HRAT Spawns the Advocacy All Stars
Advocacy All Stars Program Introduction
The Human Rights Awareness Tour (HRAT) has created the Advocacy All Stars project in an effort to find the most passionate, advocatively talented, good-hearted student organizers in the country to put together an Advocacy All Star Team. Once created and properly oriented, this team of advocates will be commissioned to travel the globe to assist with and raise money for various projects of non-profit organizations. Each member of the team will have his or her expenses paid for each project assigned to the team. Each of the Advocacy All Star Team's projects will be filmed documentary style and run on the Advocacy All Stars television program.
To find and build the team, the Advocacy All Stars will be accepting applications from university student organizers across the country starting in the fall of 2009. The top ten applicants will be interviewed and five of the interviewees will be featured as members of the Advocacy All Stars Team. Each featured student will have a documentary episode created on their home campuurrounding his or her production of a series of events aimed at advocatively supporting a cause of the student's choice. The five documentary episodes will be featured on the Advocacy All Stars University Season Series. The five chosen students will then be assigned different roles or positions on the Advocacy All Star Team based on each individual's talents. The team's first project will be to organize a music and arts festival called "HAMP" (HIV Awareness Music Project) to raise money and support for the HIV/AIDS community in New Orleans over World AIDS Day.
The Advocacy All Star staff will come to the host universities to capture the star student advocates and their teams at work. The program will feature the student advocacy teams in organizational action with the Advocacy All Star Staff guiding interviews, providing advice, giving motivational speeches, and narrating the episode. There will also be a strong focus on showcasing and exposing the student groups chosen issue(s) featuring the background along with involved organizations and professionals.
About Advocacy All Stars
The idea for the Advocacy All Stars television program comes from the national university Human Rights Awareness Tour (HRAT) [please see the Human Rights Tour background document at the bottom of this e-mail for more information]. After affiliating with several major non-profit organizations, hosting nationally known musicians and speakers, raising awareness and manifesting support for global issues, and working with truly passionate host student organizers to create many magical moments, the organizers of the HRAT have decided to take the tour to the next level. To do this, the HRAT organizers came up with the idea for a documentary-style reality television show based around the tour. The name Advocacy All Stars was chosen to allow the program to focus on a broad range of world issues. Having a broader scope of issues to work with will allow the project to draw a more diversified audience among mainstream American youth.
A Win-Win for Everyone Involved
Host Universities - Each Advocacy All Stars episode is an advertisement for host universities. The recruitment draw (attendance demand) of host schools will be greatly enhanced as the national airing of the school's most talented students having fun organizing major events to create real positive change in the world will excite families to send their children to the showcased universities. A few minutes of each episode will be dedicated to highlighting the most prominent programs, facilities, faculty, and other aspects of the host universities. Regular school advertisements will also be included in series commercial advertisement segments.
Sponsors and Affiliated Organizations - The Advocacy All Stars will limit its sponsorship opportunities to companies and organizations promoting or producing ethically sound products, services, or ideas. Featured sponsors will be exposed to the socially conscious sector of the United States college and high school demographic, a perfect fit for socially conscious entities. The Advocacy All Stars series will be produced and directed to present sponsoring businesses and organizations as solutions to the highlighted issues. Through premiere product and logo placement in the show and giveaways on campus, ad spots on the series commercial segments, and through direct discourse live on campus, the Advocacy All Stars program will act as a funnel to drive business and support to sponsors.
Students - The most fortunate of the groups involved, the students, will have an excellent opportunity to have their efforts and abilities showcased on television. Students will gain positive organizational experience from putting together large-scale events. Being featured as an organizer on the Advocacy All Stars series is a great resume builder and an excellent way for a student to showcase his or her talents in the nationwide job market.
Host Broadcast Network Channel - Will benefit greatly from the strong viewership draw created by the positive limelight of airing a reality television series featuring the nation's most talented student leaders organizing events to make positive social change surrounding serious global issues. A significant portion of the viewership will be commanded by the large United States university and high school student demographics. The host network will prosper by gaining direct advertising access to this market.
The Issues - The Advocacy All Stars will greatly help garner national attention and support for the highlighted issues through dedicated educational film segments on each episode. The series will showcase and advocate simple ways for viewers to get involved with helping to solve featured problems or issues. Featured campaigns will be easily accessible online, a matrix will be set up where featured sponsors will donate 10 cents to a designated charity when a viewer votes on his or her top All Star Advocates, and fundraiser programs and products will be marketed to help raise money for the highlighted issues.
Society as a Whole - Advocacy All Stars will help with the advancement or creation of positive social norms that will help push the Social Justice, Anti-Infectious Disease, Green, Fair Trade, Healthy Living, and Positive Business Ethics movements forward. The advancement and creation of these norms, along with exposing and raising support for serious issues, will help solve many of the problems that humanity is currently facing. The airing of students being rewarded for their positive efforts will create hope and motivation among viewers to follow suit, leading to a cascade of good will and action.
Goals of the Show
To present serious issues or problems in a positive manner in an effort raise awareness and helpful support
To communicate that the Fair Trade, Social Justice, Infectious Disease Awareness, Sustainability (Green), Human Rights, and Appropriate Business Ethics movements are a way to alleviate or solve such issues and problems.
