Service Learning Proposal For MVP (Mentors in Violence Prevention)
By: Emily Leiter
Raati Kumar
Racara Jackson
Jamie Crenshaw
Amanda Santos
Fadia Braktia
September 26, 2012
Meredith Tweed
WST 3015-0001

Community Partner Profile:
Community Partner: MVP (The Mentors in Violence Prevention)
Contact: Abigail Malick

Community Partner Mission Statement: “MVP provides the leadership necessary, within sport and beyond, to address the global issues of sexism – especially men’s violence against women. In our advocacy efforts and training programs, we educate, inspire and empower men & women to prevent, interrupt and respond to sexist abuse” (MVP).

MVP is an organization put together to bring awareness to sexual abuse. Motivate and educate students on prevention against violence on gender and bullying. Their goals are to inform students on violence accruing against men/women and help bring light to those everyday issues happening. Also, the organization will be challenging and developing their volunteers to inspire and inform others on potentially dangerous situation.


Political and/or Social Basis for Organization: ‘’MVP was founded in 1993 by Northeastern University for the Study of Sport in Society and the National Consortium for Academics & Sports. The multi-racial MVP Program was designed to train male college and high school student-athletes and other student leaders to use their status to speak out against rape, battering, sexual harassment, gay-bashing, and all forms of sexist abuse and violence’’ (MVP).

Still today many schools are using the MVP program to bring awareness to those issues. The program is influencing individual to have a voice and helps to prevent accruing situations. They have events protesting and informing student on sexual abuse, bullying, rape, violence’s, and gay-bashing. MVP allowing those who have or have not been victims stand up and fight to prevent these issues from happening.

The Proposal

The following is a proposal to outline the needs, rationale and feasibility for a service learning project to benefit Mentors in Violence Prevention. The following proposal contains background on the need for and benefits of a Community Outreach project, an outline of the work I plan to do, the rationale for its inclusion in WST 3015, and a scheduled timeline. This proposal may need to be revised after beginning the project and must be flexible to meet the needs of the both the Service Learning project and the community partner.

Need for volunteers for the Community Outreach Program

The Mentors in Violence Prevention program acts to prevent violence against women. Their main goal is to raise awareness of violence against women, and to educate everybody on ways to prevent such violence. Our community does not see domestic violence as being as serious and other forms of violence. MVP strives to make people understand that this violence is, in fact, preventable. Through different trainings, MVP achieves their goal of prevention by having volunteers look at the subject of domestic violence differently, not just as this taboo subject that nobody wants to address. It is MVP’s hope that through these trainings, participants will become inspired to be leaders in our community, when it comes to dealing with domestic violence and educating others about ways to prevent such violence.

Plan Proposal:

Throughout the semester, MVP will have various activities to raise awareness of men’s acts of violence against women. Some of these activities include screenings of victims’ documentaries, such as Telling Amy’s Story, at least once a month. Another activity in which MVP hopes to raise awareness of violence against women is through holding brown-bag lunches, in which people discuss attitudes toward abuse while having lunch together. During these lunches, participants will be talking about abuse in society with scenarios that people can relate to. To advertise these events, volunteers will create flyers and posters to be displayed around campus, advertise via social networks like Facebook. We will also be sponsoring a table in front of the Student Union, as well as making announcements in class inviting people to attend and support the organization. MVP will invite local community partners involved with domestic violence to attend the activities as well.

I will be part of a team of volunteers that will dedicate our time and effort into this organization, educating people about domestic violence, bullying, hazing, as well as its implications. By informing others, especially women, of our individual rights I can take part in making this community, state, and country domestic violence free and become better citizens.

Rationale for Women’s Studies

Action:
I didn't have a meeting with Abigail yet, but I'm contacting her and I will go to the MVP Training for Volunteers  on Monday october 1st, 2012.
Timeline:
 
The Service Learning Project will be completed approximately November 20, 2012. The dates that have been listed may change, due to other activities that might become available throughout the semester. Also the Social Media Blogs are continuous throughout the semester; there is no specified deadline as of now.
1. Invite people for the Brown Bag Lunch-In -October 3
2. Make flyers for Tell Amy’s Story -October 8
3. Social Media Advertising - October 12
4. Brown Bag lunch-In - October 17
5. Tell Amy’s Story - October 24
6. Invite people for Brown Bag Lunch - October 31
7. Brown Bag Lunch - November 14
8. Social Media Blogs - (no specified date)

Introductory Letter

I’m Fadia Braktia, I’m a Fulbright scholar from Algeria and I’m a teacher assistant in Arabic language in UCF. I have a master’s degree in translation Arabic, French and English.  Both my parents are feminists, so I have been raised in a family that believes in equality between man and woman. But, when I went out to the society I faced concepts and ideas that are contradictory to mine, concepts that worship man, and put him in a leading position and woman in a position of a passive follower. As I rejected those Ideas, and refused to say yes to men and just obey them, I was considered as an unfaithful rebellion.

In 2010, for my master’s degree thesis I translated three chapters from a book entitled “Feminism in Islam: social secular and religious convergences” by Margot Badran.  The book is a selection of the writer’s essays and articles about feminism in the Arab and Islamic world. Reading and translating the book made me more comfortable with myself, and made me understand that it is ok to say “no, I cannot accept that”.  It was the guiding book telling me that I’m in the right way, and I’m just following the path of all those women struggling and fighting for their rights.

The society and religion have the biggest influence on everyone’s understating to man and women behavior. Feminism in the Arab world is different from feminism in United States. We are still fighting The myths that run in the society about women’s weakness and in a need of protection from men (so if I protect you, I have the right to control you), women being too emotional and can’t rule (which declude women from the political sphere), and women being over-sexualized creatures and they cause chaos in the society, so to keep the order we have to control them, circumcise them, hide them and put the family honor on their bodies and chastity.

            I think that activism in the Arab world is in a contestant challenge with the religion and society. The Moroccan writer and activist Fatima Mernissi, in her book “the Political Harem”, challenged the religious scholars in women’s issues using Hadith (the Prophet’s sayings) to abolish all the believes that god asked women to obey men. The Egyptian writer Radwa Ashur (married to a Palestinian) fought to give her son the Egyptian nationality, because in civil status law only men have the right to give the nationality. In the same context the, feminist, writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi fought for women’s right to give their family names to the children they have out of marriage (illegal children as they call them). She also fought against female circumcision and rejected the idea of women responsible for the family honor, and of course they accused her to advocate corruption of morals and against the religion.      

As part of my experience at the United States, I want to know more about women’s history, fights and gains, see where they succeeded and where they failed and learn from their experience,  in a hope that one day,  I can make a change and help Arab women to get their freedom.

I’m Fadia Braktia, I’m a feminist and proud of it!