Queen Elizabeth High School
YOUTH DRIVING CHANGE
Queen Elizabeth High School
DeforestACTION is a project started by youth from around the world, with a main objective of spreading the message of Deforestation to everyone. In efforts to inform more people on deforestation in Borneo, Queen Elizabeth High school students created D-Day (DeforestACTION Day), a day to create awareness for the destruction happening in the forests of Indonesia. Many Elementary and Jr. High students came to learn more about certain topics such as, paper consumption, deforestation in Alberta, Canada and palm oil plantations that affects the orangutans. With planning and our knowledge on deforestation, we informed approximately 200 students on the cause and effects of deforestation. We also came up with ways to slow down deforestation. At Queen Elizabeth High school, we decided to have stations set up so that the kids could go to station, each with a different topic and interactive activities that are both fun and are able to deliver a message. We also had a video conference with an individual in Costa Rica who plants trees for people so they can have a lower carbon footprint. Here are examples of what we did, these are not guidelines they are ideas that you can use or improve!
How to Plan For D-Day
Events are fun ways to raise awareness about specific issues. We’ve put together a few of our top tips to help you run your own D-day event. Some of these may seem obvious, but it’s hard to cover all bases when you’re running event, especially if it’s particularly big or there’s only a few people organizing it. Good luck with your event, and thank you for taking part in the campaign!
Before you start any of the planning, make sure you have a team or a committee made up of young committed people that are willing to be part of this event and bring a change.
Content
1. Planning
2. Communication/marketing
3. Last minute preparation
4. Deliver the event
5. Follow up after the event
1. Planning
Firstly, consider:
● What do you want to achieve by running the event?
● What kind of impact do you want to leave on the people that will be participating?
● What age group do you want to target?
● Have all people in the school attend? How many people can you accommodate?
● How much time and effort are you willing to put into this project?
For D-day the answers should be something like: We want to raise awareness about deforestation (both global and local), palm oil, orangutan extinction etc. We found the best way to leave an impression on the kids is by an inform/inspire method. Basically you start by giving them the information about what is happening with the issue at hand and then you give them ways that can help solve the problem. This is the best way to leave a positive impression; the idea is not to scare them away from the issue but to make them like they can make a difference. The age group can be anyone, we used grade 5-9 but that is changeable depending on your preferences. The amount of people you can accommodate depends on amount of volunteers. It takes 2 people for every 20 at a station, so if there are 4 stations, you need 8 people to take care of 80.
Once you have asked yourself and the committee these questions, you may brainstorm any ideas to get the participants keenly involved.
Brainstorm
Now the creative bit…you need to come up with the content for the event. Are you going to have activities, freebies, information, or competition? Our suggestion is that you include all four of those because you want to make this interesting and fun for the participant. We set up booths for the students to go around and participate in different activities. (Examples provided below) Games and competitions can be really good way to engage kids in the cause. Giving them candy or having some game prepared will engrave the message deeper.
Budget
How much budget have you got; will it cover what you want to do? If you don’t have much budget, think about local sponsors; could any local businesses sponsor or contribute (financially or with products) to the event? Make sure your sponsors are related with the objective of the event for example a local environment friendly company. The best way to get sponsors is by sending them sponsorship letters (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DMKdaUBJwJLaJLtm0k2K6II1aoMSSpLJjniNXxjVXYU/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CMiLy4YF ). The greater the incentive the better. You will have a huge audience and many businesses would love to target them. Use that to your advantage. Having a big budget helps a lot in making the event nicer. Do not let the money lose any content of the event, use as much recycled, and reused products as possible.
Date/Time
When picking a date for the event, make sure you have left enough time to organize and market the event. We recommend at least 3 month of planning, the more you plan the better the event turns out. Consider external factors too, like national holidays, weather (if you can!) and other local events. It’s useful to check if other events are being run (e.g. by the school or council) on that day or near it, as these will influence attendance and volunteers to help. Discuss the date with the Principal or any other higher authority before you come to a decision.
Location
Have you got permission from whoever manages the venue/location for your event (if you want to hold an event in a public place outdoors, you may need to get permission from your local authority)? Does it fit in with your budget? Is that location accessible? We didn’t have a budget so we booked our school library weeks before. MAKE SURE YOUR LOCATION IS BOOKED AHEAD OF TIME. Most importantly make sure the venue has enough space for all the stations and kids attending.
2. Communication/marketing
Events work best when everyone knows what’s going on and what to do. The more people know about it, the more likely it is to be a success. Let people know as far in advance as possible so that they can get organized. It’s also important to make sure that people understand what will happen during the event and how they can take part, so keep it simple. First if you are going to be inviting schools send those letters (URL) at least a month in advance, best if you personally deliver them to the principle of prospect school. If it is going to be a public event hang up posters and advertise in any way possible. The earlier you advertise the better.
People you may wish to influence
● School boards
● Governments
● Parents
● Teachers
● Your local MP
● The media
To get the word out:
● Have committee members write letters to the sponsors, guest speakers and the participating schools.
● Make a Facebook, twitter page, other social media, website (if possible) etc.
