Advocacy Strategy Development for Ubuntu - Mobilizing Central Alberta

Ubuntu - Mobilizing Central Alberta is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering communities and fostering social change in the Red Deer area. The organization seeks to enhance its advocacy efforts to better engage with local stakeholders, influence policy, and raise awareness about its mission. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive advocacy plan that aligns with Ubuntu's objectives and leverages its existing resources. The project will involve researching effective advocacy strategies, identifying key stakeholders, and crafting a tailored plan that can be implemented by the organization. By applying classroom knowledge of communication, public relations, and strategic planning, learners will gain practical experience in developing a real-world advocacy strategy. - Analyze Ubuntu's current advocacy efforts and identify areas for improvement. - Research successful advocacy strategies used by similar non-profits. - Identify and prioritize key stakeholders and target audiences in Red Deer. - Develop a strategic advocacy plan that includes clear objectives, tactics, and timelines.

Cultural Event Centre Business Strategy Development

Ubuntu - Mobilizing Central Alberta is seeking a comprehensive business strategy for a small cultural event centre aimed at fostering community engagement and cultural appreciation. The centre will host various cultural events, workshops, and exhibitions, serving as a hub for local artists and cultural enthusiasts. The project involves analyzing the current market landscape, identifying potential target audiences, and developing strategies to attract and retain visitors. Learners will apply their knowledge of business strategy, marketing, and cultural studies to create a plan that aligns with the centre's mission of promoting cultural diversity and inclusion. The goal is to ensure the centre's sustainability and growth while enhancing its role as a cultural landmark in Central Alberta. Key tasks include: - Conducting a SWOT analysis of the cultural event centre. - Identifying key market trends and audience demographics. - Developing marketing and outreach strategies. - Proposing revenue generation and cost management plans. -Develop a strategy to attract and retain employees

Policy and Procedures Coordinator

The student's end goal for this project will be to develop organizational policies, assessing organizational risks, developing mitigation strategies, and writing new standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Project

The philosophy of Ubuntu guides us – “We are all connected. What affects one affects us all.” Mobilizing Central Alberta in creating justice and equality for all. To promote full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins. We’d like the students to help us identify where we can have an impact. Project: Ubuntu runs workshops with communities and organizations in Central Alberta that are looking at improving their commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. As a small organization, they provide initial guidance to support the group in developing an action plan. They would like support in developing follow up resources to help the groups develop their internal capacity to continue their efforts and work on achieving their action plans. A sample project for this partner may be a resource kit for a library to develop programming for different age and community groups to facilitate engagement with equity, diversity, and inclusion. It may include suggested reading lists, guiding questions, templates for buttons for participants, poster templates, etc.

Social Inequality Project

Create resource document to provide information quickly and effectively on prejudice and racism in rural areas in Alberta. Students will find, gather, and report on information from a variety of sources (academic sources and grey literature) and develop a workshop (and related materials) to inform relevant stakeholders about key research findings and considerations on this topic. The document will be used as a resource to assist addressing racism and prejudice by creating awareness and, ultimately, policy change. Although not limited to the following, students will: a)            Design workshop materials that focus on creating an awareness of and ways to address the social issue of prejudice and racism (consider target audience to be individuals in rural Alberta communities and in Alberta more generally) b)            Workshop materials will include key background and contextual information about the social issue. c)            Workshop materials will provide information on ways to promote (e.g., promising/best practices) equity and inclusion for BIPOC communities in order to address the social issue (e.g., policies, resources, initiatives, programs, strategies, educational materials). We have a vibrant BIPOC youth council and are asking that the youth co-chairs of this council contribute to developing the workshop.

Market Research

We want to better understand our target market and audience as well as the overall market so we can uniquely position ourselves within our industry. The research will include: Target market research Industry size and market potential Competitive landscape Strategic positioning of our brand

Financial Business Plan & Accounting

We are looking to launch a new business and would like to involve students in this exciting time as we works to develop a financial business plan. We can provide access to internal documentation other information as needed as well as access to key contacts. Based on our unique goals and constraints, we would like students to develop a strong, competitive financial business plan, which we can present to investors. The plan should include: Expense budget Income projections (conservative and aggressive) Assets and liabilities Break-even analysis Creating Quarterly Reports Complete vendor payments and controls expenses by receiving, processing, verifying, and reconciling invoices Maintains accounting ledgers by verifying and posting account transactions Maintains accurate digital records of all transactions and documents Supports Finance functions including but not limited to month-ends, budgets, and projects as needed

