For Young Leaders
Patience Oryouweneh Coleman, a young leader from Liberia, has high hopes for 2015. Motivated by her Christian faith, Patience and her fellow students began advocating for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In 2005, Patience traveled to the G8 Summit in Scotland to speak out about the needs of youth in her country. To this day, these students lead an active movement of advocacy for the MDGs.
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photo by Jim Stipe |
As young people living in the United States, you can build a movement in your community. Whether at a school or seminary campus, in a church or on the job, your voice can be a catalyst for change. Here are ways to take action.
Learn
Educate yourself and others about the causes of hunger and poverty. Organize a film festival. Facilitate a workshop about advocacy. Invite professors, students or community leaders to speak on a panel.
Organize an Offering of Letters
This handbook is a great place to start. Hold letter-writing at the beginning of meetings, during a chapel service, or at a table in the student union. Plan your event with like-minded groups in your community. Ask professors if you can make a presentation at the beginning of class about your event. Post flyers. Send an announcement to your local or campus newspapers. Set a feasible goal for how many letters you want to send to Congress.
Use the Web
Join Bread for the World's Facebook group. Create a Facebook event to publicize your Offering of Letters or workshop. Send emails to your friends, classmates and colleagues and ask them to tell others. Subscribe to Bread's blog (www.breadblog.org) and podcast. (They're free!) After your event, write a blog post or letter to the editor. Post pictures of your event on Facebook. Create a YouTube video about advocacy. Contact your local Bread organizer for more ideas.
Set up a visit with your members of Congress
Gather a group of students, professors and other interested people to visit with your members of Congress. A face-to-face meeting is one of the most effective ways to influence your senators and representatives. Members of Congress are always impressed by young people who are involved with advocacy. Your Bread for the World organizer can help you prepare for a meeting.
Form a local or campus Bread for the World group
Bring together fellow advocates to meet regularly. Host your meetings at a fun location like a fair trade coffeehouse. Design a strategy to educate your campus, neighborhood or town, and communicate with your members of Congress. Write letters or call Congress at your meetings.
