95743 Chap.12 Designing a Community Advocacy Event
Designing a Community Advocacy Event
The scenario
Working as a group of about four or five, you play a community advocacy organisation that plans an event for a specific community and pitches it to a board or funding body.
The event must be culturally responsive, inclusive and appropriate, and it can take many forms, from a health fair to a protest or a mobile testing service.
The pitch
Ten minutes of presentation follow a set sequence: who the community is, what the issue is, what you propose, why it is culturally appropriate and why it deserves funding.
Five minutes of questions follow, in which the tutor tests your decisions and evidence.
The rubric and the rules
Context carries 15 of the 30 points, the cultural event 10 and presentation skills 5. Handouts with speaker notes are due at the end of Week 11 in PDF or Word format, and every member must attend the Week 12 workshop.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Choosing a community and issue
- 02
Purpose and objectives of the event
- 03
Culturally responsive engagement
- 04
Promotion and communication
- 05
Inclusion, accessibility and cultural safety
- 06
Measuring success
- 07
The five-step pitch
- 08
Rubric weights and handout rules
Worked example · free
Order a group's draft slides into the five-step pitch sequence
- 1Open with the community: slide 5 describes who the community is.
- 1Next the issue: slide 3 shows why diabetes matters for this community.
- 1Then the proposal and its cultural fit: slide 4 shows the event and the co-planning that makes it appropriate; slide 2 adds little unless it shows past engagement.
- 1Close with the funding case: slide 1, plus a missing slide on how success will be measured.
Key terms
- Advocacy Event
- An organised activity, such as a fair, forum or campaign, designed to raise a community's voice or meet its needs on an issue.
- Cultural Safety
- Conditions in which people from a community feel respected and able to take part without facing discrimination.
- Speaker Notes
- The written script beneath each slide, which must be visible in the submitted handout.
- Funding Case
- The final part of a pitch, explaining why a board should approve and pay for the proposed event.
Designing a Community Advocacy Event FAQ
What counts as a suitable event?
The brief gives examples: a health or awareness fair, a fundraiser or walkathon, workshops or forums, an awareness or advocacy campaign, a protest or mobilisation, or an outreach service such as mobile testing. The test is whether it suits the community and meets your stated objectives.
Do we need to interview community members?
No. Conversations with community members or stakeholders can strengthen the proposal where appropriate, but the brief says they are not required. Evidence from academic literature, demographic information, policy documents and other credible sources is expected.
What happens if a group member is absent on the day?
The brief says every member must be present at the Week 12 workshop, and any student absent from the presentations is penalised unless an application for special consideration supports the absence.
How do we make sure everyone gets the same mark?
Join your pre-labelled group in the People tab on Canvas. The announcements stress this step so that the mark is applied to every member of the group.
How should we show that the event is culturally appropriate?
Show that the community helped plan it, that it uses languages, venues, times and messengers the community trusts, and that you checked for exclusion and stereotypes. Linking these choices to models from the subject, such as PEN-3 or the DMIS, gives the board a reason to believe them.
Assessment move
Agree the community and issue early and post your topic on the Canvas discussion board, then research the community before designing the event. Map every slide to one of the five pitch questions and to a rubric criterion, spending most effort on context. Rehearse with a timer and a mock board asking the guiding questions.
Ask Sia to play a sceptical board member and question your evidence; it helps you prepare answers without doing the group's work. Divide the research early so each member owns one part of the evidence, then meet to check that the five steps tell one connected story. Keep one shared document of sources so the reference slide is ready on time.