Central Alberta 40 Collective

Positions available: 6 (2 teams of 3) We want to expand our product offering with a new design. We need insights to help anticipate the ramp-up to commercialization and the best approach to go to market successfully with our new product. Initial questions to brainstorm include, but are not limited to: 1. How do we establish our brand: Build awareness, acquire customers, and defend any early success? We are looking to gain alternative perspectives on potential marketing tactics and better understand the market. Central Alberta 40 Collective: Highlighting equitable representation of 40 QT/BIWoC through an intersectional lens, inclusive of trans and nonbinary people to create “The Central Alberta 40 Collective Project”. The Central Alberta 40 Collective project will be reflected through three pillars. The impact of the project will amplify the voices of those often silenced in a way that cannot be ignored. To create a dialogue and discussion within our community in a shared space to address racism, sexism, ableism, and prejudice. Pillar 1 - CONNECT: Hold space (Café’s) for QT/BIWoC to connect, in meaningful ways in an inclusive environment. To unpack, learn, unlearn and express their thoughts on topics that directly affect their identity and wellbeing. To create organic conversations to become stakeholders on gender equitable issues through support and mobilization. Conversations will start with land connections and learning about the history of the land we are on Treaty 6 & 7 in solidarity with the Indigenous community partners. Pillar 2 - CREATE: Data and information collected from pillar one will be used to amplify the needs, wants and stories of the collective. In this phase we will empower their own stories and develop a digital campaign and educational exhibit presentations. To become mobilizers through speaking engagements and art. Pillar 3 - CULTIVATE: Using the collective knowledge from Pillar two we will share the voices of QT/BIWoC across Central Alberta through educational and advertising campaigns, public speaking, community engagements. The results will be shared with local decision makers to create accessible, equitable policies, to foster deeper conversations around gender equity and highlight the disparities in the systems in the services that directly affect diverse QT/BIWoC in Central Alberta. * Develop digital marketing strategy for the project by using inclusive language, tracking changes in supply and demand, identifying clients and monitoring the requests. * Plan and execute, SEO/SEM, database marketing, email, social media, and display advertising campaigns. * Designs, builds, and maintains our social media presence. * Contributes to marketing effectiveness by identifying short-term and long-range issues that must be addressed. * Measures and reports performance of all digital marketing campaigns and assesses against goals * Identifies trends and insights, and optimizes spend and performance based on the insights. * Brainstorms new and creative strategies through digital marketing for the project. * Plans, executes, and measures experiments and conversion tests. * Utilize strong analytical ability to evaluate clients experience across multiple channels and customer touch points. * Identifies critical conversion points and drop off points and optimizes user funnels. * Completes digital marketing requirements by scheduling and assigning and following up on work results. * Develops digital marketing providing information, educational opportunities, and experiential growth opportunities. * Developing a digital campaign, educational exhibit presentations, advertising campaigns. Creating the website.

Curriculum Designer

Positions available: 5 Curriculum Designer We regularly receive requests for anti-racism training and workshops. This project is to develop educational and training resources focused on both youth and adults. To respond to broad public demand for education focused on anti-racism. The focus of this project is to create relevant, updated and timely workshops on anti-racism. The students will develop a half-day workshop with an option to add module(s) tailored to specific interest(s). Such as Microaggressions, Allyship, Dinner Table Talk, Anti-Oppression. These workshops are intended to address understanding systemic racism, emotional impact, social relationships, diversity training and bias. The goal is to develop capacity for equity, offering a safe space for discussion and conversation about equity, race, and human rights, while simultaneously helping participants navigate differences, diversity, power relationships and conflict. This curriculum will be designed for an experiential learning environment. The project will include to create; participant materials including pre-workshop reading, in-workshop materials post workshop resources. Workshop Format workshop to be designed for a one half-day (4 hours) duration. 1. Small group format (up to 15 individuals) 2. Virtual delivery 5. Toolkit and resources Outline of the Workshop Modules Create an outline of the four modules in the workshop curriculum, Anti-Racism in a Canadian Context: 1. Critical Thinking “Ice-Breakers” (20 minutes) 2. Understanding Race (40 minutes) 3. Understanding Racism (40 minutes) 4. History of Racism in Canada (90 minutes) Colonization-Impact on Indigenous Peoples Japanese internment camps Anti-Black Racism Anti-Semitism Islamophobia (15 minutes) White Privilege (15 minutes) 5. Combatting Racism - Strategies (45 minutes) Allyship Microaggressions Anti-Oppression

