Advocacy: Know your audience

Summary: The activity teaches students to be advocates. Students learn to identify a message and communicate it to a designated audience.

Time: 30 to 40 minutes

Age: Middle school to adult

Materials: Audience sheet
Hunger statistics

Preparation: Gather materials

Group size: Unlimited

Procedure:

1. Share information about advocacy with the group. An advocate is someone who acts, speaks or writes in support of a person or issue. Advocating against hunger benefits teens in several important ways. First, advocacy shows young people that they can make a difference. Second, advocacy shows young people that their voice can change attitudes and behavior in their school and community. Third, advocacy helps young people understand issues and clarify their values and beliefs. There are a variety of ways teens can advocate against hunger, ranging from talking to friends to developing a complex plan for societal change that includes speech-making, letter-writing, fundraising and more.

2. Hand out audience sheets. Ask students to communicate a message about hunger that is targeted to the audience named on the sheet. (i.e. parents, lunchroom, friends)

3. Help the group identify the hunger issue that they want to address. It's important to focus on a single issue. When too many issues are addressed, messages can become diluted. A good way to help youth decide how to focus their efforts is to hold an educational forum about hunger and then facilitate a brainstorming session so that students can decide which issues are a priority.

4. Encourage the group to choose a message based on the target audience. It is easiest to communicate a short, well thought out idea. Just say exactly what you want and give your reason why. Messages can be as simple as “Getting a food box is a hard thing to do,” “No one should be hungry” or “Tell someone if you are skipping meals.” To develop arguments to support a point of view, teens will need to research hunger. Tell them about the latest hunger statistics in Oregon and provide them with resources for learning more.

5. Tell them to choose a method that will effectively convey their message. There are many methods to choose from. Students can start a letter writing campaign, write opinion pieces for the school newspaper, hold information booths; contribute to on-line bulletin boards; list serves and chat rooms; speak to groups of youth; call in to radio shows; make buttons, bumper stickers, flyers, monthly school bulletin boards; and much more.

6. Help them plan for the future. Advocacy is an on-going process. People's opinions change slowly over time. Develop an advocacy plan that will last for a month or more. That’s a great start. Have students plan a meeting to discuss their efforts at the end of the first month.

Other Details:

Include a list of Web sites and resources that students can use to research hunger

Sample worksheet:

Your Audience is __________________________

1. Identify the hunger issue(s) you want to address.

2. Decide on the specific messages you want to communicate and how to say it effectively.

3. Choose a method to get your message across effectively.

4. What are some actions you can take for the future?