Student Ambassadors Programme
Act to CHANGE!
You can contribute towards shaping a society in which all people are welcome and can participate. Our
values,
attitudes, experiences, encounters and knowledge all motivate and orient the way we want to live
together.
For
this, we need a change that benefits all of us. You can act - in a way that changes yourself and
society!
CHANGE’s Student Ambassador programme supports you in moving towards action in light of what you have
learned in
the classroom. Through your own ideas and self-organised actions, you can make CHANGE happen and shape
tomorrow’s society.
CHANGE Student Ambassadors –
and why you should become one
As a CHANGE Student Ambassador, you want to contribute positively in your schools and local communities
to
raise
awareness about the importance of welcoming refugees and shaping a society where all can participate.
You
develop ideas, define goals, plan actions and act together with other Student Ambassadors. Each Student
Ambassador group will plan and carry out two actions to contribute to CHANGE.
Through your two actions, you will be serving society and other people. At the same time, you benefit
from
being
involved by developing your skills in planning, organizing and communicating while in the process having
fun
and
unique experiences with others. As a CHANGE Student Ambassador, you not only change something in society
-
you
change yourself!
In order to implement your ideas and your action, you might need some support. Here you will find
methods
and
hints on how to develop ideas, plan, implement and evaluate your own actions. Remember to rely on your
teacher
or CHANGE partner for any support you need along the way.
TOGETHER TO KICK-OFF CHANGE
First, connect with other students, who want to become active as CHANGE Student Ambassadors. Together, you will carry out the two actions you come up with in a Student Ambassador group. Each group member has different abilities and interests. The combination of your differences is a strength when you have a common purpose. Together, you can act and change something.
To begin preparation for your actions, a common kick-off meeting of all Student Ambassadors is a great way to start. Depending on the situation at your school, the kick-off meeting can be organised and led by a teacher, your school's CHANGE partner or by Student Ambassadors themselves.
This kick-off meeting could be linked to stage 6 of the course you have completed. In this stage you have already developed some initial ideas based on the knowledge and experience gained in the course. These ideas can help you to move from knowledge to action.
Now, let’s develop your initial ideas and make a plan to put them into action!
IDEA CREATION – WHAT CHANGE DO WE WANT TO ACHIEVE?
Need for Change
Answer these questions for yourself and with your Student Ambassador group:
- > Where do I see a need for change regarding refugees, migration and society?
- > What needs to change?
The need for change can be very different and can happen in different spaces of our society. Perhaps you would like to address generalizations and prejudices used at school, outside school, or on the Internet. There may be a lack of accurate knowledge in society and in your communities about the reasons people migrate. Another possibility is that there may be rejections and fear among the locals about refugees. There may be too little contact and chances for encounter between refugees and locals. There may be difficult conditions in your country for refugees to live in– perhaps in a refugee accommodation centre near you. These are some examples to help you think about the change you would like to address.
Perhaps you see other need for CHANGE! Discuss the questions with each other and decide together where you will put your collective effort to make a change.
- > Which need for change is a good starting point for our action?
- > What challenges us and what change do we want and can act on?
Putting CHANGE ideas into action
Now its time to think about an action that can respond to this need for change. Let’s get started. There are different types of action areas you could focus on. Some ideas are:
- > >Accompaniment & Support: actions that enable you to encounter and support refugees, perhaps through volunteering or through a service project.
- > >Awareness Raising: actions through which you share what you have learned about the positive aspects of migration, maybe through a small campaign on social media or an event you organise in your community.
- > >Advocacy: actions through which you share what you have learned with your local political leaders and tell them about the change you want to make.
You can come up with your own ideas! You can do this by brainstorming ideas together and writing them down so that everyone can see the options clearly. During the brainstorming, you could propose these questions to the group:
- > What could we do about this need for change?
- > What action could we take to respond to this need for change?
Always make sure that the actions you design and plan correspond with the CHANGE you want to create.
While you are probably full of fresh ideas, if you need,
here are suggestions for
actions:
Seek encounter with refugees
Is there a refugee accommodation centre near your school or in your community? Maybe they need volunteers to tutor other students or to help with activities for children. In addition to the support you can offer, it is often important for refugees to be able to establish contacts with local people and to do something together.
Seek encounter with refugees
Organize a dialogue with refugees about living together
We all have wishes about how we want to live together in our society. Organize a dialogue with refugees where you talk about what is important and valuable to you. Since this question has many aspects – such as notions of freedom, participation and community – you can organise a series of dialogues around different themes.
Organize a dialogue with refugees about living together
Celebrate diversity
When people celebrate together, it can change their relationships. You can make the diversity of people who have different backgrounds a positive experience by organizing a celebration in which everyone can get involved with food, music, and other contributions to the program.
Celebrate diversity
Organize a sports day
Sports can connect people across many differences. Invite students, local people and refugees to a common sports day – maybe with a match. Perhaps there is a sports club that will support you. Maybe even an initiative can emerge from the sports day in which local people and refugees practice sports together
Organize a sports day
Organize an essay or short story competition
You could invite students, teachers and refugees to write an essay or a short story on the same topic. The essays or stories could take a stand on a certain question or be inspired by a theme. Publish the submitted texts on the CHANGE blog and perhaps organize a reading event with the authors
Organize an essay or short story competition
Organize an artistic competition
Themes of migration and living together are connected with desires, hopes and ideas that can represented artistically using different styles. Invite students, refugees and others to an art competition and exhibition where they could express their ideas with photos, drawings, or through other artistic forms
Organize an artistic competition
Organize a CHANGE Talk
Inspired by TED Talks, where people tell inspiring stories and articulate their experiences, you could invite students, teachers and refugees to speak in front of an audience about migration and living together and about the change they hope to see. Make a video of the CHANGE talk and share it on YouTube or other social media channels.
