Finding a home base with Oxfam Action Corps

About the author: 
Sandrina da Cruz volunteered as a local advocacy leader with the Oxfam Action Corps in Philadelphia before accepting a UN position in Mongolia and shipping out again. Since then, she has lived in both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo for work with United Nations peacekeeping operations. During these assignments, she collaborated and engaged with Oxfam in varying capacities. She recently concluded work in Oxfam's US offices on Aid Effectiveness and Humanitarian Advocacy.


Flash back to 2008. I’d just gotten back to the United States after working in humanitarian development in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and I was anxious to continue doing meaningful work. A Google search introduced me to the Oxfam Action Corps. There was an Action Corps node in Philadelphia, where I lived. I was already familiar with Oxfam, from both my field work abroad and my upbringing in Europe. I simply couldn’t believe it - how convenient that I could volunteer with an organization that I really admire in my own city?  I am embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t realized that Oxfam had programming in the US.  I promptly contacted the co-leaders, who invited me to their next meeting to learn more about their activities.  Soon thereafter I gave a presentation about my recent field experiences at a screening of Sisters on the Planet. At this event, I had the chance to meet Oxfam America staffer Brian Rawson, the brains behind the Action Corps.  Brian’s story inspired me to keep working with the Action Corps and a few months later, I applied to be one of the next Philadelphia Action Corps co-leaders.

"To me, the Action Corps summarizes what Oxfam stands for: uniting people and strengthening local efforts while maximizing limited resources in the fight against hunger, poverty and social injustice." - Sandrina

My time with the Action Corps was extremely rewarding. I met wonderful and caring people, collaborated with a wide variety of organizations, and was consistently amazed at the power of active civic engagement. We met with public officials and visited congressional offices in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and DC. These experiences taught me the power of local advocacy. My friends became accustomed to Oxfam pins, fact sheets and t-shirts scattered about my house. Together we learned what a barracuda  was!* I enjoyed the team meetings where we brainstormed on creative ways to engage the community around the campaign - constantly searching for possible messaging opportunities, venues, and partnerships.  I was drawn to the Action Corps because of its organized structure - Oxfam staff provided targeted support adapted to the needs of the various teams, and made themselves available throughout. To me, the Action Corps summarizes what Oxfam stands for: uniting people and strengthening local efforts while maximizing limited resources in the fight against hunger, poverty and social injustice.

In addition to being rewarding, the work that Action Corps does is a lot of fun. I found it beneficial and fun for volunteers to engage in activities at events they enjoyed and felt most passionate about.  The concerts were always in such high demand that I didn’t do much tabling at those events.  When the Coldplay concert rolled around, it presented a massive opportunity to reach a much larger audience. We decided as a group who should participate and work the event.  The team almost rescinded its decision when I divulged that I actually didn’t know who Coldplay was! I will never forget the looks of utter amazement on their faces. After recovering from the shock, one of the volunteers (Carrie Leigh) made me CDs of their music to listen to for homework - of course, I fell in love with their music. We had a blast at the concert sharing Oxfam’s mission regarding climate change with concert goers and we got a LOT of petition signatures!

More recently, after graduating from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, I joined Oxfam America as an intern with the Aid Effectiveness and Humanitarian Advocacy teams. As I continue pursuing my personal and professional aspirations, I look forward to maintaining my partnership with Oxfam in its many creative and unpredictable forms!

* barracuda is a brand name, now synonymous with the retractable vertical banner used at Oxfam events.

What A Year!

Caption: Oxfam Action Corps organizers from 14 cities at annual national training in Washington DC, April 2015

By Liz Olson

Happy New Year, Oxfammers! It’s that time of year when it seems like everyone is making conscious lifestyle changes, ranging from the meager “drink less coffee” to the ambitious “abolish corporate greed.” The latter is my New Year’s Resolution, anyway…

It’s also a time to celebrate the accomplishments of the year past.  2015 has been an exciting year for all of the Action Corps cities, as evidenced by the impressive amount of work the co-leaders and volunteers have put in, and more importantly, the cumulative impact you all have made.

