OUR STATEMENT

TCD’s primary objective is to act as a voice for those who have been silenced, since advocacy is a timeless, honourable tradition employed by charity organizations to actively evoke change (Renz and Herman, 2016). TCD’s viewpoint is to change exploit being human as the binding factor between all people regardless of faith or the lack thereof. With this said, TCD’s objective is to propel this belief to others in hope of support and traction, thus serving as the cornerstone of change. [5-10 word concise sentence on our goal]

 

Both online and offline methods have been widely used to advocate for varying charity organizations. Technology for example is being used increasingly, especially with the help of social media to express beliefs and create central hobs for information storage (Thackeray and Hunter, 2010). TCD plans to leverage such tools to relay information globally. Twitter, for example, could be used to discuss the ongoing persecution of Christians in India (The Voice of the Martyrs, 2022) or Uyghurs in China (BBC, 2021). In fact, TCD has previously partnered with the East Turkestan Society of Canada to produce an in-person event intended to educate our campus community of the Uyghurs of China. Moreover, while we have a website built out, we are currently working towards leveraging this as an additional online tool used to discuss current events, post opinions/comment, and actively support online discussion to help educate and grow communities. In addition, while the infrastructure for advocacy is being developed and adapted, we are growing our audience allowing us to reach a broader group of individuals. This includes but is not limited to our increasing presence on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Coupled with current and future partnerships, this will provide additional opportunity to advocate TCD’s beliefs and values. 

 

Finally, with most of our core team actively involved in our community as well as academia we plan to leverage our network to hold in person sessions dedicated to advocacy. This includes but is not limited to marketing on campus via information stalls, flyer distribution and in person interactive sessions. Such models have been found to induce high level discussion amongst peers and therefore present a highly active framework for advocacy (Greenberg, 1964). Greenberg (1964) discusses how although most news is disseminated via mass media, actual extrapolation and comprehension is most notable in face-to-face discussions. TCD will serve as mediators to allow for such conversations to occur. This can be done in smaller groups via information stalls where information can be delivered and discussed with members of our team - or via large scale events hosting professionals from around the world to answer questions and provide insights from an academic or experiential standpoint. To reiterate, one example of this is the Proof of “Life: A Gallery of the missing Uyghurs” we previously partnered on. Additionally, we hold semi-annual “Meet and Greets” to bring the whole team together and discuss both accomplishments and goals/objectives. [make this para slightly more concise and add 2-3 sentences on other communities we worked with and how we will work with certain calgarian communities in the future.

 

Collectively both the online and offline modes of advocacy are intended to work in unison to help TCD gain one step to a more unified world. While online platforms will be used for marketing, spread our message of The Common Denominator, and provide insights on current events and their effects on inhibiting the livelihood of those being persecuted. Offline sessions will evaluate the information collected and provide a platform to actively discuss and generate modes of change. 

 

 

Reference to articles:

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BBC. (2021). Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide? BBC News. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037

Greenberg, B. S. (1964). Person-to-person communication in the diffusion of news events. Journalism

Quarterly, 41(4), 489–494.

The Voice of the Martyrs Canada. (2022.). India: Christians Injured in Mob Attack. The Voice 

of the Martyrs Canada. https://vomcanada.com/News-Articles/

Thackeray, R., & Hunter, M. A. (2010). Empowering youth: Use of technology in advocacy to affect 

social change. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(4), 575–591.

Renz, D. O., & Herman, R. D. (2016). Chapter 14/Advocacy, Lobbying, and Social Change. In The 

jossey-bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. essay, Jossey-Bass & Pfeiffer Imprints, Wiley.