Meaningful Movement

Amnesty International Australia

Capturing the Intersection of Human Rights & Artistic Expression

Meaningful Movement was a program I conceptualized, designed and spearheaded at Amnesty International Australia’s Headquarters in 2017. Monthly experiential events captured the intersection between art, community and human rights campaigns. I built and lead a team of 15 volunteers to execute each event and established partnerships with local artists and businesses, mobilizing everyone around the idea.

 

Amnesty International Meaningful Movement: A Night to Unite

Continue onwards for a more in depth breakdown

I have been a musician for my entire life. I have felt and seen live music and art’s ability to move its spectators, to lend them another perspective of the world or simply validate their own. I knew there was an intersection between this poignant experience and human rights. 

I was living in Sydney and studying social entrepreneurship & business. I attended an event at Amnesty Australia HQ, to learn about how Amnesty is organized and understand what they were hoping to achieve. As I walked out of the session, I saw people gathered in the next room, sitting on the office floor. Meaningful Movies was a group of 5-10 who gathered monthly to watch & discuss relevant documentaries. I left with an idea forming. 

I bugged the Meaningful Movies founder to go to coffee with me so I could pick his brain and gain his support, and subsequently, moved to the Amnesty HQ management. I pitched them Meaningful Movement, with its 3 pronged approach to organizing a program around hosting campaign specific events to 1 heighten awareness, 2 raise money, and 3 sign petitions while celebrating the local human rights community and elevating local artists with Amnesty’s broad international platform. It was multi-dimensional with space to grow and change while still fitting within a box. It checked the following boxes:

  • The Amnesty HQ was looking for a way to engage it’s younger audience beyond citywide protests and other HQ based events that raised $ & petition numbers.

  • The younger audience was looking for something competitive to the fresh & exciting events that comprised their university experience

  • The human rights community is constantly reminded of the atrocities that plague today’s world, but rarely able to meet those who experience them and rarely reminded of the bright spots, the wins, the beauty and the joys that exist within fighting for human rights

  • Local community cares about making the world a better place and is willing to contribute their skillsets for an impactful night, especially when attached to an international non-profits name

The Key Components

Improvements

There are always things to reflect and improve upon. At 21, I didn’t understand the value of impact measurement or successor preparation yet. Two major learnings include:

  1. Identifying goals, creating a strategy and evaluation method to measure how we performed so we can adjust in future. I measured # attendees, # money raised and # petition signatures for each event, rather than identifying a long-term goal and reaching for it.

  2. This encompassed a 5-month period between pitching the idea and leaving Australia to finish my degree in Boston and begin my work for Superbrew. In retrospect, I would have set up periodical check ins and made myself more available to the team to create a space for more support after I departed.

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