Our Approach and Impact

We see a world where human rights education is ingrained into the fabric of all educators’ pedagogy and young people are empowered to become human rights defenders.

Our Approach: Speak Truth to Power Theory of Change

At the heart of our methodology are the stories of defenders from around the world — providing students with a unique entry point into understanding human rights issues. Speak Truth to Power’s ultimate goal is to help create a world where human rights education is the norm and where all young people identify as human rights defenders. In order to achieve this goal, Speak Truth to Power engages in three distinct ways:

Building Educator Capacity in human rights education via teacher trainings and resource development for educators all over the world;

Embedding Social-Emotional Learning strategically into the entire framework of human rights education and all STTP resources and trainings;

Taking Mindful Action via community organizing and advocacy trainings and workshops, all aligned to uphold the UDHR and achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Speak Truth to Power respects educators as professionals, and it allows us to use their framework in a way that incorporates human rights education into any curriculum we are teaching.”
—Educator from Indianapolis

Our Speak Truth to Power Impact Goals

  • We have created a wide array of resources, including a virtual field trip for students, digital lesson plans and activities, video vignettes of human rights defenders, and much more. To date, Speak Truth to Power content has been used by over 80,000 educators, reaching over 2 million students worldwide. We conduct training for educators; topics have included basic human rights education training, STTP resource familiarization trainings, integrating social emotional learning into human rights education, and implementing anti-racist pedagogy and practices in the classroom. To date, we have trained over 12,000 teachers.
  • Our music and video contests engaged more than 35,000 students nationwide.
  • “Speak Truth to Power: Voices From Beyond the Dark,” by award-winning playwright Ariel Dorfman, has been performed across more than 30 countries and translated into nine languages.
  • Our traveling photo exhibit featuring portraits of human rights defenders by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams has been displayed in four continents.
“Speak Truth to Power’ is who I am. It has given me the confidence to stand up for others. Seeing the real-life examples of those human rights defenders like Kailash Satyarthi, Ka Hsaw Wa, Muhammad Yunus, and Bobby made me want to join STTP and to be like them. ... I never knew I could be a ripple of hope.”
—STTP student from Long Island, New York

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