June 27, 2014

Last Sunday, over 20 community members gathered together at Masjid Gibrael in San Gabriel Valley for an I Am Change workshop where they learned how to be active citizens. Led by Edina Lekovic, MPAC’s Director of Policy and Programming, and I Am Change L.A. Fellow Abeer Gaber, empowered the participants to understand the stages needed to create change, how to engage with elected officials, and how to talk about issues they care about.

“I Am Change” is an interactive three-hour civic leadership workshop MPAC created to empower American Muslims to advocate for issues and develop the necessary skills to become responsible and active citizens.

In the past, MPAC successfully held “I Am Change” workshops nationally in New York, California, Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland and Texas.

Lekovic gave the introduction and talked about how being an active citizen is an Islamic ideal and why we need to live to that ideal.

Gaber spoke of the tools available to build relationships with their respective representatives. She also talked about recent examples of success of civic engagement like the recently passed resolution for Muslim Heritage Month by the L.A. City Council.

Lekovic ended the program by talking about the importance of “I Am Change MPAC created this program to empower Muslim Americans all around the country to stand up and advocate for the issues we all care about, and strengthen your ability to do it effectively.

One of the audience members spoke of the need to encourage the current and next generation of community members to run for public office as a way to change the policies. Lekovic and Gaber encouraged him in this pursuit and highlighted to the audience that many famous leaders we know of today started out in very local positions and then they grew from there.

To learn more or schedule an I Am Change workshop in your community, contact Gaber at abeer@mpac.org.