A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change.
We are currently recruiting graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.
The Impact of Service
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Developing Information and Advocacy Tools
This service was first offered by AP in 2003, when we worked with the Kosova Women’s Network (KWN) and the Afghan Women’s Network (AWN). Both networks were a powerful expression of advocacy by women who were determined to help rebuild their countries. They asked AP to help them build a website, develop a newsletter, and connect their members. Their hope was to use these tools in promoting social justice and advocating for social change.
The reasoning behind this service is that advocacy requires information, and information will be easier to sustain if it is produced by the advocates themselves rather than outsiders. At the same time, it requires a major commitment of resources and time to produce a regular newsletter and maintain a website. As a result, AP will offer this service to partners that are prepared to commit to a long-term partnership with AP that will lead to a campaign of social change.
If a partner so desires, AP will recruit Peace Fellows for up to three years.
Modules and Tutorials are being developed for this service
1. Create demand and strategic planning
Goals: Help a partner to identify specific social justice goals for action and generate support in the organization for campaign goals; set goals for the Fellow’s own work over the summer.
This will produce a strategic plan for the partnership with clear goals, a timeframe and a program of specific activities. This plan will form the basis for campaign-level partnerships, and be used by the partner in approaching donors.
2. Produce information
Working through Peace Fellows, AP will help partners to:
- Identify and train an information officer from the partner’s staff who can take on the task of producing information.
- Help the partner to produce written content:
- A regular newsletter/bulletin on an “actionable” social justice issue.
- Press releases for use by the local or international media
- Radio content: This is of particular interest in regions like rural Asia and Africa where radio is the most popular media.
3. Information Communication Technology (ICT)
Working with the partner’s “accidental techie” or ICT manager, the Peace Fellow will help the partner to develop ICT skills, exploit social networking and advocate for the social justice issues.
- Conduct an assessment of the group’s IT strengths and needs, and create an IT plan: This will include connectivity.
- Connectivity: Peace Fellows will help partners to address the challenge of connectivity, if they work in a resource-poor environment. This could include improving connectivity, working from Internet cafes, or developing alternative (ie radio) skills.
- IT infrastructure: identify sources for discounted hardware and software
- Compile a “tech binder” of essential IT information.
- ICT trainings for staff.
- Help partners to update and upgrade websites.
- Develop ICT tools including online petitions, email lists, social networking.