Become a Member

Complete this form to be contacted about onboarding with SURJ Toronto.

SURJ Toronto members commit to upholding our values and being actively involved in a SURJ Toronto team or a working group. Members are committed to undermining white support for white supremacist systems and institutions through an ongoing, action-based commitment to anti-racist organizing. Learn more about why we organize white people from our friends at AWARE LA.

As a member, we offer relationships and mentorship to support you. Wherever you are in your learning on anti-racism – if you are brand new to the work or have been organizing for many years – we want you to join.

We are committed to supporting Deaf leadership and participation. See the ASL Vlog on SURJ Toronto below for more information.

Here are some things to know about becoming a member:

  • Everyone is welcome. SURJ’s aim is to transform white communities, undermine white support for white supremacy, and challenge white supremacist institutions. SURJ was created to respond to a call from Black, Indigenous, and recialized organizers to do the work of anti-racism within white communities. In this way, it is an overwhelmingly white group with white leadership.

  • We have space for members to work at different paces and we are committed to accessibility through a lens of disability, class, economic, and gender justice.

  • Currently, onboarding involves attending a one-on-one onboarding session. Here you’ll engage in personal reflection, and develop a relationship with a current member to learn the ins and outs of how SURJ Toronto organizes.

  • It’s totally cool for your energy to ebb and flow. We want people to take breaks! Coming to fewer meetings doesn’t make someone any less of a member than folks who have tons of time and energy.

    SURJ Toronto teams generally meet twice a month for 2 hours. We typically have All Member Meetings once a month for 2 hours.

  • Contribute the labour that works for you and set boundaries! But we do expect you to take on some concrete action with us (we’re not just a reading group).

  • This includes agreeing with our mission, vision, and values.

    Additionally, Members should be willing to learn about and commit to our culture of care, where we centre the importance of relationship building, see relationships as central to activism, and foreground and celebrate the often invisible femme labour of collective nurturance and caregiving.

    Members should come prepared to engage in mutual interest organizing, which moves us from the idea of helping others, or just thinking about what is good, to understanding that our own liberation, our own humanity, is inextricably linked to racial justice. We want to organize new systems that meet all of our needs.

  • We move money, time, energy, and resources out of white communities and in support of movements, communities, and spaces led by Black, Indigenous, and racialized people. Part of this means actively fundraising and committing to values of moving money!

    However, there is no requirement, nor expectation, for you to fundraise a specific amount – all efforts to redistribute and move resources (money, time, and energy) are welcome and encouraged as part of our broader work.

Other Tiers of Involvement

  • If you want to support SURJ Toronto’s movement without an ongoing commitment, this tier is for you. Supporters take personal and collective steps to end white supremacy through one-off actions or short-term engagements. There is no formal process to become a supporter – just start taking action today!

    Subscribe to our newsletter to receive emails outlining the most current ways to get involved. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Support a SURJ Toronto campaign. Come to an event. Become a one-time or monthly donor. Use SURJ resources to learn more about anti-racism and start important conversations with your friends, family, or colleagues.

  • SURJ Toronto is organizing to support the demand from Black Lives Matter Toronto to defund the Toronto Police Services by 50% by working to apply political pressure and lobby Toronto City Councillors to secure support for redirecting those resources into public community services. We are inviting you, residents from each ward across the City of Toronto, to join this work.

    Learn more about our Defund the Police Campaign.

  • Members of our Coordinating Team have been involved as SURJ Toronto members for at least one year. The Coordinating Team operates as a container to hold organizational memory and support chapter wide communication and coordination, skill sharing, and a culture of care through relationship building, power-sharing, and collective processes grounded in SURJ Toronto values and community commitments.