The GLBT Center will host its third annual Week of Action from Monday, April 2 to Friday, April 6, 2018 with the theme “Finding Your Center, Expanding Your Circle.” The goal of this week is to help students, faculty and staff find a social justice issue they are passionate about, explore ways to address the challenges of that issue and then discover ways that issue intersects with other social justice issues.
The week will begin with a partnership with the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (www.nchrc.org). Join past and present Alternative Service Break teams who have partnered with similar organizations in San Francisco as they create harm reduction kits at the Harm Reduction Supply Packaging Event. Attendees of this event will learn about syringe exchange programs, opioid overdose prevention and other public health models while packaging safer sex supplies, naloxone kits and syringe exchange kits for distribution in the community. This service event will take place on Monday, April 2, 2018 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in Talley Student Union, Room 3222.
Another component of the Week of Action is Take Back the Night, a partnership with the Women’s Center. Take Back the Night (TBTN) is the earliest worldwide protest against sexual violence and violence against women, specifically. NC State’s TBTN march and rally reclaim the night and our campus for survivors of sexual assault. The outdoor portion of this event is continued with a survivor speak-out. Make your voice heard during Sexual Assault Awareness Month by joining the GLBT Center and Women’s Center as we Take Back the Night on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 starting at 5:00 p.m. in Stafford Commons.
The Week of Action also includes two educational workshops as part of the GLBT Advocate Program:
On Tuesday, April 3, 2018 from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in Talley Student Union, Room 3222, Preston Keith, GLBT Center assistant director, will present “Addressing Harassing Behavior.” In our work towards equity, it is our responsibility to address and confront harassing behavior as it arises. This two-hour workshop will explore the ways in which harassing behavior operates and how it often reinforces systems of oppression towards targeted groups. This workshop will also provide strategies to interrupt these behaviors as they persist within our society.
On Thursday, April 5, 2018 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. in Talley Student Union, Room 3222, Andy DeRoin, GLBT Center program coordinator, will present “Community Accountability.” There are many ways our society holds members accountable for harm, violence, abuse and discrimination, but are those methods equitable and healing? What does it look like to hold a community accountable for a systemic harm? How is that responsibility created, communicated and shared? This two-hour workshop will introduce participants to one model of community accountability and begin to explore the answers to these questions. Both of these workshops are open to NC State undergraduates, graduate students, staff, faculty and alumni as well as interested members of the local community.
The Week of Action features two interactive events:
On Thursday, April 5, 2018 from 4:00-5:30 p.m. in Talley Student Union, Room 3223, the GLBT Center and NCSU Libraries will provide a hands-on program titled, “News Literacy: Strengthening Your Inner Skeptic” that gives attendees the chance to practice discerning data, rhetoric and spin from different local and national news sources. This skill is the first step towards building awareness that leads to action in the realm of algorithms, social media bots and infographics.
The last event of the week is Feminist Friday’s “Finding Your Center, Expanding Your Circle: Intersectional Dialogue and Action” from 12:00-2:00 p.m. in Witherspoon Student Center, Room 356. The Campus Community Centers will bring together student leaders from each individual center to create a space for intersectional dialogue and action planning. Using the Culture Circles model from Paulo Freire, student leaders will explore their underlying theory and approach to social justice, engage in a political analysis of an intersectional case study, and end with developing action steps to create positive change. Please RSVP by Wednesday, April 4, 2018 by visiting go.ncsu.edu/weekofaction.
All week long, the GLBT Center will feature video blogs of students talking about how they became involved with a social justice issue and how that inspired them to advocate for other issues. If you are interested in recording a vlog, please contact Andy DeRoin at aederoin@ncsu.edu. Visit the GLBT Center’s Facebook page at to view the current vlogs.
Andy DeRoin is program coordinator in the GLBT Center.