A community forum provides a great opportunity
for activists, community stakeholders, parents,
and youth to discuss the need for NYS youth to
receive sex education.
Key points to remember when organizing for a successful
community forum:
1. Determine your audience, budget, and timeline.
Who will your audience be: community professionals,
clergy, parents, education professionals, elected
officials, all of the above? How much time will
it take to plan the event (see sample time line)?
Will you need a budget for a speaker, location
or refreshments?
2. Look for key sponsors to make your event a success.
These sponsors should be like-minded groups who
support sex education. Other progressive organizations
can help you assure a broad-based audience and
help carry out subsequent work that may come out
of the forum discussion. Make sure to involve youth
in your leadership. It is important that the leadership
of your potential partners is engaged in the organizing
process and supportive of the issues publicly.
Use mailing lists from your partners to promote
the event.
3. Look for a friendly location that is perceived
as neutral.
Having a community forum at a Planned Parenthood
office may not be the best way to present broad-based
support for sex education. Sex education is a “wedge” issue
that will bring in non-traditional allies. The
Planned Parenthood name/venue may be intimidating
or even off-putting to some. Your goal should be
to have Planned Parenthood perceived as part of
a greater (mainstream) movement to support sex
ed. Look to friendly religious groups, community
centers, and libraries to host your forum.
4. Be clear on the agenda for your forum and pick
a great moderator.
Use the sponsors of your forum as a steering committee
to decide what the event’s agenda will be.
Be sure to discuss this agenda with all your speakers/panelists,
so that everyone is on the same page with the end-goal.
A successful community forum allows time and space
for audience participation. The ideal moderator
is familiar with the issue of sex education, adept
at managing the agenda and facilitating the questions/comments
from the audience.
5. Determine your action steps.
The forum provides a captive audience. What can participants do to make them
feel engaged and to be effective in promoting sex education? Be sure to provide
forum participants with very tangible action steps (e.g., sign a petition, send
a letter, etc).
6. Confirm your speakers/panel early.
Think creatively about key allies. Look beyond the obvious guest speakers and
use your sponsors to generate a list of potential speakers that could represent
surprising alliances. For example, progressive clergy, outspoken parents, school
nurses, and leaders from youth organizations in your community could lend further
credibility and objectivity to your forum.
7. Be sure that you have good audio equipment.
Nothing is worse than staging a community forum or panel that no one can hear.
Be sure to have microphones for the panelists/speakers and for the audience so
they can be heard when asking questions. It is important that you have volunteers
attend to these floating microphones, so the microphones are not commandeered.
Videotaping the forum is also a good way to get the message out for people who
could not attend.
8. Invite the media and make sure that they attend.
A news release should be distributed a week before your forum and sent again
the day of the forum. Call to confirm they will be there. Send community events
listing notice to media (newspapers, public access TV stations, etc.) three weeks
in advance. Prepare press packets with facts sheets and information about Get
the Facts NY. Do not underestimate the power of community newspapers (block clubs
etc.). They can and should be a part of your forum. Be sure to make forum sponsors
and Planned Parenthood spokespeople available to answer questions ahead of time,
because many smaller publications and groups work on long deadlines or do not
meet very frequently.
9. Invite elected officials.
This may be a discussion point for your sponsors/steering committee. Elected
officials are sometimes eager to speak at forums like this, you may decide when
and if this is appropriate among your organizing partners.
10. Plan for follow-up.
What follow up will you have to the forum? If participants are interested in
the issue, how can you keep them involved?
|
