Merrimack College students are working together with Edventure Partners to spread the sense of community throughout our college.

Today, violent extremists are shaped by a variety of factors and local conditions. In the age of social media, those narratives are no longer confined by borders and may have international appeal. This challenge uses social media to push back against violent extremist narratives to provide a positive, alternative, or counter-narrative to all forms of violent extremism.

Through Peer to Peer, the U.S. government is working with university students to reach those individuals most susceptible to extremist messaging, as well as more general audiences and those who have the ability to make a difference.

The goal is to spread the #WeAreP2P message worldwide to bring attention to the program and help create synergy and momentum for your social or digital initiative, product, or tool. The hashtag will help unify content from all participating universities in the social media space and bring a collective voice to the efforts to push back against extremism.

As a class, we are working in different groups including research, social media, public relations, strategy, marketing, and finance. Each group is focusing on one aspect of the event in order to spread awareness about kindness and becoming united as a community.

For the campaign, “Warriors of Color” our target audience focuses on the silent majority here at Merrimack College. The silent majority can be defined as the greater body of the community who shares similar beliefs and supports the same idea. The age group we plan to target would be 18-23 years old. This population is not actively doing anything to oppose the message of hate, so our goal is to help change that and encourage positivity. The goal is to transition students to begin speaking out and getting involved with the "Warriors of Color" campaign even if it is simply sharing a hashtag, wearing a shirt, or a random act of kindness.

Our main goal as a class to help individuals realize that everyone has a purpose and plays an important role in the community by showing that they are not alone. Spreading kindness and becoming united as a community helps people to feel more connected.

Written by: Chris Coveney, Samantha Gervais, Amanda Gleason, Matthew Kelling, Tiana Kibbe