Stepanov 1

Alexandra Stepanov
ENC 3331
Dr. Rios
10 April 2015
Campaigning for Change
In an ideal utopian society, privilege would not be an issue because wed all have the same
amount of agency as humans. However, the ideal is not the reality. Given that certain populations
are privileged and others are unjustly treated, it is advantageous for the underprivileged to group
together and collectively form enough noise to be heard over the privilege of others. Thus, there
are organizations dedicated to social change for a particular group of people, which are
comprised of a collection of people from that particular group. In order for these groups to be
successful proponents of change, they need to define what they want as an organization and
layout what might be the best way to create this change. In this paper, I will compare three
different campaigns for social change that use different methods in order to find what is effective
for incorporating it into my own eventual model. The three campaigns I will compare are: the
Hope CommUnity Centers Citizenship Classes, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Campaign
for Fair Food, and Katie Mantheys Dress Profesh Tumblr site.
Hope CommUnity Center (HCC)
Hope CommUnity was started by three Roman Catholic nuns in order to help address
issues of illiteracy, lack of access to healthcare, farm workers, and the working poor (Hope
CommUnity Center (HCC), About). They strive to help tackle a lack and unequal distribution

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of resources with a focus on an immigrant community (HCC, About). The Hope CommUnity
Center believes that civic engagement is building community, taking action, and practicing
rhetorical listening (which is a stance of openness that a person may choose to assume in
relation to any person, text, or culture) (Ratcliffe, 1). To find evidence of these concepts at play
in the organization, we can examine their name, which is the clearest articulation of this. The
capitalization of the U and the emphasis on the unity shows the collaborative nature of the
center. The name Hope paired with why they formed implies that there is hope for changes to
occur. Putting Hope and Community together reflects their values, being that with a
community that has unity there is hope for changes in the issues deemed important by the
members of the center to happen.
HCC shows their commitment to taking action through citizenship classes. They made
the rhetorical decision to create and host classes, rather than just give a listing of classes
elsewhere to those in the community who asked. This decision allowed the center to take matters
into their own hands and become engaged as a community by actively helping their members
succeed in the areas they need to. On the website page for the classes, they advertise that HCC
is a Service Learning Community dedicated to the empowerment of Central Floridas
immigrant and working poor community through education, advocacy and spiritual growth
(HCC, Citizenship Preparation). Again, this shows that not only is the center promoting the idea
of an involved community being the prime method for social change, but they also practice it
themselves.
The model of service learning used by the HCC aligns with the critical model that Tania
Mitchell depicts in her article Traditional vs. Critical Service-Learning: Engaging the Literature
to Differentiate Two Models. A critical model is defined by Mitchell as programs [that]

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encourage students to see themselves as agents of social change, and use the experience of
service to address and respond to injustice in communities (51). A main component of the
model looks at addressing larger ideals and concerns rather than just the individual, which the
center does by emphasizing social issues within the immigrant community and offering stepping
stones to addressing the larger issues. This model seems to be successful given that there have
been positive results, seen by growth in the community. HCCs model promotes understanding of
the issues they fight for by putting them in practice themselves. Using those practices can help
spread them beyond the center because the members might model the behavior for others and
cause a domino effect. However, a limitation is that the forming, becoming a part of, and
maintaining participation in a community can be difficult and require effort.

Dress Profesh
Dress Profesh is a Tumblr blog run by Katie Manthey, a Ph.D. student at Michigan State
University (Manthey, About). Her stated goal with the blog is to create a gallery of
professional dress images that reveals the oppressive nature of professionalism (Manthey,
About). On her blog, there are pictures of herself in what she wears to work, which may
sometimes be at her home or at the university (Manthey, About). She includes submitted
pictures of others in professional clothing and articles of hers and other writers that reveal the
oppression behind professionalism (Manthey, About). Because she is simply making this
information public and asking people to potentially weigh in or show small signs of rebellion
against the system, her definition of civic engagement seems to be collecting data, making it
accessible for the public, beginning a conversation around a larger issue, and creating a definite
space for this conversation to happen.

