Community Education
Plan a Forum
To educate the community, hold a forum to discuss the ordinances. Set dates for the forum and your next meeting to plan it. Be creative. Some communities have held arts & culture events, such as benefit concerts and poetry readings, to help raise money and awareness.
The program committee can choose panelists to cover topics related to new laws and their impact on immigrants, students, and civil liberties in general. Don't overlook high school and college students as speakers.
Schedule a conference call with your speakers to review their respective emphases. Be sure to include the perspectives of diverse community members.
Seek Endorsements
Send out an invitation to individuals, businesses, and nonprofits in your community. The invitation should ask recipients to endorse the forum and make a donation to cover expenses such as copying, postage, child care for participants, and facility rental. Endorsements will not only help recruit new members for your committee, but also expand your network for promoting the event and rallying support for your later efforts.
Promote the Forum
To promote the forum, send a press release to media, put up posters, hold a news conference, and use your local activist network to spread the word. Send the release and poster to endorsers. You can also create a website. BORDC will also link to your group’s site to help promote your efforts and to provide contact information for your group. Email us to request a link.
Be sure to leverage social networks when promoting the forum. Set up events on Facebook or MySpace and have everyone in your group invite their friends. Spread the word about the event by encouraging your members to post about it in a Facebook status update or on Twitter.
Also, contact people in surrounding towns about your effort, and invite them to the forum. They might be inspired to organize in their towns.
Tools:
Educational Materials
At the forum, place fact sheets, informational literature, petitions, buttons for sale (see our store), and collection cans at tables.
Record the Event
Consider videotaping your forum. Ask your community access station to air it, and post it (or clips from it) on YouTube. If you decide to videotape the event, be sure to inform participants in advance and note in the program that the event is being videotaped.
Tools
- Example of a taped public rally in Lincoln, NE (MW)
After the Forum
The forum is only the beginning. After the forum, continue generating support:
- Table (with literature).
- Write op-eds to your local newspaper.
- Put petitions in stores and offices (including those of your endorsers).
- Give committee members and forum attendees petitions to circulate.
- Put the petition online, either on your own website or on the BORDC site.
The process is useful not only for gaining support for your ordinance effort, but also for educating people who are not aware of threats to civil liberties.
Consider showing a film or documentary about threats to civil liberties or holding a book signing by authors who support your cause.
Tools:
- Example op-ed: Jeffrey Milchen of Bozeman, MT
- BORDC's Recommended Resources (includes books and documentaries)
Help us make this web site a clearinghouse of information on Bill of Rights defense efforts nationwide. Contact us about efforts you are working on, others that you know about, or resources you’d like to share on our website.
