Week 2: Exploring our campaign idea

By Nadia Patel

Week 2: Tuesday 1st August 2017

This week the Youth Social Action Team continued to develop on their idea from the previous week - Politics and Courses.

The day began with another ice-breaker so all the members of the team were able to continue getting to know each other. By the end of the summer the team will probably know more about each other than they’d ever expected to.

The main focus of the session this week was to understand what a campaign really is and clear up any misconceptions surrounding them. Taz Virdee began by asking the team what they thought a campaign is. There were a range of ideas including handing out leaflets and surveys and organising events. Taz then explained that these are all parts of what makes up a campaign.
To Campaign is to work in an organised and active way towards a goal.

The team was then split in to two small groups to create a time line on the campaign project. This involved identifying factors such as obstacles that could be faced and what the desired outcome would be. These included, constraints such as resources or a possible lack of interest by people in the area.

The groups agreed that the result they hope for in the end is a population of young people who take interest in politics and aren’t afraid to express their opinions, whilst also simultaneously developing life skills through the courses, such as first aid, so that they are well equipped in the future. The teams were also asked why they think people should listen them.

The target demographic for the campaign are 10-20 year olds, which means that the team themselves are the most ideal candidates for this task because they too fall into that bracket and are affected by the issues they hope to improve on.

The next task for the groups was to create an example of the ideal person that they would pitch their campaign to. Both groups had factors in common on their ideal candidate. This person would most likely be a teenager between 13-16 who is in education and wants to learn more about politics and life skills.

The team was very excited seeing how their idea is coming together and can’t wait to make a difference in their community.

Click here to read: Week 1: Developing our Big Local Youth Campaign Ideas

Photos by Haroon Lukka