STAND believes that we must find pragmatic, innovative, and creative solutions to prevent and end mass atrocities. As youth based in the United States, we focus on mobilizing grassroots support to influence decisionmakers and building our members’ leadership skills for the long term. We work in partnership with dozens of other organizations.
Every year, each Action Committee determines its priorities to educate members and advocate for change for the specific region. We usually run 1-2 additional STAND-wide campaigns on a broader issue.
Typically, our activities fall into the same three categories we use for Issue Areas:
Tier 1: Rapid Response
Actions may include:
- Signing on to policy letters by a coalition of partner organizations to decisionmakers
- Responding rapidly with statements on social media or our website
- Creating one-time educational materials like FAQs, blog posts, lesson plans/slide decks, etc.
- Creating one-time call-in scripts to encourage members to call their representatives
Tier 2: Education
Actions may include:
- Including issues in our regular Conflict Updates
- Partnering with outside organizations
- Creating ongoing educational materials
- Endorsing a piece of legislation or a policy statement
- Educating decisionmakers through calls and meetings
Tier 3: Priority/Action
Actions may include:
- Establishing an Action Committee with a designated MC lead/co-leads
- Advocating and lobbying for specific pieces of legislation
- Creating a dedicated webpage and one pager
Over 15 years, STAND has used a range of tactics (actions), from Direct Action like protests, to Advocacy like lobbying our representatives to pass legislation. There are hundreds of tactics out there we can build upon, in addition to those listed here.