Action Plan

What is this project? 

The final project for Social Justice is to do an action project that connects to one of the themes we have started to explore in this course. It is a product of each student’s creative thought and your desire to make social change within the immediate or broader community.  It provides you with an opportunity to take on a leadership role and to demonstrate a wide variety of skills including conceptualization, organization, implementation and presentation. This is the biggest assignment of the course and is comprised of several integrated activities that extend over the duration of the course.  Upon completion, it also acts as a replacement for a final exam.  

 For this project you will need to brainstorm, plan, do, report on, and reflect on the action project you choose to undertake. You are encouraged to collaborate with other people on a collective group action if you choose to, but you must complete your planning, brainstorming, and reflection sheets individually. 

 Part of the project will be for you to lead a class discussion/ lesson (including a possible debate), report out on and go over your reflections from your action in a presentation to the rest of the class.  Be sure to choose an action that you feel comfortable talking about and sharing with the group.

Here's a list with links to some previous projects:

• Air Pollution

• Ethical Production and Consumption

• Clothing: ethical production and consumption - clothing drive for local shelter

• Fast Fashion: environmental impacts and  personal actions to combat unethical production and consumption

• Corporate mergers and impact on democracy 

• Fake news, misinformation and disinformation - local awareness campaign

• Energy Consumption

• The impacts of lithium and cobalt: Mining, human rights and the cost of Electric Cars and gadgets 

• Re-think your Waste

• Waste and the impact of climate change:  examining local garbage streams

• Food Waste

• Food Waste in Kimberley - local grocery store audit

• Food Security

• Local Food and Food Security in the East Kootenays

• Malnutrition and food insecurity at a local level - food bank volunteering and fundraising

• Grad Garden

• Climate Change

• Climate Change and the local impact on skiing

• Climate/eco- anxiety  - art show

• Avalanches - Impact of climate change 

• Plastic Waste

• Forest Fires: local impacts. actions and the link with climate change

• Water - local actions to address pollution in the waters of the East Kootenay - shoreline clean-up

• Sustainable logging practices and local pulp mill practices

• In East Kootenays 

• Mental Health Awareness

• Men's Mental Health

• Teen Suicide Awareness

• Addressing Sexual Violence Against Women

• Women's Reproductive Rights

• Toxic Masculinity

• Trans rights in B.C

• GSA Awareness campaign: creating more inclusive schools

• Sexism in sport 

• Gender equity in the trades

• Workers Rights for Youth

• Ageism Awareness

• Ableism - school awareness campaign

• Racism in small towns

• Engaging in Social Justice and educating through games

• Global Access to Education  

• Eye glasses: accessibility around the world 

• Animal Rights and the ethical treatment of animals

• Animal Cruelty in the beauty industry 

• Poverty and homelessness in Canada

• Homelessness in BC and locally  - Creating  and distributing survival bags 

• Child Poverty: Fundraising to provide adequate bedding at a global scale

• Urban design: creating more pedestrian friendly and environmentally conscious spaces

• War in Ukraine - awareness and local support groups

Assessment and Components:

 The project will have the following components (you will be assessed on all of them):

1. The Coming to Action Brainstorming Sheet 

2. The Coming to Action Planning Sheet 

3. Journal / Blog of progress

4. A research presentation (or paper) about the social justice issue addressed 

5. A class lesson and debate/ discussion related to your topic 

6. Online / webpage presence

7. TED talk / Rick Mercer Rant inspired Elevator Talk

8. A presentation to the class, debriefing and reporting out on the Action 

9. The Coming to Action Report Out / Reflection Paper 

Final class presentations will take place the final week of classes.

Students must complete their action project before and be prepared to present the first day. 

Component summaries

1. Brainstorming Sheet (  / 17) – -  includes an assessment of your own communities, talents, interests, and concerns

2. Action Planning Sheet (   /28) –  - includes a declaration of what the project is, why you chose it, what parts of the course it connects to, supports, challenges/ obstacles, how you can overcome the challenges, implementation planning, steps, and timelines, how it fits into the criteria of a good action project, how you will assess the success of your action

3. Journal / Blog of Progress (   /40) – DUE weekly -  as this project is partially self-paced, regular journal / blog updates will help document progress to date.  This will also allow followers (and the teacher!) to chart any important developments.  Entries should be added regularly, at least one per week and include updates for the week, successes, challenges, pictures, stories etc.  Each student is responsible for their own entry.

4. Research / Inquiry presentation (  / 80 )- DUE  – this is where you will set out to become experts related to your topic of choice.  Important information about your topic including a history of it’s evolution as a social justice issue, key statistics and trends, related organizations and it’s relationship with the influential institutions in society (race, media, gender, religion, capitalism, consumer society etc.) should be addressed.  It’s link to the UN Sustainability Goals should be described as well as a description as to why you were interested in learning more about this topic and what related actions exist.  As this inquiry will be done as a group, this should be well researched and sourced, edited and clearly identify who researched and prepared what.  The method of presentation depends on how you feel you can best represent your knowledge. This can include infographs, poster presentations, videos, PowerPoint/ Prezi’s, research essays or other (please see me).

