It's Time was a social media campaign that was created to combat violent extremism through creativity and education. We wanted to focus on shedding light on the ways violent extremism has affected the lives of refugees and Muslims. Creativity and education was a huge part of It's time. We wanted to find creative outlets that could be utilized to increase awareness and understanding. We also wanted to educate individuals on a variety of topics such as Islam, the refugee crisis, violent extremist groups, and how they utilize the web.
We believe it is time to cast aside fear, as well as negative stereotypes, and unite individuals to make a change.
The It's Time initiative was selected by the U.S. Department of State to present our campaign to a panel of senior leaders, which resulted in placing first in a global competition.
To promote events, posters were created that we hung around Rochester, NY and RIT's campus. The It's Time team put together an art gallery show that displayed art pieces that were inspired by refugee stories depicting a cause against violent extremism, such as support towards Muslim narratives , Islam, love, compassion, peace, and any other additional themes that reflect positivity of what the campaign stands for. We hosted a silent auction and raffle to raise money for the Karam Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that supports Refugees.
To inspire the silent majority to be agents of change through education and engagement in creative, grassroots initiative. Our post are mainly comprised of original content including photos, videos, infographics, and status updated, event shares and Buzzfeed Community posts. We wanted our post to be genuine, sharable, and look like native content. We encouraged the hashtag #EXOUT to show how easy it is to show support from wherever you may be.