social justice and advocacy curriculum
We understand we cannot dismantle systemic injustice in a short period of 6 weeks. Social Justice work is lifelong work. During the summer, one of the main focuses of the program is to equip our fellows with a lifelong set of tools to advocate for vulnerable communities.
Fellows start the curriculum by looking at their own privilege and biases. Then they explore the different racist and oppressive structures that are the foundations of most of the institutions in our society. These include health systems, education, incarceration, voting rights, housing, food insecurity among many others. Fellows also learn about some of the vulnerable populations in our society and the impact of these racist structures on them. Some of these include the incarcerated, homeless, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community.
They also start building their tool box to address some of these injustices. The first steps include working toward decolonizing our minds and unlearning some of the biases that we have grown up with. They also examine their own implicit bias and skills in how to be an upstander. They also learn different advocacy skills including conducting legislative visits, writing for social change, resistance arts through music and media art to bring forth change. |
Dismantling oppressive structures is lifelong work and takes the collective efforts of each and everyone of us. We hope that the fellows no matter where or what they end up doing continue to advocate and fight for a more just world.