Student Teams
ELCA Student Advocacy Teams
The ELCA is building student-led and organized advocacy teams established through ELCA campus ministries at state and private colleges, universities, and seminaries.
New teams can apply for an initial grant of $300 to help establish each student advocacy team. This money can be used to cover expenses to start the team (paying fees for forming a campus group, copying flyers to promote it, food for your first meeting, for example), to bring in speakers, fund events, or as seed money for a fundraiser to send your group to advocacy training events sponsored by the ELCA.
Lutheran student advocacy teams are encouraged to make the ONE Lutheran Campaign to end global poverty a priority of their advocacy efforts, along with other domestic and international social justice issues on which the ELCA advocacy offices may provide resources and information. Advocacy teams will work closely with the director for grassroots advocacy in the ELCA Washington Office.
Are you interested in being a team leader?
Team leaders are expected to:
- Go through the process of becoming a recognized student team/club/association on your campus, if such a process exists. Check with student life staff to find out how to do this. If a fee is necessary, the startup grant provided to your team can be used to pay this fee.
- Identify at least five other students to be part of the student advocacy team.
- Be creative with fund-raising and demonstrate initiative to pursue matching grants in order to help pay for travel expenses to send one or more team members to an ELCA-sponsored advocacy training event.
- E-mail the ELCA Washington Office once a month with updates on team activities.
- Manage accounts for grant money and scholarships.
- E-mail the ELCA Washington Office at the end of the year with a report on how the grant money was spent (if applicable).
- Identify or run a team election for the next student advocacy team leader when they graduate, go on internship, or step down, and send that person's name and contact information to the director for grassroots advocacy and communication before the end of the school year.
ELCA student advocacy teams are expected to:
- Focus its efforts on advocacy and encouraging others to be advocates.
- Sign up each member of the team for the ELCA e-Advocacy Network, and incorporate signups for the network into their broader campus activities.
- Make the ONE Lutheran Campaign the focus of its advocacy efforts, along with other domestic and international social justice issues on which the ELCA Washington Office may provide resources and information.
- Work, in close collaboration with the ELCA Washington Office, to advocate with representatives on the state and federal levels of the government about issues relating to hunger, world poverty and AIDS, and a wide variety of other domestic and international social justice issues. Teams should also seek to raise awareness on campus about these issues while promoting advocacy efforts related to them.
- Send at least one team member per year to an ELCA-sponsored advocacy training event. The $300 grant for your team may be used as seed money for fundraising efforts to send your leader and/or team to this event. Scholarships will also be available, but won't cover all expenses. You’re encouraged to be creative with fundraising and cost saving to send as many people as possible to this event.
- Encourage students to vote during election years -- without telling them how they should vote. (See the ELCA election packet for more details.)
Questions? Contact Jodi Deike.