BE BETTER TOGETHER FOR 9/11

In 2009, President Barack Obama declared September 11th a national day of service and remembrance. Be Better Together for 9/11 is an opportunity for students on campuses around the country to join that call to action with a day of interfaith service and conversation. You might clean up a local park, spend the day on campus packing meals for a relief organization, or build a Habitat house in the community. Youll bring together students of different religious and non-religious identities to serve your community and reflect on what inspires each of you to make the world a better place. When so many people say religion can only divide us, you and other students on your campus and around the country will prove something different. On the 10th Anniversary of September 11th, 2001, lets Be Better Together. This event is a part of Interfaith Youth Cores Better Together Campaign of interfaith action on campuses across the country and is co-sponsored by several national student religious organizations.

ABOUT BETTER TOGETHER

Better Together is a national campaign of student leaders proving that people of all religious and non-religious traditions can be better by working together. By running Be Better Together for 9/11, you will motivate others to identify and voice the values from their diverse identities that inspire them to common action, engage with others in conversation about their values, and act together to improve the world. Your efforts and impact will be amplified through interfaith cooperation. Find out more at www.ifyc.org/bettertogether or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WeAreBetterTogether.

Reflect and Plan

Recruit a leadership team. Keep this team small (3-5 people) and makes sure everyone is ready to put in the effort. Consider people who are part of various student religious or ethical organizations (e.g., Muslim Students Association, Hillel, Secular Students Alliance, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship), and those who are personally affected by 9/11 or post-9/11 reactions. Start thinking about the kinds of service projects that matter to your campus and in your community and that would be appropriate for the day. Reach out to those already doing service work in the community, like your campus office of service learning, local schools, non-profits, or faith communities. Youll also want to pick a service project that will bring together people of all religious and non-religious perspectives. Depending on how many students you think will participate, you may even want to have projects at multiple sites. Select a partner organization that wants to work with you, will benefit from your service project, and can educate students about the impact they are making. If you are working with a new partner organization, build a relationship with them and work with them to identify a project that will be helpful. The first partner you approach may not say yes, so create a list of options and give yourself a little time to meet with a few.

Find out what else might already be happening on your campus to commemorate September 11th this year. If your campus will by busy that Sunday, consider planning your project sometime during the previous or following week. You might also consider collaborating with some of your campuss existing 9/11 programs. If your campus or students on your campus were impacted directly by 9/11, consider the specific needs your peers may have dealing with grief, pain, or fear related to the attacks. Consider turning to your campus chaplain or counseling center for support. Secure a starting location for the day, preferably on campus. Before beginning your event, take some time for students to reflect on 9/11 by offering a moment of silence, an area for students to post written thoughts, or some other mechanism to frame the day and remember lost lives, as well as the effect of that day on all Americans. Figure out transportation if your service work can take place on campus, make sure you have enough room for everyone to be involved. If it needs to happen off campus and its more than a short walk, look into reserving campus transportation to make it easy to participate. Construct a reflection board or wall with the following prompt (or something like it): What inspires you to Be Better Together? Have your team write up their own response as examples that explicitly name religious and non-religious values to get comments headed in the direction of voicing values.

Be Better Together
As people arrive give them a nametag, ask for their contact info if
you plan to do more interfaith work after the event, and remember to establish an appropriate tone. Encourage students to begin responding to the prompt What inspires you to Be Better Together? on your reflection board.

Kick off the event with a brief welcome and an acknowledge-

ment of the solemnity of your event. Consider a moment of silence, a brief story from your personal experience, why you think we are Better Together, and what it means to be serving together on the 10th anniversary of September 11th, 2001.

Set a safe space by asking participants to help create com-

munity guidelines. They might include Speak from an individual perspective and refrain from representing an entire community or Be respectful when others are speaking. Make sure survivors, children of victims, and Muslim students are given agency to express their thoughts and feelings. However, dont force them to do so.

Explain the plan for the day

Spread the word

Spread the word about your project with Facebook, email lists, posters, chalk, class announcements, co-sponsorship with other groups, etc. What youre doing is important. Let the campus and local newspapers know whats going on and reach out to relevant campus staff, faculty, even president (they can be a major help if you ask for it!). IFYC has tons of resources posters, flyers, stickers, stencils, buttons to help you promote your event, which will be available starting August 15, 2011. Find them at www.ifyc.org/bettertogether.

by inviting a representative from the service organization youll be working with to share about the work the students will be doing, why it matters, and how they can stay involved after the service day ends.

Get to work. If your service project takes place right on campus, have
students dive in. If its off campus, give instructions for transportation.

Facilitate reflection by encouraging students to continue

the conversation around being Better Together while they work. Make time for more intentional reflection, either at the service site or on campus at the end of the project, and consider including small group discussions of the following questions:

Conversation Questions:
1. Why did you choose to participate in this event? 2. Share a story about your experience on or after 9/11 and what have you personally done to forge relationships with those different from you. 3. Share something thats moved you to care about the service work youre doing today. 4. What is your religious or non-religious identity and what does your tradition say that speaks to why or how you should address the importance of todays service project? 5. Have you tried to live these ideas out? How? 6. Name one thing you think we could accomplish on [your service issue] if we all worked together, inspired by our different perspectives? 7. Why do you think the work that were doing today is particularly important in light of the 10th anniversary of September 11 th?

Share your experiences with your friends and with IFYC on Facebook. Join us at Facebook.com/WeAreBetterTogether and tag other posts with @ B e t t e r To g e t h e r . To get national recognition for your work, nominate your campus to win a Better Together Award in the Spring by telling IFYC about the change you catalyzed on campus.

Reflect on your impact as you close out the day,

sharing the impact of your work. Invite students to continue to write reflections on the reflection board, and find a prominent way to post it on campus after the event. Remind students to stay involved, both with your service partner and with future interfaith action events you might run as a part of your interfaith programs or the Better Together Campaign.

Share It
Now that youve run Be Better Together for 9/11, youve done more than just run a meaningful, impactful interfaith service day on your campus. Youre also a p a r t o f a n a t i o n a l m o v e m e n t o f i n t e r f a i t h c o o p e r a t i o n s o d o n t l o s e t h a t m o m e n t u m . You can f ind more ways to participate in the Better Together Campaign throughout the year: w w w. i f y c . o r g / b e t t e r t o g e t h e r.