The headlines never end. More school shootings. White people putting people of color in danger for merely living. The gap between rich and poor growing ever wider. America having the highest rate of maternal mortality in the developed world. The 400th straight month of higher-than-normal temperatures from climate change.

There is so much wrong with the world. I am so damn tired from it all. It’s so easy to be.

Unfortunately, no one’s going to come around and fix it. Change starts with us. It’s about radical kindness in your daily life. It’s about standing up and demanding justice and fairness from our policy makers. The political is personal and the personal is political.

When it feels like the world is awful, here are some ways you can make a difference:

Act.

Call your national policy makers. In the U.S., I like the service Daily Action, which texts you every few days with an issue to call your Senator or Representative about. (Calling is scary, but it really does become easier over time!)

Write your state and local representatives. Make sure you’re registered to vote, both in the primaries and on Election Day.

Join.

There are plenty of groups that need as much time and money as you can spare. There are even ones that focus on parents! Moms Clean Air Force and Moms Rising are great progressive organizations focused on issues related to families and parents. If you can’t volunteer, funding is always welcome.

Learn.

Read the personal experiences of people different from you, especially people who are traditionally marginalized, like people of color, indigenous people, LGBTQ people, and people who are disabled. Read stories written by these folks to your kids. Especially for fiction, you can find lots of these by looking for #ownvoices authors on Twitter.

Research.

Find out what’s going on in your local community and state. Is there enough affordable housing? Are there big gaps in educational opportunities between black and white kids? Does everyone has reliable access to transportation? Are local power plants or trucks on highways contributing to dangerous air pollution?

Know your local leaders’ opinions as well as your national representatives. Local politics are what determine a lot of the conditions that most affect people’s day-to-day lives, especially educational and economic inequality.

Love and support each other.

It’s so easy to get burnt out in the 24-hour-cycle of what seems like bad news. Find time to celebrate with each other, whether that’s through birthday parties or splashing in puddles. Connect with friends as much as you can. Bring food to new parents or people who are sick. Text someone you haven’t talked to in a while. Raise money for a cause you believe in with a party. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions.”

Make, grow, and appreciate beautiful things.

Art, music, literature and other beautiful things are more than just accessories. They’re fundamental to changing people’s viewpoints and hearts. If you are drawn to those things, embrace them! Honestly sharing our stories and truth is critical for moving forward. Gardening can be incredibly healing to the soil and people’s souls, especially if you grow food. We need to feed each other, in every sense of the word.

Make little changes with big impacts.

Bike, walk or take the bus somewhere. Donate $10 a month to an organization or a writer who makes a major difference to you. Tip big – service jobs are notoriously underpaid and servers are often paid for fewer hours than they work. Sign a petition. Buy something from a business owned by a black or Hispanic woman. Little things can add up to a big difference.

Teach your kids.

Talk to them about privilege, racism, and poverty. EmbraceRace and Raising Race Conscious Children have great resources. Check out some guidelines for talking to them about climate change. Be age-appropriate but truthful. Hiding reality from kids just makes them distrustful of adults. Help them appreciate and respect all types of people, especially people who look or act differently from them. Help them interact with other kids who are different from them as much as possible.

This is a long list, but I hope some or even much of it grabs you. Everyone has a part to play in making social change. Sometimes, it’s being behind the scenes or managing the logistics. As the saying goes, no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

For more on raising kids to make a difference, check out How to Introduce Kids to Political Activism. Be sure to join our Green and Sustainable Parenting Facebook group!