Social Justice and Advocacy Digital Badge

Contact Information

The Social Justice and Advocacy badge is a competency badge offered through a collaboration of the Gender Institute for Teaching Advocacy (GITA) and the departments of Africana Studies (AAS) and Chicana/o Studies (CHS). Completing this badge demonstrates foundational knowledge in social justice and advocacy education learned through academic coursework and by attending a series of events offered by GITA, AAS, or CHS. Students learn to interrogate power, structural inequalities, and oppression in community and organizational settings, and to develop strategies toward transformation and social change.

Earning Criteria

Participants earning this badge are required to submit written works related to social justice and advocacy, including issues in community and organizational settings; attend three events sponsored by GITA, AAS, or CHS - including a performance, exhibit, keynote speech, invited or distinguished lecture, talk, panel discussion, film screening, or workshop; and submit a capstone essay, creative project, or reflection on community engagement activities.

Competencies Demonstrated

1. Identify issues that create systemic inequities in communities and organizations.
2. Develop a social justice and advocacy perspective using concepts from Ethnic and Gender Studies.
3. Discuss basic legal and ethical issues of advocacy work.
4. Analyze a specific social justice issue.
5. Demonstrate knowledge regarding social justice and advocacy issues.
6. Identify strategies to address social justice issues in community and organizational settings.
7. Recognize current social justice and advocacy issues in one’s community.
8. Illustrate how issues of social justice and advocacy may be addressed through performative, political, cultural, and/or other community events.
9. Describe how key Ethnic Studies and Gender Studies concepts address structural inequalities.
10. Apply social justice frameworks to analyzing systemic barriers and challenges in community and organizational settings.
11. Adapt principles of social justice towards various workplace and community settings.
12. Design strategies to address social justice issues in community and organizational settings.
13. Investigate and evaluate a specific issue related to social justice and advocacy in an original project.
14. Deliver a presentation for a public audience or engage with community members through 12 hours of volunteer activity.