Human resources
Have you got enough people to deliver your idea? If not, you may need to scale it down. Workout how many people you’ll need to deliver your event smoothly? If you are planning on inviting other schools, have the committee members go in person and present the idea. Make sure you follow up on it and give the attending schools and guest speaker’s reminders three days before the event. For the actual event you need at least 10 people that are willing to work for 4-6 hours straight on the day of. You can have people shift in if necessary. (Based on a total attendance of 200 kids) The people working on D-day have to be committed and willing to put in a lot of time and effort to make a difference in the world. You get out what you put in, so hard work makes for an amazing turnout.
3. Last minute preparation
● Make sure you have designated everyone helping a clear task and use a timeline or schedule
● Communicate expectations to those helping you deliver the event; do those individuals know to turn up early, what they need to bring, what they will be doing etc?
● Have you done a risk assessment of the site? This is to ‘cover’ yourself as well as others.
4. Deliver the event
Prepare yourself for organized chaos! No matter how prepared you are, running an event is always stressful and busy, so remember to stay calm and have concise answers ready for questions from people, whether its staff, parents or members of the public.
● Make sure you arrive early to set up
● Once people arrive, clarify what their role is and what they need to do
● Stay calm! Be prepared to answer questions and change the plan according to the day.
● Remember to stay friendly to everyone!
● If your event runs for over 4 hours, ensure that everyone gets a short break or time off to have lunch. Plan this in using a timeline or schedule
● Pack up at end; it is important to leave the space as you found it!
5. Follow up after the event
● Key to an event is the follow up and impression of the event afterwards.
● Make sure you tell everyone that attended how it went and flag up your successes! If you got any local coverage, highlight that too. You could feature this on a notice board at the school, a newsletter, or a follow up flyer
● Reiterating key messages and recounting the fun things achieved through the event will make sure it stays a positive memory for participants.
● If you will be holding other events in the future, it may be worth holding a de-brief with key parties/people. This will help you prepare better for next time by asking what went well, what didn’t, what would have been helpful to have in advance, how the event could be improved etc.
Let us know how you get on
Sharing your experiences with others helps us to raise awareness about the uses of palm oil and deforestation. If you have been campaigning for change, we are really keen to hear from you; it helps us to connect with the public and communicate the progress being made. If you want, send us your photos and a short description of the event, we will try to highlight it on the website.
Example of the Stations
1.Paper Consumption
This station was basically about the excessive amount of paper consumption and the personal ways that we can reduce our consumption, ultimately reducing as a whole. We talked about ways that schools and individuals can reduce our consumption through reusing and recycling. We told the students that how few people trying to change can reach more people and eventually spread it all around us. We wanted to display this in a way that children could really understand it and see the effects. We made a model of a forest and a school and knocked over the trees to show them how many would be cut down because of them individually, in their school, and by schools in Edmonton, and etc. For every statistic or fact we presented, they could easily relate to it or at least grasp the concept a little better. We also gave them opportunities to work together to come up with ideas on reducing paper consumption, and showed them our examples as well. The whole idea behind this thing was to have to hands on activities and get the kids involved. They were rewarded with candy for every idea that they came up with. At the end of each session, we asked the children to all sign a giant poster if they were willing to take action against paper consumption. Having this allowed them to feel as though they did something and also showed them how many people are going to help just because of two presenters talking about it to them.
Materials
· Fake trees
· Model of school
· Model of a forest
· Shredded paper
· Palm oil free candy (optional)
It took us almost two to three weeks to come up with the idea and make the models. We also got the facts and figure and made the script during this time frame. Our suggestion to you is that you organize everything and set deadlines for yourselves. It took a lot of dedication and hard work but it paid off in the end.
2. Art Station
This booth was called the “art booth” but it is much more than that. We had books made out of re-used papers and card stock out of cereal boxes. We had to fold about 1000 recycled paper and turn them into the books using a book binder. We used the card stock as the front where the kids could draw what they felt about deforestation. The idea was to get the creative side of their brain thinking about the issue as well as showing them a practical way to save the environment. We wanted the kids to personalize their five page books with their reactions to deforestation and also write down a do to list for them to help the environment. At the end, the kids got to take the books home and have pride in the work they have done.
Materials
· One sided recycled Paper (amount depending on the people attending)
· Card stock from cereal boxes (on average each box made 6 cards you need 2 per book/ kid attend
· Book binder
· Coils (amount respective to amount of books)
· Art Supplies for the kids to draw
The Procedure for making the books differs based on different book binders.
It took us the whole month to find recycled paper, fold it and collect cereal boxes. We also had to learn how to bind the books together but the majority of the time was spent folding paper. Our suggestion to you is that have the books made before the event and make sure you have extras too. You want to use recycled paper and card stock because it gives a strong message to the audience. Make sure they have fun!
3. Palm Oil
This station was about the cause of destruction of forests and orangutans which the plantations of palm oil. We made a power point presentation on palm oil, explaining what it is and why is it so important. We talked about the effects of deforestation worldwide and the close extinction of orangutan. We used pictures and maps to get the message across to them. We also brought in some palm oil products so the kids could see how many different companies were using it. We wanted the presentation to be fun and interactive but at the same effective so we incorporated Jeopardy and a hoop game into it. We asked the kids question based on the information we just shared. If the kid got the question right, he or she would come up to their point line and try shooting into a hoop. If they got the ball into the hoop, their team would get the point. This way the kids were engaged and had a lot of fun. The main idea behind this station was to tell them that our demand of palm oil is the cause for deforestation. We wanted to create awareness and show the children that our demands can have a huge impact on the environment and as consumers; we need to be making smarter choices.