Name ____________________________

TAKE ACTION!
Philadelphia Petition Project
The goal of this project is for you to explore how local government works by trying to make a change in your community. Pairs of students will develop a petition
targeted towards local government leaders. Once youve started your petition,
you will be responsible for getting signatures and contacting the local government institution with your demands.

1.Issue, Target, Demand | Due Tuesday, March 1

A. Pick an Issue related to City services that you believe needs to be changed. You
and your partner should both have brainstormed based on the list of city services
and discussion in class. Please check with me once youve decided your issue.
Pick an Issue:
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

B. Pick a Target who can make this change

Examples: Mayor, City Council, SEPTA, CCP, School District of Philadelphia, Water
Department, Philadelphia Housing Authority, other local government agency
Target and Contact Information:
Department or Oce_______________________________________________________
Contact # __________________________________

C. Demand: Develop a very specific statement that identifies what you want
people to support. It should be precise, concise, and informative.
Weak: We support more funding for a park. This sentence is far too general.
What kind of park? How much funding?
Strong: We demand that the City Council allocate funds for a new park in Kensington. The exact details are clearly written in this sentence.

Demand:
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

2. FACTS
Find 3 facts related to your case that will help you make an argument
1._________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2._________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3._________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

3. NARRATIVE | Write a short narrative about why your

issue is important. Explain how this change will impact you, your family, or your
community. Please check with me once youve completed this step.
A. Demand (1 sentence):
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

B. How will this change impact you (2 sentences)

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

C. How will this change impact your family (2 sentences):

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

D. How will this change your community (2 sentences):

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Include your three facts (3 sentences):
1._________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
2._________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
3._________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

4. Create Petition
A. Once you have completed your narrative in Step 3, you are ready to launch
your petition.
1. Go to change.org and Click Start a Petition
2. Use your work in Steps 1-4 to fill out the four major steps
3. Use your Demand as the Title
4. Use your Narrative under Explain the problem you want to solve.
5. Create a Log-in based with your email address (Remember this info!)
B. You are required to create an online petition, but you can also create a paper
petition by putting your content into a word document. This is optional, but
strongly recommended so you can get additional signatures.

5. Spread the Word

Share this Petition will you classmates, family, community, and strangers!
You need to get at least 50 signatures by March 15 to pass!
The petition with the highest number of signatures will get the highest grade
under the rubric.

6. Contact the Oce

Once youve got to at least 50 signatures, you need to call the oce to let them
know what the people demand.
Oce:____________________________
Number: __________________________
Person Spoken With: ______

1 or 0

Purpose

-Identifies an
important issue
and supports with
two or more well
thought out
reasons
-Asks Government
leader to take a
specific action

-Identifies an
important issue
and supports with
two or more well
thought out
reasons
-Asks a
Government
leader to take
some kind of
action

-Identifies an issue
and makes an
argument, the
reasons are not
specific
-Asks a
representative to
do something
vague

-May have an
issue, but does not
give reasons why it
is important
-Makes
unconnected
points

Style

-No grammar and

spelling mistakes
-Uses formal yet
friendly language

-Few grammar and

spelling mistakes
-Uses friendly
language but not
always formal

-Major grammar
and spelling
mistakes
-Not written in
formal language

-Serious grammar
and spelling
mistakes which
make it illegible
-Not written in
formal language

Content

Petition has
completed all
steps 1-5 and has
a printed and
online version

-Petition contains
most of the
aspects from the
outline and may or
may not have a
print and online
version

-Petition is missing
key parts from 1-6

-Missing nearly all

of the major
contents

Signatures

Group has
received a high
number of
signatures from
peers and
community
members

Group has clearly

worked to get
signatures from
peers and
community
members

Group has only

had the minimal
number of
signatures

Group has fewer

than 50 signatures.

Grade

D or F

_____________________Response:
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
RUBRIC- This is worth a Test Grade!