Elon Volunteers! Awareness Team brings light to social issues
Brittany Smith / Reporter
The Awareness Team is a program new to Elon Volunteers! this
year.
“(We) burst the bubble and raise awareness around
campus about important social issues,” said co-director
of the team Katie Rosenthal.
Each month the team will attempt to dispel myths about a
different social issue. Throughout the year, the Awareness
Team will tackle issues on hunger and homelessness, the
environment, people with disabilities, abuse and hate crimes.
In order to disprove the social myths and to educate people
around campus, the Awareness Team will create flyers,
posters, use sidewalk chalk, set up informational tables,
bring in speakers and hold public forums or do anything else
that is different from other organizations to get their
message out.
Presently, the four-person team is looking for more
coordinators and participants for various events. The
Awareness Team needs at least two more monthly-issues
coordinators, a reaction team coordinator, and an Urbanopoly
coordinator. All positions are year-long.
The monthly issues team looks to create awareness about the
social issue of the month. They help with the education of
the public.
A reaction team coordinator would respond to any requests for
information from members of organizations, programs and
individuals.
Urbanopoly is still in its piloting stage, but groups of
volunteers will participate in educational team-building by
visiting a nearby city to experience life as a low-wage urban
citizen.
Katharine Lowery, the Awareness Team’s newest member,
is helping out with November’s social issue of hunger
and homelessness because she feels it is time to get involved
in social issues.
Next month, people around campus can look for statistics
about hunger and homelessness written in chalk, casual forums
in the Fireplace Lounge, facts and fun at Shack-a-thon and
the 30-hour Famine, and more.
The team also hopes to raise awareness by reaching out to
Greek organizations, urging global studies professors to talk
to their classes about the issue, and possibly inviting
speakers from Allied Churches, soup kitchens and local
shelters to talk about their experiences with hunger and
homelessness.
Co-director Mary Ellen Kramer said she understands that
education is the first step to changing people’s minds.
Getting people to think and talk about issues each month is
what the Awareness Team is all about.
“We want to show that people really can make a
difference,” said Alex Linville, a coordinator for
monthly issues. The Awareness Team meets at 5:30 p.m. on
Tuesdays.
Contact Brittany Smith at pendulum@elon.edu or
278-7247.
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