We developed the WELCOME TO CHECHNYA impact campaign with the input of activists and advocates working in Russia and elsewhere to bring an end to the anti-LGBTQ pogrom in Chechnya and to human rights abuses against LGBTQ people worldwide.
LGBTQ people are still at risk of harm in Chechnya — and around the world — but the film was successful in moving the needle in a number of ways: generating resources, access to decision makers, and platforms to share testimony for activists and survivors; amplifying the calls for accountability and justice from audience members, activists, and policy makers; creating greater political will for economic sanctions against the perpetrators; and motivating citizen activists to step up in the face of anti-LGBTQ policy and sentiment everywhere.
The work is by no means over. We hope that activists and others will continue to use WELCOME TO CHECHNYA to impact social and policy change — and that we have laid the groundwork for them to succeed.
Read the complete case study.
We created the LGBTQ Storytelling and Social Change Timeline propelled by our own curiosity. We knew that storytelling—both personal and pop culture—had contributed to progress in the LGBTQ rights movement, as it has in other movements. We wanted to explore this connection and visualize the impact—including policy, social milestones, and pop culture.
Utilizing a tool created by the Knight Lab at Northwestern University we built an interactive timeline sharing photos, videos, and history. You’ll find stories about Stonewall, Dear Abby, the Gayest Place on Earth, The Wire, boy bands, the AIDS epidemic, and the murders of at least 22 transgender women (on-record) in 2015 — the year we created the timeline.
We took special care in highlighting diverse stories—in their source and content—and being reflective of the past while remaining attuned to where the national conversation is going. We know achieving social change takes time. It requires a cumulative effect of stories from pop culture amplified by a story from the news, or by the story told by your friend or neighbor. The LGBTQ Storytelling and Social Change Timeline helped us visualize the connections of these stories not only to each other but through the passage of years and decades, and reinforce the idea that a single story cannot change the world, but storytelling can.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hired us to help Aeras which works to advance TB vaccine research and development, to strengthen their ability to be effective advocates for their own mission, as well as for research and development for other TB tools, e.g., more effective diagnostics and treatments. Later, Aeras hired Aggregate directly to work on two very different projects. The first was the development of a five-year resource mobilization strategy to guide the organization in their effort to generate funding and support from industry, government, and philanthropies worldwide. The strategy included tailored messages to appeal to the unique political and economic priorities of each potential resource. The second project included the creative development of a print and interactive online annual report that beckoned a new era for Aeras of engaging a broader constituency of individuals and organizations to enable them to achieve their goals.
