EVENT IDEAS

Several colleges and universities already have plans underway for events that will take place on their campuses during Raise Your Voice—A Week of Action. Below are recommendations for launch events and activities. All events are designed with built-in media components to draw press attention in your community.

Campus Dialogues/Town Hall Meeting
The purpose of the campaign is to engage students about the issues that they care about and are involved with in their communities. We recommend hosting campus dialogues on various issues that students feel deeply about—from poverty or religious tolerance to homelessness or politics. You might want to try and secure a small sampling of ideas from some of your peers to help determine dialogue topics. This event is also a prime opportunity to involve neighboring campuses and community groups to attend or participate. The dialogue/town hall would feature participants with various views and would include students and faculty members in addition to outside participants. To secure media coverage of the campus dialogues, invite prominent community leaders or local politicians to either serve as a panelist or as the moderator of the event. Visit www.actionforchange.org for additional information and to review the Dialogue Resource Guide.

Campus-wide community service projects
Work with school administrators and faculty to identify an afternoon during which students can participate in community service projects. On a designated afternoon, during Raise Your Voice— A Week of Action, students could be asked to participate in a community service project of their choice. College and university community service offices can help ensure that civic and community service opportunities are available to all students. To capture the media’s attention for this event invite celebrities, elected officials, news anchors and other campaign spokespeople to participate in the campus-wide day of community service.

Open Mic Night
Provide students with the opportunity to speak their minds on issues that they are concerned about in your community. We recommend hosting an open mic night at an on-campus hangout where students can read poetry, share stories or talk about the issues that they care about. Keep in mind that this evening should be structured so that students have a chance to speak about real issues that interest them so you may want to have a “controlled” environment rather than a free-for-all scene. One way to manage this is to have a moderator introduce each participant before the microphone is handed over. The moderator can also initiate discussion among the participant and audience. Opening and closing the evening with a special guest celebrity or public official who “performs” can help secure media coverage of this event. The special guests could also speak about their own community involvement experiences and take questions from the audience.

Exhibition of Expression
Invite student organizations to raise their voices by creating their own form of art expression. Provide each organization with a large piece of cardboard or cloth, etc. Ask organization leaders to have their members write messages about their position on issues, concerns or topics that they feel most passionately about. Messages can come in the form of a poem, word, picture, symbol or saying. After student organizations have gathered the messages, combine the cardboard posters and hang together in a mural form in a public venue as an “exhibition” of expression. Hold an event to unveil the exhibition of expression. Invite a notable local artist or poet to include a piece of art or read a poem at the ceremony to help encourage the media to attend the event.

Video News Story
Use on campus television stations to promote the launch of the campaign. Work closely with anchors and reporters to cover the story and encourage reporters to do people-on-the-street interviews that include students sharing stories about their civic participation and talking about the issues that they care about most. Air the story on the news broadcast and encourage the station to use student interviews throughout news broadcasts during a Raise Your Voice—A Week of Action. If your school doesn’t have an on campus television station, promote the campaign through the radio station or school newspaper. People-on-the-street interviews can be used in quotes through the newspaper or in soundbites during radio broadcasts. Call your local television station and radio stations and let them know that you’ve collected these soundbites and interviews. They may be interested in covering the story themselves.

On-Campus Poll
Partner with a faculty member or researcher to conduct a poll on the attitudes of college students on civic responsibility and public service. The survey could ask students what the top issues that they care about are. Announce the results of the poll by issuing a press release on the top five issues that students care about most during Raise Your Voice—A Week of Action. Announce the results of the poll in the campus newspaper, through the campus television station and during a radio broadcast. Invite students to call in to the radio station to talk about those issues or write letters to the editor about the poll. Campus TV reporters can conduct interviews on campus to discuss reaction to the poll results.

Issues Fair
Hold an “Issues Fair” in a common area on campus. Invite student and community organizations to have a booth to display information on their cause. The fair would provide a venue for students to learn about organizations and causes that they were not aware of before. It would also give the groups a platform on which to share their views and handout information materials. The fair could be used as a venue at which students can openly discuss their thoughts on the issues affecting them in their communities. A microphone and speakers can be set up in the middle of the fair to hold an open forum for any speakers to voice their opinions. Invite the media to attend the fair to hear students express their opinions on issues affecting the community.