HOW TO GET INVOLVED? BASICS TO ORGANIZE AN EVENT.
Is your country or city not yet on the list? Then it means that there's still room for someone to take up the task to organize it smile emoticon How do you get started? Here are a few things you can do.
***GETTING STARTED***
1. If you are part of an organization or volunteer group or movement, then just say "YES" and let us know that you'll be coordinating it & we'll put you on the list! Create a national event page & start spreading the word!
2. If you're not part of a group, try and find one. In each country and in many, many cities there are volunteer groups and citizen movements fighting for this cause. For certain, one of them will be happy to serve as an umbrella for this event! Once you find one, let us know & we'll put you on the list! Create a national event page & start spreading the word!
3. If in your country nothing is happening yet and you can't find a local or national group just yet, then you yourself can already create a national event page and start sharing it in as many places as possible. Before you know it, people will start showing up willing to organize events in different places!
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***BASICS TO ORGANIZE AN EVENT***
The following steps are to cover the very basics, they're numbered but apart from the first two steps, you can do them in any order.
1. Find a place & time (the date’s already set: 27th of February for all of Europe)
2. If needed, get the right permissions at local authorities, check your national/local legislation for this.
3. Find other local action groups or supportive collectives of people, NGO's, etc. to work together with you on this. They can help limit the time investment for organization and bring their supporters. Please make sure that the organization of the event remains a citizen initiative and that the organizers have no link to political parties. We'd like this to really be a citizen driven event, not a show to gain voters.
4. Create a "program" for the event (e.g.: include walking a march, reading of a Manifesto, a noise demo moment with whistles to make noise for refugees and human rights, create a scene/play with life jackets, show an impactful video (with good sound/visibility), etc.)
5. Make promo material (at the very least a good, clear digital poster to spread through social media) and printed posters / banners to announce the event and of course to use during the event. Make use of the
#SafePassage hashtag!
6. Make sure press is present, whether national or local, TV or written or radio, all is relevant! Invite them personally if you can. They can help you get the word out! You and your group may want to appoint a spokesperson for this.
7. Make sure a lot of people come by spreading the news well in advance!
8. Make use of the #SafePassage photo initiative - invite people to have their picture taken with a #SafePassage sign (do ask them for permission to upload it to social networks!). This is a powerful visual tool to draw attention & show support!
9. In some countries/places: be conscious of the possibility of counter-demo's by people not too fond of the refugee plight. Think in advance about how to deal with this should this occur.
The UnNovelist