Our events are called Actionshops™ - "The People's process"
- a social twist on a workshop!
PAST ACTIONSHOP EVENTS:
Restaurants, coffee shops, college campuses - large and small events!
ACTIONSHOP TOPIC: Planet Earth / Living Sustainably - "The Power is Yours" - Over a six-week period Santa Clara University students got together once a week in a "Captain Planet - The Power is Yours" theme created by the president of the Student Green Club. Students took a different action each week to reduce their carbon footprint
Location:Santa Clara University (Silicon Valley, CA)
Participants: 30 students
Actiongroups created: (1)Reduce plastic usage in cafeteria, (2) change lightbulbs in all fraternity houses
Actionbuddies:15 pairs of Actionbuddies teamed up and joined the two Actiongroups that were started as a part of the Actionshop.
ACTIONSHOP TOPIC: Planet Earth / Living Sustainably - Look at Mayor Bloomberg's Green plans for NYC
Location:Starbuckses (NY,NY)
Participants:2
Actionbuddies: Two "thirty-something year old" female friends became "Actionbuddies" over a six month period - one travelled long distance for work, and summarized Mayor Bloomberg's "GreenNYC" plans from 200 pages to 8 pages on plane rides. The other friend turned them into friendly one-page documents to be used at "Green Happy Action Hours."
ACTIONSHOP TOPIC: Human Rights / Darfur - Discuss NY Times Op Ed by Nicholas Kristof and VANITY FAIR "Enter China" articles addresing human rights violations in Darfur region of Sudan
Location:Barbounia Restaurant (NY, NY)
Participants:10 adults (21-55 yrs old)
Actiongroups:(1) After discussion of information kit contents, added a much needed map of Africa!- that'll come in handy! (2) Read and discuss Vanity Fair Magazine article - one person read the VF article (35 minutes to read) and then summarized it for everyone at the following meeting.We realized we needed to divide up the "homework!"
Actionbuddies: One pair of Actionbuddies committed to planning a future Darfur advocacy event once college was back in session at Harvard University in the Fall.
ACTIONSHOP TOPIC: Human Rights / Darfur - Women's Rights to Non-Violence Focus
Location: Harvard University - Darfur Student Action Group(Boston, MA)
Participants: 50 students
Actiongroups: (1)Viewed a documentary film, then ate Thai food while discussing the film and items in the information kit - including: the role of news media in Sudan and possibly creating a project with an American or British University Journalism students in the region, and reaching out to Olympic sponsors.
Actionbuddies: Two pairs of "Actionbuddies" committed to getting together the following week to discuss alternative advocacy action to "boycotting the Olympics" which was currently being proposed by many Darfur interest groups.
ACTIONSHOP TOPIC: Human Rights / Democratic Republic of the Congo - Women's Rights
Location:SUNY New Paltz (New Paltz, NY) and 60 Main coffee shop
Participants: 80 students, with two Women's Studies majors interns
Actiongroups: (1) film screening HBO "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo", (2) Screening of PBS "LUMO" and news screenings (ABC-60 Minutes), (3) Teach-ins on campus (using V-Day materials), (4) Joining The Friends of the Congo "Cell Out" campaign, (5) Organizing and mailing advocacy post cards to NY state senators
Actionbuddies: Actionbuddies teamed up to organize and raise attendance for each of the Actiongroups mentioned above, including photocopying flyers and posting them on campus, to ordering a copy of the film for the university library, to downloading teach-in presentation materials, and "cell out" campaign details.
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