By The Numbers

Since our national training in April of 2015: 

• You held 120 tabling events, of which 72 were concert outreach outings, exposing Oxfam’s brand and message to a potential audience of at least one million two thousand people!! 
• You signed up more than 13,000 people for petition actions.
• You conducted 91 lobby visits to Congressional offices, counting 80 visits on the Food for Peace Reform Act (of which 54 were on Capitol Hill during our April lobby day) and 11 on the Global Food Security Act. 
• You made 21 visits to deliver 47,000 petition signatures to Congressional offices on the Green Climate Fund.
• You hosted more than 14 public events for World Food Day, reaching more than 500 attendees.
• You helped boost attendance for the Red Nose Day telethon which raised over $1 million dollars for Oxfam as the same for a dozen other worthy organizations.

Action and Impact: Highlights

Through the year you advocated for 3 critical reforms on which you made important headway, if not yet a victory:  

• You secured US funding for the global Green Climate Fund which successfully passed Congress in December; 
• You pushed for improvement of food aid through the Food for Peace Reform Act, winning cosponsorship from key Senators Durbin and Markey;  
• You sought to strengthen foreign aid’s impact on hunger and poverty through the Global Food Security Act.
• In addition, you raised thousands of dollars for relief efforts for Nepali earthquake survivors and Syrian refugees.

You conducted popular outreach to mobilize public support and help spread Oxfam’s message. Here are just a few of the ways you did it:

• Concert events such as hosting your very own Oxfam Jam benefit concert, in addition to tabling at shows by Lake Street Dive, Dirty Heads, Grateful Dead, Flogging Molly, Passion Pit, and Finding Fay
• World Food Day events in October including community dinners, Oxfam Hunger Banquets, and film screenings 
• Farmers Market outreach, community events and allied marches at green fests and food fests in collaboration with your local farm, food, and climate allied organizations
• Major events such as Global Citizen Festival in NYC, Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, and the Moral March on climate during the Pope’s visit to Washington DC.
• Local trainings for volunteers in your city, led by you!
• Fundraisers including online fundraising pages, silent auctions, fun runs, 

A Capstone Victory at Year's End

A major campaign initiative taken on by the Action Corps this year was the Green Climate Fund. As I’m sure you already know, the Green Climate Fund is a way for high-income countries (and others too) to financially support resilience and alternative energy projects for the lower-income countries that have been and will continue to be hit hardest by the effects of climate change. Oxfam and a coalition of organizations (including the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and many others) petitioned to get Congress to approve $500 million in 2016 as a first payment toward the $3 billion the US has pledged. Needless to say, it faced significant opposition from some quarters in Congress.

The coalition collected over 47,000 signatures by the end of November, and Oxfam Action Corps led on delivering them to Senate offices just before budget deliberations and COP21. Lo and behold, it worked!  On December 17th, the initial commitment of $500 million was approved by Congress as part of its omnibus budget package. 

This right here, folks, is why the Action Corps and our community of supporters are so crucial to advancing Oxfam’s mission (and saving the world in general). There’s no denying that the efforts of Oxfam, the Action Corps and other related organizations contributed to this win. It’s because of your hard work and passion that things are changing for the better. Give yourselves a pat on the back – you’ve earned it.

Thank You!

We at Oxfam America would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for the countless hours you’ve spent planning, petitioning, participating and perspiring. We know that many of the issues that Oxfam works on are deep-rooted in biased or unfair legislation, and that changing the political structure is critical to improving said issues. It may be a long haul, but you’ve pushed us forward in important ways in 2015. We can’t thank you all enough for dedicating so much time to mobilizing the public, meeting with politicians in person, and broadcasting our message to help further Oxfam’s mission and goals.

Of course, there’s always more work to be done. Let’s celebrate the amazing year we’ve just concluded, and reinvigorate for the new one just begun.