Spoken Diaries; Youth Voices in Central Alberta

Positions available: 2-3 Words hold incredible power. This project will work with the local Ethno - Cultural and marginalized youth of Central Alberta to create short video diaries. Our youth will share their thoughts, experiences, concerns, knowledge and struggles during Covid-19. This project will measure the process of change pre – Covid to current world to post Covid. This project will be shared with the local communities for them to gain insight as the youth develop resiliency against external stresses like Covid-19. The aim of this project will empower our local youth as well to provide for them a platform allowing them the agency to share their daily experiences with other young people that will allow them to connect and create a digital community. This project with the approval of the young people will be shared with local community partners, school boards, health services and relevant civic organizations. This project will be youth led under the umbrella and support from Ubuntu – Mobilizing Central Alberta. We believe youth should be engaged and empowered to identify and address stressors in their community especially those who are part of the Ethno-Cultural community. What pandemic-related need in the community is this project meeting? To state that pandemics are stressful will be to minimize the effects of this catastrophe. Since the start of Covid - 19, the youth have been navigating through the uncertainties, they have been knowingly and unknowingly dealing with mental health, loss of everyday routine, not always being able to connect with their friends and missing their daily life activities such as sports and other activities. This project will be an outlet for the youth to share their thoughts, concerns and the changes they want to see in their community moving forward past Covid-19. This project will give them agency and a platform to share what they have been feeling to spread the message in their communities, and at the same time start a thread of shared message among youth in their community and circle. This project will capture a moment in history of their lives, which they have never before experienced. Ubuntu-Mobilizing Central Alberta will give them the platform and the opportunity to capture their thoughts in this moment. In addition, young people with special needs or those who are part of The LGBTQ21A+ were the most severely impacted during the pandemic and we want their voices, stories, and experiences to also be heard, amplified and supported. The videos will be intimate thereby, allowing the youth the freedom to be vulnerable and candidly share their thoughts. They won’t be censored and won’t have to confront the added stress of a live audience as only the speaker and the crew will be present. We also recognize the need for more ethno-cultural young people to see themselves and each other. To see their faces, hear their own voices, listen to their own stories and the shared experiences of their friends from Central Alberta will present them with the fact that they too matter. We see our project shaping the post-Covid future by the fact that we recognize the need to add our voice to the conversation. Being that Central Alberta is made up of mainly rural communities we want to continue shaping the future that we want. Not allowing the large cities of Calgary and Edmonton to speak on behalf of all of Alberta is a huge step. Digital media, print media, publications and other forms of media usually shape conversations around the voices of metropolitan youth but Covid-19 has shown us that our needs are not the same and they are not equal. Covid-19 had raised the voices of many who have been marginalized in Canada and it has allowed voices that were often silenced to find it within themselves to speak up for themselves and make demands. In the future we see the Ethno Cultural youth of Central Alberta continue to voice their demands and let it be known that they too have stories to share.

Central Alberta 40 Collective

Positions available: 6 (2 teams of 3) We want to expand our product offering with a new design. We need insights to help anticipate the ramp-up to commercialization and the best approach to go to market successfully with our new product. Initial questions to brainstorm include, but are not limited to: 1. How do we establish our brand: Build awareness, acquire customers, and defend any early success? We are looking to gain alternative perspectives on potential marketing tactics and better understand the market. Central Alberta 40 Collective: Highlighting equitable representation of 40 QT/BIWoC through an intersectional lens, inclusive of trans and nonbinary people to create “The Central Alberta 40 Collective Project”. The Central Alberta 40 Collective project will be reflected through three pillars. The impact of the project will amplify the voices of those often silenced in a way that cannot be ignored. To create a dialogue and discussion within our community in a shared space to address racism, sexism, ableism, and prejudice. Pillar 1 - CONNECT: Hold space (Café’s) for QT/BIWoC to connect, in meaningful ways in an inclusive environment. To unpack, learn, unlearn and express their thoughts on topics that directly affect their identity and wellbeing. To create organic conversations to become stakeholders on gender equitable issues through support and mobilization. Conversations will start with land connections and learning about the history of the land we are on Treaty 6 & 7 in solidarity with the Indigenous community partners. Pillar 2 - CREATE: Data and information collected from pillar one will be used to amplify the needs, wants and stories of the collective. In this phase we will empower their own stories and develop a digital campaign and educational exhibit presentations. To become mobilizers through speaking engagements and art. Pillar 3 - CULTIVATE: Using the collective knowledge from Pillar two we will share the voices of QT/BIWoC across Central Alberta through educational and advertising campaigns, public speaking, community engagements. The results will be shared with local decision makers to create accessible, equitable policies, to foster deeper conversations around gender equity and highlight the disparities in the systems in the services that directly affect diverse QT/BIWoC in Central Alberta. * Develop digital marketing strategy for the project by using inclusive language, tracking changes in supply and demand, identifying clients and monitoring the requests. * Plan and execute, SEO/SEM, database marketing, email, social media, and display advertising campaigns. * Designs, builds, and maintains our social media presence. * Contributes to marketing effectiveness by identifying short-term and long-range issues that must be addressed. * Measures and reports performance of all digital marketing campaigns and assesses against goals * Identifies trends and insights, and optimizes spend and performance based on the insights. * Brainstorms new and creative strategies through digital marketing for the project. * Plans, executes, and measures experiments and conversion tests. * Utilize strong analytical ability to evaluate clients experience across multiple channels and customer touch points. * Identifies critical conversion points and drop off points and optimizes user funnels. * Completes digital marketing requirements by scheduling and assigning and following up on work results. * Develops digital marketing providing information, educational opportunities, and experiential growth opportunities. * Developing a digital campaign, educational exhibit presentations, advertising campaigns. Creating the website.

Bookkeeping

The philosophy of Ubuntu guides us – “We are all connected. What affects one affects us all.” Mobilizing Central Alberta in creating justice and equality for all. To promote full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins. We would like students to help us using QuickBooks.