Sound the Alarm!
June 30 - July 7
National Week of Action to Fight AIDS

Let Congress know that now is the time to take action by:

• Increasing funding for AIDS Housing
• Federally funding syringe exchange programs
• Increasing funding for global AIDS

Call Your Senator on July 7

Steps & Resources to Organize Your Own "Sound the Alarm" Protest

Ten pretty simple steps based on our own experience and some advice circulating on the internet.

1. Pick a location, date and time in your city or town. Let us know when and where so we can help advertise it. If your Senator has an office in your city, that's a good place. Otherwise a main street at an intersection with lots of traffic is good. You look bigger if there's a small space you can fill up.
 
2. Tell your friends, family, co-workers and everyone else you know about the protest. Contact local AIDS service organizations, housing organizations, syringe exchanges, recovery houses, immigration and global health groups, etc. Build an rsvp email list so that you can provide quick updates if something changes. Post your event on facebook (and link it to the Sound the Alarm cause and this website) so that the group can communicate with one another.
 
3. Make 5-10 signs with legible slogans that send a clear message to the public and the media. Write in BIG LETTERS.
 
4. Call your local talk radio hosts and ask them to announce the location, date and time on the air for a few days leading up to the protest. Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper announcing the protest. Email the bloggers in your area and ask them to post a notice about the protest.
 
5. Download a sample press release from this site and email, mail and fax copies to the local tv stations, radio stations and newspapers. Call the reporters that cover local events or politics and leave messages on their voice mail.
 
6. On the day of your protest, show up with your group, be loud, visible, happy and engage the public. Sound an alarm, air horn, street band, or whathaveyou every 9.5 minutes (representing a new HIV infection in the US) or every 6.5 seconds (representing a new HIV infection worldwide). If reporters interview you, give them some good sound bytes for their stories. Stay on message and keep your answers short and coherent.
 
7. Bring sign-in sheets to capture the names, emails and phone numbers of everyone who attends the protest and/or says that they support what you are doing. You will then have a big list of people that can plan the next, much bigger and louder, event. Also bring handouts with one page of quick facts about why you are protesting in the first place.
 
8. Add your pictures, video and an after-action report to the Sound the Alarm cause on facebook, and send this stuff to the bloggers and reporters that you originally contacted, and to us. Ask them to post the photos, story and video.
 
9. Thank everyone who attended via email and phone, and set up a meeting to plan your next event. Now you have a list of people in your community that can help make the next protest huge. Encourage everyone to commit to bring at least one friend to the next protest.
 
10. Organize a carpool and go find a friend in your neighboring town or county and help them organize a protest there. You and your people are now veterans and should be able to keep the momentum going around your area.

Email us if you have any questions or want some ideas for signs.

Good luck!