What You Can Do
Our interest primarily lies on getting people interested in working towards humanity. In an attempt to accommodate everyone's hectic schedule, we define membership in a very loose fashion. Membership is open to all and is established through one's interest & involvement in a particular project.
Successful events depend highly on vast efforts in publicity & outreach. We need help with spreading words about events and meetings. This is the bulk of the work and is a very crucial element in activism!
Average Amount of Time spent per week: 15 minutes
Some of these tasks are one-time tasks, which can be accomplished within 20 minutes maximum. Writing articles in general require more time.
What you can do:
1) Distributing and putting up flyers.
2) Contacting professors and academic departments for endorsements
3) Helping with press release, contacting local and student newspapers, WUSB, and TV stations for publicising events.
4) Contacting Resident Advisors in dormitories to help advertise events.
5) Contacting local peace and social justice organisations.
6) Writing articles to promote events on newspapers.
7) Contacting Transportation department on campus to announce events
8) Maintaining web page
9) We need several committed individuals to help oversee the efforts.
Each semester, we work on several projects on humanitarian/social justice issues. Work in this category includes brainstorming for designs and implementations of projects, networking & outreach, and publicity. This is a great way to learn about social justice issues. You will interact with others in a friendly environment and have a sense of accomplishment. It is a refreshing feeling to know that you’re part of the movement that works for social changes!
Average Amount of Time spent per week: 20 minutes
Some of these tasks are one-time tasks, which can be accomplished in a short period of time. The bulk of the work is in brainstorming. Once a specific goal is set, the implementation itself will take not much time.
Description: Efforts are focused on trying to stop any escalation in the warfare against the people of Iraq.
Event that is being planned:
Peace Rally on campus on 10/16
A coalition was formed to help organise this rally as well as mobilise national rally on 10/26 and NYC rally on 10/06.
How to get involved:
We meet on Wednesdays in 3rd floor lobby in SAC. If you can't make it, you may subscribe to a discussion list at sbpeacenicks@topica.com
What you can do:
1) familiarise yourself with some talking points on Iraq issue.
2) help distributing flyers for the rally.
3) help with outreach efforts. This includes distributing flyers and doing some pseudo-presentations on why we oppose war with Iraq to other local peace and social justice groups, churches, mosques, and other groups.
4) we will set up tables to hand out resolutions, petitions, and fact sheets. We need volunteers to do tabling.
5) we need people who can serve as marshals/peacekeepers at the rally on 10/16.
6) help with Iraq teach-ins
7) we need help with making banners for the rally.
II) Workers' rights project
Description: In this project, we look into 2 specific cases of workers' rights violations.
Sub-Projects:
1) Coca Cola & Workers' rights
We are interested in raising awareness of Coke's involvement in workers' rights violations in Colombia and Africa and its implications here on our campus.
2) Farmingville, Long Island
Parallel to the above project, we are interested in documenting workers' rights violations here in Long Island. This is a joint project with Peace Studies Centre and Suffolk Community College.
What you can do:
1) we need volunteers to interview some workers in Farmingville.
2) help writing articles/papers on the issues.
3) organise round table discussion & lectures.
4) we need volunteers to do tabling to raise awareness of the issue.
Description: we're interested in forming a medium that contributes to the understanding of alternatives to war and violence through peace education, research, planning and action. We would like to vivify the Peace Studies Centre here on campus. This project will be an essential element of the group. We are currently working on a proposal to get the university’s involvement to sustain the project.
What you can do:
1) help us with writing proposal to get university's endorsement
2) identify key people in the administration as well as academic departments who would assist us in programming.
3) we need people who could serve as spokesperson at meetings with faculty, staff, organisers, and other activists.
4) organise anti-war teach-ins.
5) organise nonviolence workshops.
6) organise lecture series.
7) contact academic departments to endorse our project.
8) we need volunteers who can speak at local high schools about nonviolence.
9) we are in a process of forming working groups that can give clear choices of specific area one can get involved in. We need help with ideas, suggestions and formation of these groups.
8) help us with tabling to hand out fact sheets about nonviolence.
9) help us with organising debates & open mike
Description: Charity is an important part of the group. Our work can be broken into two parts, providing a relief fund for international humanitarian crisis and working with a local charitable organisation. We currently work together with a non-profit organisation here in Suffolk, called Greater Port Jefferson Outreach Centre. The organisation helps in providing food and clothes to local immigrants in neighbouring areas.
Projects:
1) Banquet to benefit a hospital in Chiapas
2) Greater Port Jefferson Outreach Centre.
What you can do:
1) food drive. We need volunteers who can table and drive to local grocery stores.
2) help us with labeling and mailing our programs and donations forms.
3) help distributing flyers about fundraising events.
4) help with ideas/suggestions for fundraising events
5) we call interested and hard working people to join the fundraising committee. The committee will work on fundraising ideas, projects, and implementation of events.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestion on how you can help, please email us at sbdoves@ic.sunysb.edu.