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She creates social change through awareness of the problem. Awareness of the issue
alone is helpful. It starts this conversation. There is also the collection of data on all of the
specific ways professionalism is oppressive and how to take small steps against it. There is a
definite principle of rhetorical listening all over the blog. Manthey specifies four different
oppressive structures that exist in four communities of people and adds an etc. She is taking
into consideration several types of audiences and all of their concerns while giving ideas on how
to transform on a personal level the construct of professionalism into something that is more
accepting.
This model is effective in creating exigency, the beginnings of a conversation, and a safe
space for it to happen. However, awareness alone does not change the problem as a whole. Given
the potential consequences for making any change, I understand why this is only beginning of
the conversation. In the future, hopefully, there will be a manner to approach the situation
without serious consequences. I also see Manthey incorporating the principle that HCC uses of
setting an example to try and affect change.
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is another social change organization, comprised
mainly of farm workers involved in the issues that the coalition addresses, including fair wages
and modern day slavery (Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), About CIW). They
developed the Campaign for Fair Food in 2011, which seeks to create relationships with retail
buyers to produce fair wages and humane work conditions for tomato pickers (CIW, About
CIW).

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The campaign seeks to educate consumers on the issue of farm labor exploitation its
causes and solutions and forge alliances between farmworkers and consumers (CIW, 2012).
This shows that, much like HCC, the CIW define civic engagement through involvement. It also
conveys a divide between farmworkers and consumers by having to forge alliances between us
and them. That being said, there is no service provided and has much more of a social justice
aspect than what a traditional service learning model - a model that doesnt address the full
picture of power and privilege at play - would have (Mitchell, 54). They actively participate in
creating alliances with other farms and large corporations as well (CIW, Campaign for Fair
Food). Explicitly stated on their website, CIWs theory of social change is Consciousness +
Commitment = Change (CIW, 2012).
This model of service learning is effective in the sense that it creates more immediate
change. Concentrating on specific aspects of the larger issue is more productive in the sense that
the change is more immediate. However, though this model scratches the surface, it does not
fully uncover all of the issues with the larger structure. It only presents us with the problems that
are specific to tomato pickers of Florida. In my opinion, some things can be taken from HCCs
model. If the coalition kept its specificity and incorporated a place for a larger discussion and
examples of what the result of the discussion would look like, it may get work done while
removing the wall between us and them. As Mitchell mentions when discussing the
traditional model of service learning, service learning experience that does not pay attention to
those [larger] issues and concerns may involve students in the community in a way that
perpetuates inequality and reinforces an us-them dichotomy (51). I believe that the CIW can
integrate some of Mantheys ideas to help tear down barriers that have the potential to reinforce
oppression. Manthey presents her information in a manner that is including of all members in her

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potential Internet audience.
The CIW can present their
information in a manner that
sheds light on the outside
structures while they create
credibility through personal
story.

Conclusion
From the analysis I
have provided, I believe that
each of these campaigns
embodies one type of service
learning model. HCC shows
us a subtle critical model in
which volunteers are
included in the community and there is an effort to tear down power relations, but the structures
arent explicitly rebelled against. CIW takes on a more traditional approach in which students
help the farmers for particular means. Dress Profesh is a sort of hybrid, being that it makes its
audience aware of power relations and their relationship with professionalism, but doesnt take
that much action on the issue. Thus, service learning is minimized to learning without service.
Given the pros and cons outlined in the graphic above, I believe that my ideal service learning
model (that will hopefully be employed in the future) is a combination of all three. I think that

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making the public aware of the larger constructs at play in an explicit manner is useful and
productive because, not only does it give the audience the full picture and breaks privilege
barriers, but it may provide a more effective response. The larger structures apply to larger
populations, so rather than showing an audience a specific problem that only applies to a specific
population, it might help the problem resonate with more people, which can help the movement
gain traction and a booming voice. Community is key to making this model work since the work
being done is trying to tear down power relations and creating community in itself helps that
cause. Finally, action is the most obvious propellant of change. Hopefully, all of these will be
incorporated into my own model in the future and these campaigns will inform me in any service
learning decisions.

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Works Cited
Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Coalition of Immokalee Workers. N.p., 2012. Web. 30 March
2015.
Hope CommUnity Center. Hope CommUnity Center. WordPress, n.d. Web. 30 March 2015.
Manthey, Katie. Dress Profesh. Tumblr, 2015. Web. 30 March 2015.
Mitchell, Tania. Traditional vs. Critical Service-Learning: Engaging the Literature to
Differentiate Two Models. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. (2008):
50-65. Web. 30 March 2015.
Ratcliffe, Krista. Rhetorical Listening: A Trope for Interpretive Invention and a Code of CrossCultural Conduct. College Composition and Communication 51.2 (1999): 195-224.
Web. 30 March 2015.