If you had 2 minutes to tell the world what kind of future you want, what would you say?
Throughout
history, young people have been the drivers of change, often standing
up for what’s right in direct opposition to the established norm. From
organized struggles for democracy and civil liberties, to peaceful
protests calling for new economic ideals, youth voices have transformed
the socio-political landscape of the 21st century. Now, with the future
of life on Earth at stake, the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on
Sustainable Development calls out for young people across the world to
lead the charge – its time to make your date with
history! In June world leaders will gather to discuss some of the most
pressing problems we face at the Rio +20 Earth Summit and you can make
an impact at this historic moment, inspiring decisive and urgent action,
simply by telling the world what kind of future you want. It all starts with a powerful two-minute video speech.
Date With History is
a competition but it is also much more than that. This is an awareness
raising and engagement opportunity to tell new audiences about what is
happening at Rio and to reach out to schools, colleges, universities,
workplaces and communities and get them involved.
There are three main ways you as a young person can get involved :
1. Enter “Win A Date With History”
Enter
the competition online by uploading a video of your two-minute speech
and make sure you get your friends, family and contacts to vote for it.
The competition is completely open to anyone between the ages of 13 and
30 – and the website is in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. To
enter, simply visit www.datewithhistory.com and follow the simple steps to upload(different languages can be found at the top right of the webpage).
All
of the most popular videos will be used to influence decision-makers,
and the ultimate winner will be able to come to Brazil, fully accredited
with the Global Campaign for Climate Action (www.tcktcktck.org)
and have the chance to deliver their speech in person and be part of
events at the Rio +20 Earth Summit this June! What are you waiting for?
Get started today!
2. Apply to be a Judge for the contest
Entering
the competition not your thing and think you have a pretty good grasp
on what young people should be calling for at Rio. Then we need you!
We’re looking for our judging panel to have an overwhelming number of
clued up young people on it so we make sure we pick a winner who really
does speak with the voice of our generation. If you would like to be
part of this panel then just send a paragraph about yourself to
tcktcktck’s Youth Coordinator Anna Collins (anna.collins@tcktcktck.org) by April 5th.
3. Promote the contest far and wide
We
have a real chance to get a youth voice for Rio+20 into the public
domain as this competition will reach beyond our usual networks to a
wider selection of youth, we already have partners like MTV Act and MusicforRelief on board, but we need your help too!
If you can email the link to the competition (www.datewithhistory.com)
to your networks, members and any email lists where you think this
would have traction that would be greatly appreciated. Also, you can
Tweet about the competition (- Date With Historyhttp://bit.ly/ADBIRN)
or write a Facebook post promoting it. I have also attached the embed
codes for the widget which you can place on your website (please note
the whole code has to be copied across for the button to work properly –
let me know if you have any problems).
Toolkit
The toolkit will
also have additional materials and resources that can help you and
should you require any assistance with any of your promotion please do
contact me as there are staff at the Global Campaign for Climate Action
who can assist you with any marketing and promotion.