our faith. Stef and her husband Tom recently moved from northern Connecticut to Durham, NC. Stef’s post offers a snapshot of hopeful signs across America—growing networks of volunteers and organizations coming together to support neighbors facing oppressive actions of the current administration, including unjust applications of our nation’s immigration policies. This post was written prior to the tragic murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last week. The need to organize and stand with those oppressed grows more compelling each day. 

Donald Trump was elected to office in 2024, months after Tom and I relocated to Durham. We were immediately challenged to participate in activities resisting the administration’s abuse of power and racist policies. Our daughter lives locally and connected us with an amazing network of volunteers and organizations committed to preserving our democracy.

More recently, these efforts have focused on ensuring safety and protection for our immigrant neighbors amid a surge in the activities of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have begun operating in North Carolina, leading to attacks on individuals and their rights. This post reflects on local organizing in response to these developments. These efforts are especially meaningful at this time of year as they connect me with the values of love and justice upheld by my faith and demonstrate the real power of community.

Recently, I found myself standing with my husband and a small group of volunteers on a corner near the drop-off area of a local elementary school. We are part of a “School Care and Protection Team,” organized by a reinvigorated Durham Public School Strong (PSS) group. PSS was initially organized in North Carolina to counter efforts by radical groups such as Moms for Liberty. Its mission is to promote public attendance at Board of Education meetings to ensure “honest, accurate, equitable, safe and fully funded public education.”

That mission has now expanded to include immigration safety and justice. In our area, Care Teams are organized by school zones using local high schools as anchors. Within each zone, smaller school-based teams are established, trained, and connected through team leaders. In Durham, 43 of 54 schools have established Care Teams, each offering varying levels of support to schools and their surrounding neighborhoods.

With posters in hand, our goal that morning was simple: to welcome children, families, and staff and to assure them that the community was there to support and protect them. We were offering a first level of reassurance at a time when a cloud of fear had settled over our neighbors.

What I did not realize that morning was the depth of preparation behind the scenes—constant communication and frequent adjustments, sometimes hour by hour—to ensure the effort’s success. What I have come to understand quickly is that this is community in action. We have been called to be part of it, because that is what neighbors do for one another—especially when it comes to the safety and protection of children.

Once involved, we attended several volunteer trainings focused on safety and nonviolence in an environment where fear and terror had taken hold. PSS trainings provided general information, including one in a packed community space attended by nearly 300 people; more than 400 others attended similar sessions virtually. SiembraNC, a Latine organization founded in 2017 during the first Trump administration, offers expanded training focused on verification and response to ICE and CBP encounters.

There is growing collaboration and increasingly effective communication between these organizations, helping create a more reassuring environment for immigrant families. One sign of progress was a gradual improvement in school attendance rates, which had peaked at 20% absenteeism after the community was first alerted to heightened ICE and CBP activity.

Food insecurity quickly worsened during this period as many people were afraid to leave their homes—either to go to work, risking loss of wages, or to purchase food. In response, a massive effort emerged to meet local needs. The Durham Community Care Collaborative was launched, guided by schools and organized through the same school-zone networks.

At a critical moment, more than 600 volunteers provided 13,000 meals to 650 families within the first 24 hours. The effort has since evolved into a more sustainable long-term approach, with monetary donations supporting bulk purchases of culturally relevant and most-needed food items. This success is the result of collaboration among school networks and community groups—some newly formed, others long established. Together, we are all becoming more seasoned.

One definition of community is “a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.” We are experiencing that definition in real time. After just one year in Durham, we have become deeply committed members of this community. Much has happened in our nation and our neighborhood, yet there is genuine hope in witnessing people come together in fellowship to support one another.

You might wonder whether our children attend the school where we greet families each morning. They do not. However, our daughter and her husband live in that neighborhood and invited us to join the Care Team. That invitation reminds me that our first experience of community is family. Sharing this work with them as adults, during a time of social crisis, is a profound gift.

This experience has enriched our lives as “senior” members of our new hometown. We have learned more about the needs of our community, particularly its public schools, and we are now better positioned to stay engaged. As we look to the New Year, our hope for you is that you continue exploring ways to find community—ways that nurture you and contribute to the joyful and just world we all long for in 2026.