5. Online web presence (   /40 ) DUE:  ongoing – through the creation of a website or other publicly accessible online platform, you will be asked to consolidate your information about the project in order to organize all information and help draw attention to your cause / issue

6. Elevator talk/ rant  (    / 30) DUE: with your presentation :  a short (under 2 minutes) and dynamic videotaped presentation of your issue that you can use during your presentation, upload to your webpage /online platform(s), and possibly use to help create a viral sensation.  Here is an example of a rant that you can use for ideas to help guide you:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuVgJ-sgBW4

9. Presentation – (  /60 ) PRESENTATIONS:  

Drawing on info from research, this class presentation will share important information and profile action opportunities. Students will also engage classmates by creating a basic question sheet related to their topic. As part of your presentation you may choose to lead a discussion, activity or debate related to the topic.

  You will need to do the following (and create a PowerPoint /Prezi)

• 1. Describe the goals of the action project and what you did

  2. Explain why you decided to pursue the action project you chose

  3. Share images or your video that encapsulates the action project

  4. Identify what social justice problem or issue your action project was trying to address

  5. Name the kind of oppression or privilege (i.e. Individual, systemic, or cultural) that your action was working to address/engage with

  6. Talk about challenges/obstacles you faced related to your project

  7. Discuss how you tried to address/overcome the challenges/obstacles you faced

  8. Talk about you projects successes and learnings

  9. Screen your video rant

10. Report Out / Reflection Sheet (   /17 ) DUE: includes reflecting on what went well, what could have been improved, how you worked with challenges, what you would have done different, what type of oppression or privilege your project addressed, and your key learnings from the project

Action project suggestions, supports and resources:

You can choose to pursue whatever action project you think would be best for you as long as it connects back to the course content, however, it is strongly recommended that you consult with Mr. Carrara in the brainstorming and planning process to make sure it will work well for both you and the course.

Some of the content that we have started to explore in SJ12 include:

1.      Your own story, values, identity, and relationship to power, privilege, and oppression in the world

2.      Social justice frameworks

3.      Colonialism, imperialism and reconciliation in Canada and the world

4.      Feminism and gender equity

5.      Racism, racial privilege and anti-racism

6.      Gender identity, sexual orientation and LGBTQ+ rights

7.      Class, capitalism, and consumption 

8.      Environmental justice

Whatever action project you pursue, it should be SMART

• Specific – clear

• Measurable – impact

• Attainable – doable

• Relevant – important

• Timeline – deliberate and pre-planned 

 Consider our discussions on Allyship.  What can you do to:

Learn - Interrupt Oppression - Advocate - Volunteer - Raise Financial Support - Protest - Take Political Action

Possible action projects could include: (Please see above for examples from last year)

1. Do a project or awareness campaign in the school or the community  E.g. Meatless Monday, shoe drive, ethical consumption over the holiday season, plastic bag ban, gender neutral bathroom awareness, Islamophobia,  etc.

2. Contact / write letters to arrange a meeting with a politician on an issue (getting a meeting with the Mayor, and MP, or MLA is easier than you might think!).  Then conduct an interview to get their perspective.

3. Bring a proposal for something to Leadership or the Selkirk Secondary Administration

4. Create a series of memes or infographics that can be shared on social media or posted around the school or community that explore or educate people about a social justice related topic and survey people as to their response

5. Create an educational video and track its spread/views/reactions

6. Plan and facilitate discussion on a social justice topic that you know will be challenging with a group or person in your life 

7. Create and distribute a petition – including follow up

8. Engage the press or write an editorial

9. Start a program that aims to solve a problem

10. Volunteer with an existing charity, pitch new ideas and work at bringing attention to this cause 

11. Any other proposal you have that links to the class’s subject matter 

Possible resources or premade projects that you can pursue or use as inspiration:

• Feminism and gender - http://www.heforshe.org/en

• General - https://www.metowe.com/

• Anti-Poverty Action Project ideas and resources

  • Share the weight can project - http://bcpovertyreduction.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2014_prac-rethinkgiving-pkg_schools.pdf

  • Various anti-poverty action and campaign ideas - http://bcpovertyreduction.ca

Assignment Timeline

Over the next four weeks you will have plenty of time during class to work on your action projects, interspersed with skill and capacity building sessions designed to expand and improve on your abilities to be advocates, organizers and activists.  In order for this project to succeed you will need to stay on top of tasks, delegate appropriately and make effective use of class time.  This will likely also require meeting with your group and implementing elements of your action plan outside of class time. 

Key Dates:

 Brainstorming Sheet

Weekly / Ongoing - Journal / Blog of Progress

_______ Action Planning Sheet 

Ongoing – Webpage updates

     ****Action implementation****

_________- Research / Inquiry presentation

 ________Final Presentations 

________– Report Out / Reflection 

*note that these are final deadlines for each element.  Integrating certain elements at earlier times may be more beneficial / practical to the project.