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YOUNG ACTIVISTS LAUNCH "I AM NORM" CAMPAIGN
September 29, 2010
Teen-led effort promotes the idea that people of all abilities and backgrounds
should be fully included in school and community
SAN DIEGO, Calif.-September 30, 2010-I am Norm-a youth-led national inclusion campaign-officially launched today at the annual Kids Included Together Conference. Kristin Dougherty (Arizona), Nick Holzthum (New Hampshire), Jordan Taylor Moore (California), and Malia Rappaport (California) stood in front of hundreds of educators, each declaring, "I am Norm!" The campaign seeks to redefine what one means by saying someone is "normal." It suggests that because people have different interests, different ideas and different abilities, that in fact to be "different" is to be "normal."
Kristin, Malia, Jordan and Nick are among 20 youth who have collaborated over the past nine months to create this national campaign to promote the concept of inclusion among their peers. Inclusion is the idea that everyone-no matter their background or ability-should have an opportunity to fully participate, to belong.
The campaign features the website www.IamNorm.org, which enables people from around the globe to view and contribute to the viral I am Norm video campaign. The website also contains information about inclusion, resources, action steps and upcoming campaign events.
The 20 youth, aged 12-18, participated in a National Youth Inclusion Summit at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland in January of 2010. With pro bono advice from
Ann Saybolt, a marketing and communications specialist with APCO Worldwide, these middle and high school students spent 36 hours learning about self-advocacy and campaign strategy, and then developing two campaign ideas that might persuade their peers to be inclusive. They created two prototype public service announcements, a feat that Saybolt suggested "could take months for a business or non-profit to develop."
Since the summit, which was made possible with support from the National Inclusion Project, Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and the Including Samuel Project at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, the youth have been working over social media to test their message, refine their ideas, and create collateral materials.
"The campaign slogan I am Norm is designed to encourage people to challenge the norm, to redefine normal," says Kevin R. Webb, Director of the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, which is helping to support the initiative. "Kristin, Nick and the other young leaders worked tirelessly over the past spring and summer to think of a creative way to tell their friends about this idea of 'inclusion,'" Webb continued.
Impetus for the summit and ultimately the campaign came from the award-winning documentary Including Samuel. The film, which features filmmaker Dan Habib's son Samuel and five other people with disabilities, has since been broadcast on PBS nationwide and shown to thousands of groups around the world. In May 2009, Filmmaker Dan Habib convened a group of disability advocates and special education professionals to think of ways to use the film to promote inclusion. In the fall of 2009, a challenge was issued to young people in organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Girl Scouts of the USA: "Host a viewing party and discuss the film with your peers." Hundreds of youth took up the call. Of these, 20 youth with and without disabilities from around the country were selected to participate in the summit. Now these, young people are issuing their own call: "Join the I am Norm campaign and help us redefine normal!"
