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Do you ever feel confused or overwhelmed when you’re trying to decide on the best way to advocate veganism?
There are so many possible approaches to vegan advocacy, or change strategies, that trying to determine which are the most effective can be extremely challenging.
For example, should you:
- point out the contradictions in a person’s attitudes and behaviors when they say they care about animals but they aren’t vegan?
- always advocate dietary change, rather than other kinds of lifestyle changes?
- advocate to a person with politically conservative views the same way you would to a person with progressive views?
To make matters worse, different vegan advocates and organizations sometimes strongly disagree on which approaches are the most impactful. It can be difficult to know what or who to believe.
The good news is that it is possible to make informed, impactful choices about how to approach your advocacy.
When we’re advocating veganism, we’re advocating moral consistency, compassion, and health—values that most people share. Yet when we talk about veganism, many people respond negatively.
The good news is that it is possible to approach conversations about veganism in a productive way that increases the chances that people will hear your message the way that you intend it to be heard.
How this course can help you
This course is an engaging and immersive learning experience that will help you develop strategies for spreading the word about veganism as effectively as possible.
You’ll learn which approaches to vegan advocacy science has shown to truly be effective and which ones to avoid. You’ll develop the ability to assess the credibility of claims made by others about the approaches they recommend. And you’ll be equipped with a framework for evaluating the potential impact of any form of advocacy.
By learning the evidence-based approaches in this online course, you can significantly increase the effectiveness of your vegan advocacy.
What we’ll cover
- How to determine the credibility of information sources—such as other vegan advocates who are promoting a particular form of advocacy—and of their claims
- The key factors to consider when you’re trying to determine the validity of a change strategy. This part will help you make your own judgments about which change strategies are most likely to be effective.
- The change strategies that evidence has shown to be ineffective and counterproductive, since understanding the approaches that don’t work and why they’re problematic can help you better comprehend and use the methods that are more likely to be successful
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The change strategies that science has shown to be effective
You’ll benefit from taking this course if you are:
- A new vegan who is passionate about the cause but you need guidance on how to advocate veganism effectively
- A vegan or vegan advocate who finds that your conversations about veganism aren’t as productive as you’d like them to be
- An advocate with a vegan group or organization—whether you’re a leader, another team member, or a volunteer—and you want to increase your impact
Course Curriculum
- Video 3: How to Evaluate the Potential of Change Strategies (0:57)
- Video 4: Determine Whether The Source Is An Authority (1:41)
- Video 5: Determine Whether The Source Is Respected In Their Field (1:58)
- Video. 6: Determine Whether The Source is Providing Empirical Evidence for Their Claims or Acknowledging Why They Aren’t (3:39)
- Video 7: Determine Whether the Source’s Claim Is Logical (2:35)
- Video 8: Determine Whether the Source is Presenting Objective Information or Subjective Ideas (3:22)
- Video 9: Determine Whether Vested Interests May Be Driving the Source’s Claims (1:24)
- Video 16: Motivate (Rather Than Shame, Convince, or Persuade) (6:45)
- Video 17: Present an Issue as Nuanced (2:51)
- Video 18: Emphasize The Progress Made (2:05)
- Video 19: Ask for Small Changes First (3:50)
- Video 20: Vegan Incrementalism and Elimination: A Case Study (3:56)
- Video 21: Cultivate Positive Identity (3:08)
- Video 22: Trigger Positive, Not Negative, Self-Fulfilling Prophecies (1:44)
- Video. 23: Avoid Defining Other People’s Reality (3:21)
- Video 24: Highlight Shared Identities (2:49)
- Video 25: Use Person-Centered Language (1:56)
- Video 26: Frame Your Request for Change in the Positive (1:51)
- Video 27: Use Moral Reframing (4:16)
- Video 28: Highlight Social Norms (2:56)
- Video 29: Be Solution-Focused (1:44)
- Video 30: Invite People to Consider Their Legacy (1:54)
- Video 31: Next Steps and Final Reflections (1:15)
Your instructor
Dr. Melanie Joy
Dr. Melanie Joy is a psychologist, educator, international speaker, organizational consultant, and relationship coach. She is the author of six books, including the award-winning Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows; Beyond Beliefs: A Guide to Improving Relationships and Communication for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Meat Eaters; Getting Relationships Right; Strategic Action for Animals; and The Vegan Matrix. Melanie has developed and implemented advocacy trainings for over a decade, and she specializes in strategic vegan advocacy; effective communication; resilient teams and leadership; inclusivity and diversity; relational literacy; the psychology of social transformation; and sustainable advocacy. She is the eighth recipient of the Ahimsa Award—previously given to the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela—for her work on global nonviolence, and she is the founding president of Beyond Carnism.
What people are saying
"The skills gained in this course can be immediately applied to all types of advocacy in your life, from casual interactions with strangers to meaningful discussions with family. If you want to know how to get results with your vegan advocacy, then register for this course. Moreover, these skills can be applied to non-advocacy interpersonal communication too!”
