THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!
From the 4th Annual Shorty Social Good Awards

Speak Truth to Power

Winner in Human Rights

Objectives

In an effort to ignite a national dialogue about what it means to be a 21st-century solution-seeker and human rights defender, Discovery Education and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights launched Speak Truth to Power. This powerful initiative aims to inspire global citizenry in students and teachers who stand ready to help prevent human rights abuses and violations.

The comprehensive educational suite contains standards-aligned digital resources, video vignettes, biographies and thought-provoking classroom activities to give educators the tools to educate, engage and inspire the next generation of human rights defenders.

Employing first-hand accounts of human rights violations and journeys to resolve them, Speak Truth to Power invites students to examine their own societies, whether that is their classroom, school, community, nation or world. Interactive videos and activities prompt students to put themselves in the shoes of someone who has successfully overcome a violation of their being, instilling a transformative sense of empathy in young adults. Students are then encouraged to create solutions for human rights issues they face, or see others face, by first having conversations. Speak Power to Truth drives home the power that students have in building a better world, so that classroom discussions can become actionable, real-world strategies for alleviating human rights violations.

Strategy and Execution

Human rights education builds awareness, empathy and understanding of the basic rights shared by all people. But that is only the beginning. Every day, people around the world have their rights violated—by invading armies, their own governments, their employers or even their families. Speak Truth to Power engages and empowers students, helping them to recognize and value their own power in making a difference, as they become the next generation of human rights defenders.

Speak Truth to Power offers immersive educational experiences and unique, multi-platform online learning tools including:

Together, the Speak Truth to Power program offerings provide a unique opportunity for students to experience human rights journeys—from violation to solution—and through awareness, discourse and advocacy, expand the circle of human rights defenders.

Results

Speak Power to Truth has so far reached more than 381,000 students in critical thinking about human rights violations and strategies for improvement. Educators have kicked off essential conversations about specific instances and individual journeys of human rights problem-solving, downloading more than 4,300 classroom activities and educator guides for presenting and discussing materials in the classroom.

Speak Truth to Power has begun 2019 with a total of 257,000 students taking initial steps to access and engage with the program since August 2018, and more than 124,000 tuning in for the live Virtual Field Trip debut in December 2018. As the program continues to gain traction in educational settings, Speak Truth to Power remains committed to developing constructive materials for students and teachers to explore past human rights journeys and develop preventative solutions going forward.

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Discovery Education, Discovery Education

Links

Entry Credits