Advocacy Month 2025 is here, and our time is now! The month is dedicated to empowering students in their civic leadership skills, providing them both autonomy and agency to create meaningful change, and amplify their power. With a variety of events happening throughout March, there will be ample opportunities to engage with pressing social issues, gain advocacy skills, and connect with local leaders working on the frontlines. Through these collaborative efforts with various partners, Advocacy Month will spark conversations, deepen understanding, and offer hands-on ways to get involved and advocate for the causes you most care about!
Berry IOP Fellow Marylou Sudders: Lessons from COVID-19
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
This session will provide a retrospective and prospective review of the most significant pandemic impacting the US and the world since the 1918 Influenza, including on the lives of residents in the US. Finally, the session will offer perspectives on the impact on our daily lives, including our emotional health.
Immigration Civic Dinner
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Please join us for an evening of food, networking, and learning from local advocates invested in advocating for immigration reform, protecting the rights of everyone within the United States, and supporting our community. They will also provide feedback on how students can be effective advocates for this important social issue and how we can all get involved.
Learn more and RSVP.
Advocacy Month Kick Off: Organizing for Our Time
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
The CCE welcomes Marisol Santiago, Director of Policy and Organizing for MassVOTE to campus. Marisol is a seasoned strategist and grassroots organizer with more than two decades of experience in organizing, issue-based campaigns, and electoral campaigns. During this keynote address we will learn how grassroots organizing is a powerful tool in advocacy and has been used in social movements throughout history. See first hand that this time has always been our time, and we have the power to create change now!
Learn more and RSVP.
Voices and Visibility: Mental Health in Our Communities
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Salem State鈥檚 Mental Health Political Advocacy Coalition is partnering with Boston-based non profit Mental Health Declassified, The Brotherhood, and BEES to facilitate a community conversation that discusses the stigma around mental health within BIPOC communities. Mental Health Declassified 鈥渁ims to create safe spaces within communities to break the stigma surrounding mental health & wellness.鈥 This event will feature a guided conversation that invites connection as well as an affirmation card creation activity that aims to empower all those in attendance.
Learn more and RSVP.
Information Session on the Scoville Fellowship
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Want to learn more about starting a career in peace and security issues in Washington DC? Come learn about the and what being a young professional in DC is like from current Scoville Fellow Marlena Broeker who works on nuclear weapons policy at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. The Scoville Fellowship works with 20+ advocacy groups and think tanks such as The Brookings Institution and Federation of American Scientists to kick-start its fellows鈥 careers while also creating mentorship and community for them in DC.
Learn more and RSVP.
Media Literacy & Digital Advocacy Jimmy Hills Skills Workshop
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Berry IOP Fellow Jimmy Hills will bring his experience of being a self-made talk show host and community advocate to discuss media literacy, and the intersection of digital media, advocacy, and lobbying to provide a helpful skills workshop for those interested.
Learn more and RSVP.
Queer Activism in the Cold War
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Join the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Professor Samuel Huneke for a discussion on the history and experiences of queer people and communities in Germany during the Cold War. Professor Huneke is an associate professor of history at George Mason University. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany and A Queer Theory of the State. His talk will chart Germany's remarkable evolution in matters of sexuality, highlighting the brutal persecution that gay men and other queer groups continued to experience in the decades after World War II, as well as their remarkable liberation efforts during the Cold War鈥檚 later decades in both democratic West Germany and communist East Germany.
Learn more and register.
Hunger Free Campus Bill Advocacy Day
Friday, March 7, 2025
Join us in participating in a briefing with champions of the Hunger Free Campus bill and lobbying our elected officials in supporting $2 million to be allocated in the fiscal year 2026 budget for the Hunger Free Campus Initiatives as well as support for the legislation.
The Hunger Free Campus Initiative allows the Department of Higher Education to support projects for eligible campuses including:
- Notifying students of eligibility for federal food assistance benefits (SNAP, WIC).
- Establishing on-campus EBT-SNAP vendors and meal- sharing programs.
- Funding for SNAP enrollment staff.
- Creating awareness and anti-stigma campaigns.
Relational Organizing and Understanding Power
Monday, March 10, 2025
In this workshop, attendees will discuss what it means to do relational organizing through deep relationships to bring people together around collective goals and will then discuss and practice the core of this approach, the one-to-one relational meeting. You will also learn skills in understanding and analyzing power as well as campaign dynamics.
Learn more and RSVP.
Across the Landscape: LGBTQ+ Rights in Massachusetts
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
The CCE welcomes Rayna Hill, Legislative and Policy Manager for the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ+ Youth. She will be sharing valuable information on lobbying elected officials, the protections in Massachusetts for LGBTQ+ folk, and opportunities for students to engage in advocacy.
Learn more and register.
The Art and Science of Effective Advocacy
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
A skill building workshop that will discuss the strategies and tactics of effective advocacy from three health care leaders with different orientations: legislative leadership; executive branch leadership; and grass-roots leadership. Together and individually, they have shaped important health care legislation that has been enacted and stalled.
Guest Speakers:
- Senator Cindy Friedman, Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing
- Amy Rosenthal, Executive Director, Health Care for All
Critical Media Literacy For Mental Health
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
It is undeniable that the media we consume and how we consume it has an impact on our mental and emotional wellbeing. But why? Join SSU鈥檚 own MC Campbell, LICSW, a therapist with over a decade of media organizing and advocacy experience, to learn how the basic structures of our media ecosystem 鈥 from ownership structure to profit motive to manipulative design and algorithmic content delivery 鈥 contribute to mental health issues for young people, and what we can do about it.
From the Streets to the Statehouse: Immigration Advocacy
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Students will engage in a conversation with a representative from MIRA (Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition) to discuss current legislative priorities that aim to serve and protect our local immigrant communities, highlighting the connection between advocacy that starts within our communities and change within higher places of power. Pizza, snacks, and beverages will be provided.
Learn more and register.
Bertolon School of Business Spring Speaker Series
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Lauren Jones, Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development will be coming to campus to speak to students. Secretary Jones will be interviewed by Bertolon School of Business Dean, Raminder Luther and will be sharing information about growth industries, employment and career opportunities for graduates.
Mental Health and Substance Use Civic Dinner
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Please join us for an evening of food, networking, and learning from local advocates invested in advocating for awareness about substance use and mental health. Leaders will share with us information about their organization, provide insight on resources and legislation about mental health and substance use, and share their current advocacy efforts. They will also provide feedback on how students can be effective advocates for this important social issue.
Learn more and RSVP.
SMART Girls Summit Volunteer Opportunity
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
We will be going to Girls Inc. of Lynn to volunteer at their Smart Girls Summit! Students can volunteer in 1-3 shifts, which you can select when RSVPing. We will be meeting outside Dunkin in Meier Hall prior to departure at 7:50 am (please arrive promptly), and making periodic trips back to the University to bring students back and forth. We will arrive back to campus at 1:50pm after the last shift. Any further questions or concerns can be directed to Caroline Scott via e-mail: stu_cscott@salemstate.edu.
Learn more and RSVP.