—Jessika Ava, Grants Program Director, ProVeg International
“This course is the best resource I know of for vegans who want to be effective one-to-one advocates. It is firmly rooted in psychological science but is presented in an accessible and engaging way. Dr. Joy doesn't shy away from difficult topics, covering them with compassion, understanding, and empathy toward all animals—nonhuman and human alike. I highly recommend this course!”
—Dr. Jo Anderson, Research Director, Faunalytics
“The Effective Vegan Advocacy online course from CEVA is packed with tools to help vegans increase the impact of their outreach. The course will help you avoid getting stuck in unproductive conversations about veganism and increase the chances that you'll have healthy and productive discussions. I recommend it to anyone who wants to take their vegan advocacy to the next level.”
—Robbie Lockie, Co-founder, Plant Based News
Frequently Asked Questions
How much time will I need to dedicate to the course?
The course consists of 31 short videos, which take just over 2 hours and 45 minutes in total to watch. The time you’ll need to complete each learning activity will vary. Some activities can be completed in several minutes, while others may take up to an hour, depending on how much you’d like to engage with the material.
In order for you to get the most out of the course, we recommend that you pace yourself as you progress through the video content and allow time to fully engage with the reflection activities. The reflection activities are designed to deepen your understanding and also to help you consider what steps you might take to make your advocacy more impactful.
Throughout the course, we also recommend that you check out additional resources, so you might want to factor in some extra time for doing so.
Can I complete the course in my own time?
Yes. You can access the course anytime, anywhere, and work through it at your own pace.
Some people find that setting themselves a goal of completing the course within a certain time frame helps them stay on track, but we encourage you to pace yourself and give yourself time to fully process an exercise before moving on to the next video. This could take hours or even days.
Can I retake the course?
Yes. You will have lifetime access to the course.
Will I receive proof of having completed the course?
Yes. All participants who complete the course will receive a certificate issued by CEVA.
I’ve previously attended an in-person CEVA training. Will I still benefit from this course?
Yes. In fact, this course is newly developed, and the vast majority of the content has never been shared in an in-person CEVA training.
How is this course different from CEVA’s Effective Vegan Advocacy course?
While the objective of both courses is to support you to significantly increase the effectiveness of your vegan advocacy, each course has a distinct focus. In the Effective Vegan Advocacy course, we share practical tips and tools that you can apply to your advocacy in order to make your conversations about veganism more productive, helping you increase your impact. While the Science of Effective Vegan Advocacy course provides practical takeaways, too, it also provides you with a framework for determining the credibility of information sources so that you can make independent decisions about the validity of different approaches to advocacy. In addition, the course offers detailed explanations of the scientific research behind which interventions are most impactful, and it helps you understand which approaches are counterproductive.
What does CEVA mean by “effective”?
CEVA uses the term “effective” for two reasons. Effectiveness reflects our focus, and it informs which methods we recommend.
We focus primarily on results. This means, for instance, that we may advocate using messages other than “go vegan” if there is reason to believe that those messages will lead to swifter and more sustainable change (as long as these messages don’t reinforce other problems or forms of oppression). Furthermore, much of our focus is on process, not content. We are not simply promoting one strategy or another but rather encouraging advocates to ask questions and approach issues in a way that increases the chances that they will make effective decisions when promoting veganism—decisions that will do the most good. We seek to enhance strategic thinking, not simply to discuss which specific strategies may be most effective.
The methods we recommend are, whenever possible, based on empirical evidence, as well as on our experience as vegan advocates. Melanie Joy has extensively researched strategic methods for social change and authored books covering vegan strategy, effective communication, and social change. Furthermore, she holds a PhD in psychology and specializes in the psychology of social transformation and in relational literacy. She has consulted for vegan organizations around the world and has a strong track record of success.
How does CEVA try to ensure that its courses are appropriate for all cultures?
We recognize that our approach to advocating veganism inevitably reflects our worldviews, and we take measures to ensure that we’re not promoting methods that simply reflect our own norms or biases.
We have delivered in-person trainings around the world, working closely with members of vegan organizations in local communities who have provided us with feedback and guidance. We try to ensure that the research on which we base the methods we advocate is as culturally diverse as possible. And we have found that the vast majority of the issues we discuss and the challenges vegan advocates face are similar across cultures.
How does CEVA address inclusivity?
We are aware that systemic oppression and unexamined privilege—white, male, etc.—is a serious problem in the vegan movement and beyond, and that this problem both enables unethical practices and damages the effectiveness of the vegan movement. Melanie Joy has written a book on this issue, The Vegan Matrix: Understanding and Discussing Privilege Among Vegans to Build a More Inclusive and Empowered Movement. Furthermore, we are committed to ongoing development of our own self-awareness and education in this area, as we are aware that our own privileges influence how we perceive and relate to others.
I have another question. How can I contact you?
Get in touch at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to try to answer it!