****Because of the pandemic, this seminar finally goes online****
What is too political for SCI? How much do we need to position ourselves politically in order to be a believable peace organisation? Join the international seminar «This House is on Fire», discuss existing communication strategies within our branches, but also as SCI on an international level – and develop new ones that are fit for the year 2022!
About the seminar
The world is literally on fire! The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the pressure on marginalized groups in society, it has fuelled right-wing extremism, hatred and conspiracy theories. Wars are continuing to rage the world. Racism, sexism, queerphobia, wealth inequalities and global injustice have direct effects on people every single day. And we didn‘t even list the climate crisis yet.
Silence is violence. Social media and communication have become a bigger part of SCI in the past two years of living through a
pandemic, as it is one of the online spheres of influence that we have. During the Black Lives Matter protests and the social media hype around it in May and June 2020, it became increasingly clear that organisations should and need to position themselves in solidarity with the protests. SCI was comparably slow in responding and coming to a consensus on it. We often have the motto: „Sure, peace, but not too political!“
Questions that we ask ourselves: What is too political for SCI? How much do we need to position ourselves politically in order to be a believable peace organisation? How can we deal with sensitive political topics, when an SCI member organisation might face
repercussions for speaking up? Whom is your communication for, whom is it not for? When is the right timing to be political?
We urgently need to discuss this. Rather than having limited time during an EPM or ICM for this topic, we would propose a complete week. This is why we invite you to a seminar where we can discuss existing communication strategies within our branches, but also as SCI on an international level – and develop new ones that are fit for the year 2022. Let’s develop clear strategies when we speak up on social media and how we speak up.
This seminar is outcome-focused. We will on site develop new social media campaigns around political topics (similar to the COVID-19 campaign that Gender Blenders did in 2020 or the Nuclear Weapons campaign by the International Secretariat in September 2021). We will draft proposals for resolutions and recommendations for ICM and EPM. And we will create a guideline document on political communication for branches.
Wir sprechen Englisch. The working language of the activities is English. If you have problems understanding anything, the facilitators and the group will support you in your understanding in simple words.
Parts of the program will completely depend on you! There will be an “Open Space” part in the program, which means that you can suggest workshops or things to discuss that are not in the program yet. This could be a discussion around a specific topic, a method that you’re using, introducing a best practice, etc. Please think of something you could share with the group and we will vote during the project which ideas we will implement during the Open Space.
Please be sensitive that people come from different backgrounds. We want this project to be a safer space for people no matter where they come from, what they look like, what gender identity or sexual orientation they have, what they believe in, what they wear, how much money they have, what education they have or what kind of bodies they have. Personal attacks or discrimination are not welcome in this project. We will talk more about this on the first day of the project. We will create a group agreement together, so that we can respect each other’s needs during the project. 🙂
You will have a task! At the end of every day of video calls, you will gather in a breakout room with the same small group of participants and you will reflect about how the day was for you. You will also each day have a different task to bring some life into our Zoom calls: e.g. by reading a poem, creating an energizing game or organising an after-session activity.
More Information & how to apply
We are happy to have you on board as a participant for this seminar. In this infosheet, you will find all the information you need to know about the seminar.
If you have any questions that are not answered in the infosheet, please feel free to reach out to us at trainings@scich.org!
This project is financed by Movetia.
