You can make a significant difference right where you are.

You can be effective in your community. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Become a 10,000 Friends' endorsing organization.

More than 280 organizations, representing more than 310,000 citizens, already endorse us! Click here for a list of endorsing organizations. If you are active in an organization concerned about these issues, tell your leadership about 10,000 Friends, and encourage them to visit this website. If they want to help, an officer of the organization simply needs to sign the form provided and e-mail, fax, or mail it to us. We'll add the organization to our list of endorsing organizations and keep you informed about our work. To become an endorser, click here.

Become a 10,000 Friends' individual endorser. 

Individuals can join our work simply by completing a simple form and faxing or mailing it to us. As an endorser, you will be kept up-to-date on what we are working on, including receiving our newsletter and action alerts. For more information, click here.

Find out more about what's going on around you.

Read your local and regional papers for articles about growth issues. Join and get on the mailing lists of local organizations. Attend local municipal meetings, including planning commissions. Find out who's involved and making things happen. Call your municipal and county planning departments and ask them for information, including meeting schedules. Check with the county courthouse or local Republican or Democratic Committee for the names and addresses of your state representatives and other public officials. These are things that many of our key supporters do to keep informed and develop contacts that can make a real difference on important issues.  

The best way to promote cities, villages, and towns, of course, is to live and work in one. But you can also bring about positive change by getting involved in the democratic process. Educate yourself. Keep up with projects planned in your area. Visit your local municipality to see what kind of planning your community is doing for the future.  Attend meetings. Urge your local government to take an active role in determining the future of your community. Get involved with your local planning board. Contact your local elected officials. For links to Pennsylvania local governments' Web sites and their contact information, click here.

Contact your county officials to review your countywide comprehensive plan. Ask how you can get involved and be supportive. For links to Pennsylvania local governments' Web sites and their contact information, click here.

Read or Watch Save Our Land, Save Our Towns by Tom Hylton. Tom Hylton is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with a thorough understanding of the issues, and the solutions. You can find a copy in many libraries, your local bookstore, or by clicking here. You can also watch the video, an hour-long public television documentary designed to show how sprawl came about, why it's bad, and what we can do about it. For more information or to purchase a copy of the video, click here.