Case Study: National Own Your Story Initiative
Collaborating with three Black communities to create a future-facing narrative and to produce community-based media content that aligns with the desired narrative.
Locations:
Detroit, MI
Newark, NJ
New Orleans, LA
The Client
The TandemEd Own Your Story (OYS) initiative is a national, grassroots movement dedicated to capturing, celebrating and protecting the stories of Black people. The initiative works alongside local Black communities to spark dialogue as each community collectively constructs a forward-facing media campaign that authentically reflects the lives of its people.
The Work
Findlay House Global worked with TandemEd’s National Own Your Story team to provide engagement services in partnership with youth, families, residents, community leaders, local businesses and community-based organizations to capture stories of strength and resilience in order to produce community-driven media campaigns that reflected each community's rich history, highlighted present opportunities, and narrated a brighter future.
The Challenges
Ensuring that community members actively contribute to the decision-making process, at every level, and as much as possible.
Equipping OYS Youth Ambassadors from each community with the skills needed to conduct research and design a media campaign
Collaborating with community vendors to produce authentic graphics and visuals
Our solutions included a number of different service activities including:
writing the curriculum on research and media campaign design for the OYS Fellowship Academy
administering community surveys in partnership with local steering committees and OYS youth ambassadors
creating website landing pages for each local community with campaign information
facilitating a number of community-driven activities in each city, including: steering committee meetings, community surveys, focus groups, media content development workshops, and campaign-related events.
Launching social media campaigns in each city and attracted media attention to amplify the work and contributions of community members throughout the campaign.
Writing four (4) full-length reports.
A unique, community-specific brand identity for each local campaign:
Our team ensured that every opportunity for the community to be a part of the campaigns' decision-making process were maximized so that the resulting media campaigns were truly community-designed.
WBENC WBE Certified!
Findlay House Global is proud to announce that as of May 27th, 2022 it has officially been certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) as a women’s business enterprise (WBE).
WBENC Certification is considered the gold standard for certification because of its thorough process and is the most widely recognized and respected national certification for women-owned businesses in the U.S.
Liberty and GUNS for All!
BY DANIEL FINDLAY
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Liberty and GUNS for All!
On April 12th, 2022 Governor Brian Kemp (Republican, Georgia) signed Senate Bill 319, which in short, removes the requirement of a carry permit for Georgia residents over 21 years of age.
Instead of filing for a gun license or conceal carry permit, “SB 319 makes sure that law abiding Georgians, including our daughters and your family too, can protect themselves without having permission from your state government. The Constitution of the United States gives us that right, not the government,” declared Governor Kemp.
The signing of SB 319 makes Georgia the 25th “Constitutional Carry” State.
The issue of constitutional carry is as old as, well,… the constitution!
Brief History Lesson:
Roll out the overhead projector and clear plastic transparency paper.
At America’s genesis, the founding fathers, wanted citizens to be able to defend their property against intruders, theft, and those “damned lobster backs”! Thus, the second amendment to the Bill of Rights was conceived. It states that no government entity will infringe upon the rights of any “well regulated militia or the rights of the people to keep and bare arms.”
While the right to carry a firearm in the name of self defense is widely accepted as requisite, there are many who oppose the notion.
A group of Georgia Democrats condemned the SB 319 legislation, arguing that it puts more lives in danger.
Consider this:
In the age of mass shootings, is it wise to legally arm more people without any stipulation?
Are police more likely to assume that every civilian they encounter is armed?
Will SB 319 add to the already rising crime rate in the state of GA?
Is there a correlation between the rise of violent crime and the increased number of constitutional carry states? (Four states have adopted constitutional carry laws this year (2022) alone!)
Those in favor of constitutional carry argue that law abiding citizens should have the right to protect themselves against criminals wielding firearms. However noble, it is a sentiment that has been under scrutiny for quite some time. The debate over stricter gun laws has been a political pendulum.
In 2013, President Obama unveiled an unprecedented proposal to increase gun-control. The former president introduced a plan that would address four major areas in a sweeping legislative effort:
Law Enforcement
Availability of dangerous firearms and ammunition
School safety
Mental Health
The proposal was ridiculed and seemingly led to naught. Gun violence was still high and mass shootings continued at horrifying rates.
The National Rifle Association, or NRA, released a statement refuting the validity of the President’s proposal, calling him an “elitist hypocrite” and stating that “the administration continues to push failed solutions to our nations most pressing problems.”
Regardless of your political affiliation one must acknowledge that it’s dangerous to give a non-governmental body based on an affinity the ability to deliberate on national matters.
Guns are big business in America, and any attempt to control a citizen’s ability to own and possess firearms has historically been met with hostility.
Amidst the rhetoric, here’s what we can surmise, states nationwide are becoming less stringent on gun ownership and possession.
A decision that will prove harmful to some, helpful to others, and cautious for all!