The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Published 18 years ago
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Our Voices Together

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This is a national effort to recognise and reinforce the power of individuals to counter terrorism through positive, global action. Founded in the autumn of 2005 by families and friends of those impacted by the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States (US), Our Voices Together is a non-profit, non-partisan organisation using the internet as a platform to foster citizen diplomacy education, to facilitate a growing network of organisations and individuals providing hands-on services as a constructive civilian response to terrorism, and to help to empower Americans to respond to terrorism through global actions such as volunteering to build homes, hosting foreign students, engaging in interfaith service, and providing job skills, school supplies, and medical care around the world.
Communication Strategies

Central to this effort to reframe the public discussion about terrorism away from fear and toward actions that engage rather than disenfranchise communities, worldwide, is Our Voices Together's public education programme. Carried out in partnership with The League of Women Voters, this component of the project included town hall meetings held in universities and other locations across the United States which featured discussion on citizens' responses to terrorism and opportunities for immediate action. For example, participants learned about the efforts of families in the network who have worked to generate good from tragedy (while also creating living memorials to those whom they lost in the terrorist attacks) by building schools in Afghanistan, clinics in Uganda, homes in Latin America, and so on.

The Our Voices Together website offers various types of information and ways to take action. An online toolkit offers tips and resources for organising a forum through which citizens gather to brainstorm about how to counter, and respond to, terrorism. In an effort to keep the conversation going, organisers have developed online resources, questions that citizens can print out in preparation for talking with local and national candidates about what they think about citizens' role in counterterrorism, and a statement through which people in the US pledge to act as global citizens who recognise and act on moral obligations to the global community. One example of a component of this action centre is a call to urge Congress to enact a Global Service Fellowship Program that would make international volunteering opportunities available to more Americans. The fellowships would be available to talented individuals who may wish to volunteer abroad but face economic constraints. Organisers also seek to connect individuals with the mass media; one page on the website reads: "Write to your local newspaper about powerful, positive responses to terrorism. Ask Cecilia to help you get it published!"

Development Issues

Conflict.

Sources

Our Voices Together website.