Organize a CHANGE Talk
Mobilize a social media campaign for CHANGE
If you want to publicly promote living together and work for a society where everyone can participate, mobilize a social media campaign using the #IamCHANGE hashtag. Before getting started, you have to clarify what you want to stand up for, decide which social media platform is best for reaching your audience and develop messages and content to share.
Mobilize a social media campaign for CHANGE
Organize a flashmob
With a flashmob, you can surprise the public and trigger new thoughts and opinions. Choreograph a flashmob in your school or local community that visually brings awareness to pressing topic. First, you need to clarify what will happen during the flash mob, what the best place and time are and how your audience will be inspired to make a change
Organize a flashmob
Write letters or postcards to policymakers
Do you have questions or suggestions to make to your local representative about refugees and migration? For example, it could be about the situation and possible need for change in your local community. Write to politicians, ask them to state their position, and inform you what they are doing about these topics.
Write letters or postcards to policymakers
Set-up a meeting with your local representative to discuss what you have learned
Have you gained insights and knowledge while learning about refugees that you want to talk about with politicians? Tell them your suggestions, ask questions and discuss what they think. You could invite them to your school to give a presentation to your class or a school-wide assembly or you could ask for a meeting at their office.
Set-up a meeting with your local representative to discuss what you have learned
Organize a public debate
Is there a controversial question you are interested in hearing different opinions about? You can invite experts, politicians and representatives of citizens' initiatives or NGOs to discuss this question. Student Ambassadors and refugees could participate in the debate themselves or act as moderators.
Organize a public debate
Planning - Who? When? Where? How?
Now you can turn your idea into action by using the Action Plan. Here you can organise and set down all of your ideas to make your action successful.
| Action Plan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Action area (Accompaniment & Support, Awareness Raising or Advocacy) |
||
| Our action | ||
| The Change we want to create through the action |
||
| What we need to do | What we plan | Results - What actually happened? |
|---|---|---|
Goals:
|
||
Personal Goals:
|
||
Description of the action:
|
||
Timeline:
|
||
Responsibilities:
|
||
Resources:
|
||
Support:
|
||
Advertising:
|
||
Communicating Results:
|
After you have completed the Action Plan, ensure that the action you have planned is interesting and challenging enough for every member of your Student Ambassador group. Remember also that your action needs to be realistic, and that you have the necessary resources to realise it on time. Maybe you need to adjust some things in order to make all the pieces fit together.
Let's Go! Action for Change
Based on your action plan, you are ready to get started with all of the activities needed to make your action a reality.
Stick to the timeline you planned and problem solve any challenges that may come up. Communication with your Student Ambassador group is key! Talk together about your action plan; record your results and any detours from the original plan. If you need to adjust the action plan, remember that careful planning is important but planning cannot foresee everything!
Remember to ask for support from your teacher, moderator or CHANGE partner when you need it.
After your action, you should:
- > Thank all those who have supported to the organization and contributed to the action
- > Reflect on and evaluate how the action went with your Student Ambassador group
- > Record the results of your action in the Action Plan
- > Register your action it to be eligible to win a trip to the CHANGE European Final Event in Brussels!
The Change we achieved
When your action is over, make sure you remember to record the results in the action plan – this is what actually happened compared to what you planned would happen.
Even if things did not work in the exact way you had planned them, you probably achieved many of your goals. Through recording and reflecting on your results, you might discover that you have been able to carry out your action successfully, even in unexpected ways - and can be proud of it!
If a particular goal was not fully reached, there might be many reasons for this and not all of them might have been within your control. Even then, your action and what you have learned from it has contributed something important to society and to your own personal development!
After you have written down the results of your action, reflect on these questions:
- > How satisfied am I with the result?
- > How did I feel during the action? What made me joyful, what was difficult or disappointing?
- > What did I learn from the action - about society, about other people, about myself?
- > Have I changed - and if so, in what regard?
- > Is there perhaps a next step after the completion of our action that I or we could take?
Write down your own responses to these questions. Then, plan a reflection session with your Student Ambassador group to discuss the questions in common. Writing about your experiences and reflecting together will help you to see the results you achieved and the change you made now that the action is over.
Now what? Sharing the Change
Sharing your experience and success with planning your own action will enable more people to get involved! You can become a source of inspiration to others in your country and across all of the countries in Europe with schools involved in the project. Other students like you – in nine different countries – are involved in CHANGE, planning actions and sharing their results.
You can share about CHANGE in many different spaces – both physical and digital. For example, you could write an article in your school’s newspaper or magazine, if you have one, to report on the results of your action and the activities of your Student Ambassador group. You could also put together a brief video that highlights your experience, where each member of your Student Ambassador group could speak about what CHANGE means for them.
Another platform where you can share about CHANGE is through social media. You can post photos, videos and messages on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #IamCHANGE and #Act4CHANGE.
Finally, do you want to win a trip to Brussels to participate in the CHANGE European Final Event happening in 2021? Register your action here for the chance to be considered.