campaigns
Here Are Those Who Care
Human rights violations in far away places -- Americans will turn away if they feel a “certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill.†* If instead they work to end the injustice or bring about a fair rule of law by contacting their elected representatives and senators, the intervention can exact a positive outcome all the way across the world.
Elected representatives are more motivated to take action on behalf of any good cause, e.g. the environment, consumer safety, gun control, election reform, or, as in our work, international human rights, when the campaign is well articulated and constituents form broad coalitions with growing numbers. A feedback loop forms between the constituent group and the staffer as questions asked and concerns raised by the constituents are answered by the staffer when they call the state department and foreign embassies.
The Rebuilding Alliance seeks to create a set of web-based tools to show constituents they can make a difference when it comes to human rights violations in distant land – and how. The Rebuilding Alliance seeks to create the “Here Are Those Who Care,†Project by combining a set of web-based database, mapping, and teleconference tools and testing these tools with constituent groups focused on our current project, Saving the Kindergarten and Village of Al Aqabah. We want to show constituents see they are not alone, and help them find like minded people who are close-by in their congressional district. We want to help elected representatives learn about issues first-hand in a secure and trustworthy manner through face-to-face meetings and technology common to the business world so that these representatives can better respond to constituent requests and take action.
* Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street, by Herman Melville, paragraph 93
Our current campaign is to save the kindergarten of Al Aqabah (our earliest project) and its village. When newcomers join this campaign, we would like to show them a web-based map of others in their congressional district who have registered and invite them into a discussion forum. People will be interacting with our staff, with those directly involved with the cause there on the ground, with other constituents who are concerned with the village, and possibly with others nationwide or worldwide who want to help develop a particular idea or aspect of the case. They’ll use a web interface that includes event management and constituent mapping in each congressional district to gain a sense of how we all fit together. We use “Contact Congress Teleconferences†to link constituents with the people directly involved and senior staffers for their senators and representatives.
Below is a film we made in 2004 about Al Aqabah, when it seemed as if an "eastern wall" was the reason for the mass demolition order.
The Rebuilding Alliance is a Palo-Alto based nonprofit organization working to rebuild communities in conflict zones and make them safe. We began our work in 2003, helping Israelis and Palestinians work together to rebuild Palestinian homes and schools starting in East Jerusalem. In Gaza, we partnered with the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, www.GCMHP.net, to rebuild a home for the family Rachel Corrie sought to protect. In the West Bank, we are now working to save one of our earliest projects, a kindergarten, and its village of Al Aqabah from demolition orders, asking elected officials to call the Israeli Embassy to urge a compromise. President Carter recently recognized our work on the CarterCenter.org website when we helped him link to NGO representatives in Gaza via video and web. We bring Israelis and Palestinians to the U.S. to tell their story directly to communities, Congress, and the State Dept.
Technical help to overlay Rebuilding Alliance Salesforce data on congressional district maps, and also a web communities expert to help invite constituents to join the map district on behalf of our cause. Let's demonstrate this concept in one congressional district, focusing the invitation specifically on saving the kindergarten and village of Al Aqabah (an initiative that is urgent and is attracting good participation worldwide, and good congressional response).
Salesforce Developers, please get in touch with us!
Database from www.salesforce.com, and web-to-lead forms for Contact Congress Teleconference registration
Threaded communities such as www.leveragesoftware.com, a Salesforce ApExchange partner or http://dreamfish.com/
Congressional district maps: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd
www.networkforgood.org for DonateNow integration
www.MeetingOne.com for good audio teleconference technology
Honoring Historymakers & Storytellers
One man tacked his complaints to the door of a Catholic church. Do people know your story?
Your stories will change our destiny.
BACKGROUND:
- Millions of people are blogging their stories.
- Policy activists are always looking for "personal stories" to support their goals.
- You are more powerful than you think.
IMPACT:
- One single story can make tanks roll to a stop.
- The new march in Selma, Alabama, is flickering across our keyboards.
Photo by eskimoblood.
FIND:
- People telling their stories
- New or existing campaigns that need your story.
BUILD COMMUNITY:
- Campfire circles. Promote stories, gather storytellers.
- Learn. Listen to stories, sit by a campfire.
Political decisions have always been based on what "the peoples" needs are. I have several years of experience as a policy advocate for immigrants and communities of color. I read blogs. I haven't opened a history book in years. But I know who Ryan White was.
- A creative director for a simple, visual interface
- Needs assessment for useability
- Technical know-how and equipment
- Digital storytelling projects on nonprofit websites
- Keyword blog search: Technorati, Diaryland, Xanga, Friendster, Sparkpeople.com, Creativecommons.org (Flickr, Youtube), etc.
- “Share your story†search in *.org domains, Thepetitionsite.com, Democracyinaction.org, etc.
- Search for related hearings, proposed policies, etc (legislative, executive, judicial, municipal, county).
