Creating Change: Making Our Voices Heard – Advocacy Activity

Objective: To practice political and personal expression;

To support campaigns that will help mitigate climate change.

Duration: 30 minutes

Materials: Used cardboard, Posterboard, Paper, Pens, Markers, Computers, if available

Background:

This is a program to help students implement a comprehensive greening strategy in your synagogue. It should not be completed until after students have learned about climate change and chosen a greening project to implement.

Procedure

1. Divide the students into four advocacy groups, with at least one student from each previous workgroup in each new advocacy group.

2. Assign each group to a different medium for advocacy. These include:

a. Online campaigns. Send email and letters from the web

b. Letter writing, the old fashion way. Considered much more effective than emails per letter.

c. Education and outreach. Inform others about the issues, and about where candidates stand on the issues

d. (*Optional) Protest. Bring the issue to a public place where we hope people and politicians will notice.

e. (*Optional) Lobbying. Using your positions and connections to convince someone to make a change.

3. Distribute instructions sheet (below) and sample letters (for online and letter writing groups) have students prepare or conduct their campaign for 15 minutes.

4. Photocopy the materials prepared by the 3rdgroup (education and outreach)

(*Optional) Ask the 4thgroup (Protest) to present what they have prepared.

(*Optional) As parents arrive, hold a mini protest around the synagogue.

5. As parents arrive distribute the flyers developed by the 3rdgroup.

6. Mail the letters written by the 2ndgroup (letter writing)

*Optional – Some parents and communities may not appreciate this form of expression. Please make sure a protest or lobbying will be well received by parents and the synagogue board before conducting this part of the program.

Materials developed by Noam Dolgin and the Shalom Center

All content is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. (Ie. Tell other where you got it from and don't sell it)


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