Project Planning

Introduction

In 2007, Peace Action celebrates 50 years since it’s founding in 1957 as the Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy. Peace Action is a national nonprofit organization, powered by a grassroots network of activists engaged in education, advocacy, and community organizing to promote a just and peaceful foreign policy based on global cooperation, human rights and democracy, the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and federal budget priorities that build human security through social, racial, economic and environmental justice. For my project, I wish to highlight Peace Action’s 50-year history – and prospects for the future – in a multimedia presentation that can be used at the organization’s various commemorative events planned for this spring and fall. The 5-7 minute presentation will combine text, photos, graphics, music, and very short video clips of interviews to document 5 decades of the organization’s leadership in the evolving U.S. peace and justice movements, with an emphasis on local events, individuals, and community groups, as I hope to present the first version of the presentation at the Massachusetts Peace Action 50th Anniversary Celebration at the end of April. The final product will also include links to a “Call to Action” that will feature ways viewers can get involved in supporting Peace Action’s ongoing work and current campaigns. The product will also be designed to build organizational capacity as a tool for presenting funders, donors and prospective members a compelling presentation of Peace Action as an organization worth joining, supporting and sustaining into the future.

Main Idea/Theme

The main idea for this project is that it will celebrate and document the organization’s past actions and accomplishments, while conveying a sense of the organization’s continued effectiveness, relevance, and purpose as we look to the future, grounded in today’s current political moment, in which work for peace is particularly challenging and desperately needed. It is meant to be both an inspiring and educational piece that will build a sense of shared community amongst those who view it. The theme that will run throughout the presentation will be based on Peace Action’s long-range strategy of building “Real Security through Global Cooperation, Human Rights and Democracy, and Nuclear Abolition”, which is also the framework around which our programs and campaigns are structured. Images will document activists’ participation in demonstrations, rallies, marches, cultural events, political actions, and educational conferences addressing issues related to this theme. Text will identify key people and events in historical context, and will make references to the issues and values that drive the organization’s mission. Stylistically, the project will use fonts and color schemes consistent with the organizations’ websites, publications and existing branding (logos, etc.), specifically a lot of blue and orange hues.

Elements of the Project

The project will include photographs of the organization in action across the last five decades, complemented, when needed, by text captions/descriptions/transitions, accompanied by music, and occasionally punctuated by footage of key players (board members, past organizers, current staff, notables) speaking briefly in interviews about the organization’s role in building grassroots movements for a more just and peaceful world, as well as the interviewees own personal experiences with the organization. The first priority is to create a presentation that will be shown to an audience of ~150 folks attending Massachusetts Peace Action’s 50th Anniversary Celebration this spring, but eventually other elements will be added for viewers accessing the presentation individually, via the web or on a DVD. These other elements will include links to websites and access to documents and information that will further the viewers’ active involvement in and support for the organization – i.e. petitions, membership forms, etc.

Final presentation (Web, CD, DVD, etc.)

Initially, the main feature (a 5-7 minute presentation) will be saved on a DVD and projected onto a screen at an event, but as the project evolves, it will also be available on a DVD to be distributed to individual users and the presentation will be accessible on the web on the organization’s websites.

Project Flowchart
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