As a State Advocacy Lead, you will connect to influential grasstops and grassroots leaders in your state, plan local advocacy strategy, write op-eds, lobby locally, and mobilize people in your state to take urgent actions.

State Advocacy Leads are among STAND’s highest-level activists, and are responsible for doing the following through the school year:

• Writing op-eds and letters to the editor for campus and local newspapers;
• Contributing to STAND’s research on conflict zones, legislation, and advocacy strategies
• Lobbying locally once per semester (we will provide you with materials and training!);
• Hosting local educational and fundraising events; and
• Mobilizing people in your area to take urgent actions.

For all of the above, we will provide you with written toolkits, periodic webinars and remote skills-building opportunities, and peer mentors to help you improve upon your existing skills and build new skills. You’ll be in regular communication with members of STAND’s Managing Committee, and will be expected to attend 1-2 calls per month with other members of the STAND Leadership Team. You’ll be our eyes and ears on the ground in your state, helping form and strengthen local networks of individuals passionate about international human rights issues, with (of course!) a focus on genocide and mass atrocity prevention, and preventing identity-based violence in your own community. You should expect to spend about 3-6 hours per week on STAND-specific tasks.

If you have any specific interest in conflict areas–Burma, Yemen, etc–you are also welcome to join that Action Committee, which can help you get ideas on what types of events to host in your area, or campaigns to run on your campus. Additionally, if you have any individual interest in developing your skills in a certain area–for example, policy research, grassroots fundraising or state genocide education–then you are more than welcome to pursue this and we will help you design a plan for that area.