Define Your Mission
Once you and your friends rally around an issue, it is time to define your mission, describe your vision, and establish your goals. Do you want 100 signatures on a petition for campaign reform? Do you want to throw an event for people to learn about health care? Do you want your city council to fund a project dedicated to youth civic engagement? Have a goal in mind and create action steps leading to that goal, then recruit the people necessary to help you reach it. Come away with a solid action plan, divide the work among your 5-7 team members and get started!
Once you have your core team and are committed to a cause, it is important to develop a mission statement- a short statement, describing your cause and overall vision. All words must be chosen carefully to fully describe your cause.
MISSION STATEMENT
Mobilize.org is an all-partisan network dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing, young people to increase our civic engagement and political participation.
Key words from mission statement:
- All-partisan: Mobilize.org is all-inclusive and invites all issues and parties to the table. We work across ideological barriers to represent our generation.
- Educating: Mobilize.org educates young people on issues and initiatives while providing training and resources to young activists.
- Empowering: Mobilize.org empowers youth to advocate on behalf of themselves and their peers in their local communities.
- Energizing: Mobilize.org is committed to keeping advocacy and civic education enticing for our generation. We spread passion and excitement through our peer-to-peer approach.
- Our civic engagement: Since the leaders of Mobilize.org are all under the age of 30 we are working to increase the civic engagement of ourselves and our peers.
Notice this statement does not outline the goals of the organization, discuss the history or go into any great detail. The mission statement gives an overview of a cause so people can see what your organization stands for or stands against. Once you develop a mission statement you can develop guiding principles, goals and objectives. If you are starting a Mobilizer Team in your community, feel free to use the Mobilize.org mission statement as your own; then develop individual goals for your local team.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
In addition to a mission statement, your team should create a set of guiding principles, values that your team follows. Coupled with the mission statement these form the backbone of your local team and set expectations of what is important to your team members. If an open-minded and friendly environment is important to you, make it one of your guiding principles. That way everyone who becomes affiliated with your team understands that your team upholds an open-minded and friendly environment. When expectations and standards are out on the table, they are more likely to be followed. Guiding principles allow your team to keep each other accountable and keep certain values at the center of your work.
Next: Join a Group or Start Your Own
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