To showcase the talents of hardworking underexposed student advocates.
To promote companies practicing proper business ethics (green, fair trade, organic, sweatshop free) by giving them an advertising platform.
To give consumers incentives to purchase products from companies practicing proper business ethics.
To set an example to viewers by showing people being rewarded for doing positive things in society.
To promote the universities taking part in high-level advocacy.
To create positive changes that will help lead to a worldwide society where everyone has equal opportunities.
To find the top student advocates in the country to create an Advocacy All Star Team to organize an Annual World AIDS Day Festival in New Orleans.
Advocacy All Stars Full University Season Series Content Overview
Focus - The Advocacy All Stars program is a documentary style reality television series created to present and garner support for the many serious issues facing humanity. The series will also focus on educating the public about the Environmental Sustainability, Infectious Disease, Fair Trade, Healthy Living, Social Justice, Human Rights, and Positive Business Ethics movements. The organizer/director will creatively produce the episodes to show viewers how taking part in and supporting the movements detailed above will help to solve the highlighted issues. The series will therefore play a key role within our society by helping to create the healthy norms we need to happily and healthily sustain human life as we move forward into the 21st century.
Commitment to Positive Advocacy - Advocacy All Stars will only promote and air "positive" advocacy, meaning that at no point will the series degrade, slander, or negatively represent any person, government official, company, country, or other entity.
Premise - Advocacy All Stars will feature five of the nation's top university student advocates in organizational action creating support for the causes of their choice. The featured universities will choose their star student advocate representative. The chosen student will then create his or her team of 2-3 assistants to help with the planning of events. The student team will choose three organizationally challenging events to help them create positive change for their chosen cause(s). The series will focus on showcasing the chosen issue(s), introduction of the host university, the introduction of the students (for example, interviews with friends and professors, segments about hobbies and interests, a look into their major), the stress of pre-planning the events while in school, week and day of promotion and production, the events themselves, and a post-event reflection on the overall results. Advocacy All Star organizers will be at the university to help guide the filming of the documentary piece. The organizers will be featured giving interviews and educational speeches surrounding the chosen issues, providing helpful production tips, and giving narrations on the student organizers' performances. All of the episodes will feature the healthy lifestyles and choices of the featured students and Advocacy All Star organizers.
Organizationally Challenging Events List
All star student advocates may choose to promote their cause(s) through events such as these:
- No Sweat Fashion Show - A traditional runway fashion show featuring student models wearing the latest and greatest in eco-friendly sweatshop free clothing. Includes a speech by former sweatshop worker Carmenacita "Chie" Abad, previously featured on 60 Minutes.
- Fair Trade Coffee Night - Features an informational fair trade presentation and product display along with socially conscious acoustic music, poetry readings, spoken word, artwork, and fair trade coffee and chocolate.
- Awareness/Fundraiser Concert or Festival - Focused on the student's issue of choice and featuring speakers, video clips surrounding the issue, live bands and performers, exhibiting non-profit organizations, and vendors. Other events such as the No Sweat Fashion Show or the Giant Crowd Formations can be a part of this event.
- Giant Crowd Formations - Features the Advocacy All Star staff working with the host student advocate to assemble massive groups of students into giant formations (such as a peace symbol). Visible from the top of a building or a helicopter, this can also easily be made into a die-in where students lay down pretending to be dead to raise awareness and garner support to stop genocide or war. This event is photogenic and "press friendly".
- Peace Rally/March - Based on the issue of the student's choice, this features students peacefully walking campus with signs and chants to encourage change and raise awareness about their issue.
- Large Scale Art Exhibit - This is a collaborative event which the student organizer uses to raise awareness about his or her idea through a massive piece of artwork that takes a collaborative effort of 25 or more students to create. The finale of this event is the presentation of the project when it is complete.
- Large Scale Recycling Campaign - This event is geared towards green living and focused on recycling not just normal garbage but other items like cell phones, used computers, and batteries. Student organizers are in charge of creating a large scale campaign, to be kicked off through a presentation event, then sustained after the Advocacy All Stars are gone.
- Alternative Energy Transportation Parade - An organized campus event where students move as a group through campus on bikes, skateboards, or roller blades to promote the use of both alternative forms of transportation and healthy living through exercise.
- Other Green Initiatives - This can include changing out all dorm room incandescent light bulbs, a biodiesel program for campus buses, university renewable energy campaigns and projects, and energy conservation initiatives (cutting down on wasted air conditioning and heating).
- Candle Light Vigil - Students host a giant ceremony for the cause of their choice in which everyone lights a candle to support the cause. Student oranizers are required to give a speech or presentation before, during or after the vigil.
- Walk/Run/Relay Fundraiser - An event where students get pledge amounts for every mile they walk or run for the issue of their choice.
- 30 Hour Fast for Hunger - Students fast for 30 hours and take pledges in the form of money, cans of food, or other goods to provide support for their chosen cause.
- Campus Wide Letter Writing or Call In Campaign - Booths are set up all over campus to get students to write letters or call in to their congressional representatives or other authoritative bodies about the issue at hand.
- Creative Event Option - Advocacy All Stars is always open to a creative event idea proposed by a featured student. Creative Option Events will have to be approved by both the Advocacy All Star team and the university.