In his Social Policy and Programs course, adjunct professor and doctoral candidate Christopher (Chris) Collins worked with undergraduates on advocacy projects in the Tallahassee community.

“Students facilitated community-wide advocacy projects in support of local non-profits,” explained Chris. “They were tasked with identifying a piece of social policy legislation that impacted a marginalized community and to develop an advocacy campaign educating the public on the bills.”

Students selected legislative bills that the Florida Legislature was currently considering. The bills were related to race, gender, sexuality, and the criminal legal system.

One group of students in the class, Sabrina Maldonado, Ava Guarnaccia, Paige Dupree, Lili Vangilder and Annie Johansson (pictured below left to right), organized a tabling event at Landis Green on FSU’s main campus. The group encouraged fellow FSU students to register to vote and send letters to their representatives related to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill (House Bill 1557), a recently signed bill. “No student should be restricted of a voice or prevented from learning about important history and movements,” shared Sabrina Maldonado about why her group selected this bill for their project. This group successfully registered two new voters and helped more than fifteen students, faculty, and staff send letters to their representatives.

Another group of students proudly advocated for the importance of reproductive rights and access to sexual health resources. The students, including Conqualla Scott, Sydney Field, Rebecca Horn, Collin Colwell and Emily Shea (pictured below from left to right), collaborated with FSU’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action team and tabled the event on Landis Green. At the tabling, their team informed students, parents and faculty on FSU's campus about Florida House Bill 5, a stringent 15-week abortion ban recently signed into law. The students also provided contraceptives and engaged in open discussions on abortion legislation with people from various perspectives and ideologies.

A third student group developed a web-based toolkit for understanding the negative impacts of solitary confinement on incarcerated persons' mental health. These students included Addie Curtis, Chaela De Belen, Krystalynn Hudson and Hannah Raborn. In solidarity with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, they researched solitary confinement and widely distributed their toolkit to the FSU community. In less than a week, the group garnered more than 60 unique views on their page. Undergraduate Chaela De Belen hopes that the website will be “helpful for sustained advocacy,” which she sees as significant given that solitary confinement legislation “has been introduced in several past legislative sessions.”

The final group of students focused on Florida House Bill 7, commonly known as the “WOKE Bill.” The bill, which has negative implications on educational institutions and employers across Florida, limits conversation on accurate racial history and diversity and inclusion training in the workplace to eliminate the discussion of divisive concepts. The group, consisting of India Esguerra, Falone Hilaire, Tamara Sonera and Ariel Valdez, created a “Silence Breakers” student group to educate the community on the implications of HB 7 to celebrate diversity. The group participated in a tabling event hosted by several multicultural FSU student organizations on Landis Green. The group not only educated more than 60 peers but also distributed haircare products and other items to the FSU community.

“Project-based learning opportunities, such as these, are critical for training future social workers,” concluded Chris. “Every student worked tirelessly this semester to build coalitions with local and state-level agencies to make their projects successful. I’m proud of these hard-working students and excited to call them my colleagues in the future.”