The My New neighbour campaign is a grassroots campaign driven by an organising strategy that relies on people taking the power back and leading the change from within their own communities. To do this we need activists ready and willing to get out and take the campaign to their neighbours, their workplace, their sporting clubs and ultimately their councils. By driving this community-led solution we can demonstrate to our political leaders the need for alternative solutions and pathways for refugees.
So, how are we going to achieve this vision?
In come a group of experienced activists ready and willing to champion and lead the campaign in their state. Claire Birch in Western Australia, Margherita Mezzasoma in Victoria, Jill Thomsen in the Australian Capital Territory, Elijah Winters in South Australia, Rebecca Buttenshaw in Queensland and Kathleen Herbert and Marco Stojanovik in New South Wales.
These activist campaign leads have been working with their community organiser for the last couple of months to draft regional plans and have spent last weekend coming together in Sydney to finesse them. They have spent this weekend developing a solid understanding of the campaign strategy and how to roll it out in your region. How to map targets and how to influence them. How to champion media and make it central and embedded in My New Neighbour work and how to use mobilisation tools and understand how different tools and tactics can reach and influence different audiences. Now they are ready to come back to your regions and work with all of you working on the campaign to make sure we can have the success we want and need to see, to build the spirit of welcome for refugees.
Here’s some of what they had to say:
