Social Media for Social Justice: Workshop Fund

Social Media for Social Justice is a four-part online workshop series looking to introduce online activism to high school students. The workshops are designed to cultivate their interest and skills so they are empowered to engage around causes they care about. Each session will feature an expert panel of speakers and break-out groups. Students will select a small group organized around specific topics, facilitated by subject matter experts and a student facilitator. Small group subject matter experts will receive training and an honorarium for committing to lead the breakout groups in each of the four workshops. Over the last six months, our team of students has worked hard on identifying and reaching out to speakers, designing training, and creating student outreach plans. With all this work, we've only reached one financial hurdle and this is funding our experts.

Why we need funding:

Following our main speakers, students will have the option to join one of eight breakout rooms, where they will be accompanied by a subject matter expert and will engage in subject-specific learning/discourse. Our need for funding lies in hiring these specialized, highly-educated field experts. Unlike panelists, who we ask to join us for roughly one hour, we ask breakout group facilitators to commit to a consistent schedule- every Sunday afternoon- for each two-hour session, along with an introductory training/briefing. With this time commitment in mind, we look to pay each of our eight experts $250 per session. Over four weeks, this totals out to 8000 dollars. As a team, we've already raised an initial $2000 dollars and are seeking assistance to raise the remaining $6000.

SMSJ is a student-led organization based out of the Washington D.C. area. Our project was founded through a local program known as Youth-Creating-Change, which helps students create their own initiatives through training and adult mentorship. Today we've expanded across 5 different states: Maryland, Virginia, D.C., California, and Texas.

All funds are allocated to Jews United for Justice, the fiscal sponsor of our parent organization Communities United Against Hate. Any money donated will be given to JUFJ and sent directly to Communities United Against Hate and then to our breakout room facilitators upon completion of each training.

Our team greatly appreciates any donations and will immediately be put to great use!

Thanks,

The SMSJ Team