Service Learning Proposal

Service Learning Proposal for NOW

By: Melissa Colon, Caitlin Costa, Alexa Nelen

February 10^th, 2011

Alexa Nelen

WST 3015-0001

Community Partner Profile:

NOW UCF Campus Action Network

Kelly Thibert (President): k.thibert@gmail.com

Kelly Quintero (Vice President): kquintero@knights.ucf.edu

Mission Statement: NOW is a progressive organization dedicated to making legal, political, social and economic change in our society in order to achieve our goal, which is to eliminate sexism and end all oppression (NOW.org).

Key semester goals: Becoming more visible on campus and within the community, raising awareness about issues, more tabling, and to show the community WHO is a NOW member and WHAT is feminism.

NOW was established on June 30, 1966 in Washington, D.C., by those attending the Third National Conference of the Commission on the Status of Women. Among NOW's 28 founders was its first president, Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique (NOW.org).

In order to achieve the above goals, UCF’s NOW chapter is seeking not only funding but also “people power” to fully realize their mission statement on a community level.

The Proposal:

Most of NOW’s issues involve women’s rights and abortion laws, bringing awareness to the problem of domestic violence and rape, and equality among men and women in the work place and the community. In order to bring positive and progressive change in favor of both women and men, contributions and involvement by the community are crucial.

One dominant part of NOW’s goals is to bring awareness to the community and nation as to what being a feminist means and what feminists ideals can bring to movements aimed at evoking progressive thinking and change. In order to accomplish this, it is imperative that NOW UCF contributes to better establishing a working definition of feminism that will invite the community in and will not scare potential involvement away.

NOW aims to change these constructions and give more flexibility to women personally and in their communities by making large scale changes. In order to do this, NOW UCF needs, more than anything, the voice to call out to the UCF community to recruit people to help make these changes.

Plan Proposal:

In order to achieve more awareness for NOW around campus and in the community, and in order to help people in the community realize the power of feminism and what being a feminist means, we will be doing several different things for our Service Learning. All of the projects will bring awareness of NOW as a legitimate and progressive organization at UCF as well as attempt to persuade people in the community to join in and contribute. The most vital part of any movement is publicity and “people power”. Hopefully with the below contributions both of these components can be fulfilled.

A modern feminist is seen as someone to be suspicious of and most are hesitant to be labeled as such. Having an organization like NOW contribute to changing this stereotype will add to the progression of social movements that bring equality to women.

 Firstly, the most seemingly affective way to bring attention to NOW in the UCF community is to first set up a table at least once a week outside of the Student Union and advertise meeting times, set up an email list for information on events and meetings, bring attention to NOW UCF’s Facebook page and finally to clearly dictate NOW’s goals and the goals of many feminists to UCF students and faculty. Secondly, we plan to make and distribute NOW posters that would advertise dates and times of various events around campus and Orlando and meeting dates and times. Considering NOW UCF needs both funding and “people power” in order to achieve its goals, these two ideas would be incredibly affective in bringing these goals to fruition.

In order to contribute to the “people power” needed by NOW UCF, we will participate in planning events with NOW like an event for Feminist Coming Out Day. The tentative plan for an event like this would be to first set up a table outside of the Student Union in order to advertise the event at least a week prior. Then have the three of us and some other members located around campus and ask students if they consider themselves a feminist. If they say yes they will collect a ribbon, a sticker or some badge that will demonstrate their decision to “come out” as a feminist. The goal is to bring awareness to the day and the importance of feminist ideals. By wearing a badge like this, hopefully one’s friends or classmates will ask about it and that would spread the word of Feminist Coming Out Day orally and simultaneously bring attention to the amount of people that may share one’s ideals and have similar views about issues presented by NOW. By giving the proclaimed feminists a physical identifier, it would make others with the same ideals more comfortable with the idea if they knew their friends or peers felt the same, considering the “F” word is something that is skirted around most of the time. Lastly, the entire thing would be one big advertisement for NOW and hopefully recruit new members that have found their voice by “coming out” as a feminist, or one with feminist ideals.

Rationale:

NOW is a progressive organization that has continued to strive for a change in socially constructed gender roles. As Judith Lorber said, “everyone ‘does gender’ without thinking about it” because these roles are so inscribed in our daily lives and how we are raised (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey, 64). Most young girls and women are complacent in their rigid gender roles and do not know any alternative. By bringing awareness to programs and institutions like NOW, the goal is this complacency will turn into contemplation and change.

All women should be educated and encouraged to define themselves by what makes them happy. NOW helps women do just this; by encouraging progression and development of gender equality in social, political, personal and economic practices. Lorber further states “gender is one of the major ways people identify themselves”, and it is important to help create positive and equal gender roles (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey, 65). Re-inscribing these roles however can be intimidating considering they are such a natural part of our lives. But in order to make progress, it is imperative to denaturalize and examine such constructions that have encroached on our inalienable right to equality.

Action:

I have met with both the President and Vice President of NOW at UCF along with the other members to discuss our tentative plans and goals for the semester. I will be attending meetings regularly and tabling in front of the Student Union to bring attention to NOW and its events. I will discuss further plans with the members of NOW to create a cohesive vision for carrying out NOW’s mission statement.

Timeline

We are working with the other members of NOW to increase visibility on campus so that we may raise awareness on key issues. The following dates are subject to minor changes. Tabling events in front of the union will occur no less frequently than on a bimonthly basis.

1.      Abortion Discussion Panel Hosted by the College Republicans- February 21

2.      Feminist Coming Out Day- March 2

3.      Green Waves Festival Interactive Tent- March 20

4.      Take Back the Night March and Rally- March 24

Works Cited

National Organization for Women (NOW). Web. 08 Feb. 2011. http://www.now.org/.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Word Count: 964