In Honor of MLK Day: A Little How To

Victoria Roomet
January 16, 2012

How to: Coordinate an event to raise awareness about an issue on your campus!

1. Choose your cause

2. Find a couple more people who believe in your cause and want to support it (3 is always a good starting number). At this point, it is not too early to go around to other leaders around campus to get buy- in/ co-sponsorships from clubs. All you need is a vision/ idea.

3. Brainstorm the type of event you want to host (see examples on our blog):

a. Panel Discussion: Several people sit on a panel. Each person on the panel can have a few minutes to talk and then a moderator facilitates a discussion with prepared questions and/or questions from the audience. Panelists can include survivors, 'experts' in the field of whatever that cause is, professors, etc.

b. Invite a keynote speaker. Event has one main speaker, and someone to introduce the topic and that speaker. It is always nice to include some form of media in these programs, such as an introductory video to the issue, musical performance, etc. This could be in the style of a rally.

c. Documentary viewing. Watch a documentary which would enlighten students on the issue and facilitate a discussion afterwards.

d. Variety Show/ Music show to raise awareness of the cause. Invite different acts to perform material that is relevant to raising awareness about the cause, include a master of ceremonies who in between acts, shares more details about what is going on.

e. Do something challenging to raise awareness for the cause, for example, a bike-a-thon, walk-a-thon, dance-a-thon, eat-a-thon, or "day of silence," boycott, everyone wear the same color clothing for a week, a fast (many of the persons kidnapped and confined fasted to send a message to their "deprogrammers")

4. Chose a date and reserve a space on campus

5. Publicize the heck out of it

6. Make a press release for your school newspaper and invite them to the event

7. Provide free food, or anything else for FREE

8. Have your awesome event and include immediate action points so that those who are excited about the cause can make a difference right away!