Unit 31: Task 1

Social Action Campaigns

Definitions

The Centre of Social Action run by the Government defines Social action as:
A practical action in the service of others, which is:
Carried out by individuals or groups of people working together
Not mandated and not for profit
Done for the good of others - individuals, communities and/or society
Bringing about social change and/or value
Social action can include formal or informal volunteering, the giving of time and
money or simply people helping people.
https://www.gov.uk/centre-for-social-action
18/9/14

OnlineDictional.com describes Social Action as:
Individual or group behaviour that involves interaction with other individuals or
groups, especially organized action toward social reform
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social+action
18/9/14


If I was to describe Social Action I would describe it as individuals and/or groups
trying to change peoples behaviour and views towards whatever thought the
original individual began with. Whether it is the right or wrong is decided
through opinion. Social Action can use campaigns to change peoples opinion and
views.


Examples
Step Up To Serve
http://www.stepuptoserve.org.uk/

Step Up to Serve is a national social action campaign aiming to inspire the
generation of young people today by increasing the quality, quantity and
frequency of social action for all young people. Their goal is to double the
number of young people participating in social action to over 50% by 2020.

So to summarise they are a social action group increase the participation of
young people to take part in social action campaigns.

According to Step Up To Serve the most recent data shows that 29% of young
people aged 16 to 24 in England and Wales are involved in some form of regular
volunteering for social action campaigns. Where as approximately 40% take
part in less frequent volunteering. They compare this to Canada where 58% of
young people are involved.
New research that they have collected from 1000 young people and 500
teachers shows that today teens are more engaged with social issues than ever.
This is mainly because of the huge growth in social media and it is exceptionally
easier for peoples views to be seen and read. However according to this
research the only thing restraining young people today are the false stereotypes
created and are hurting peoples self esteem, holding them back in the job
market.
Step Up To Serve promote voluntary organisations, businesses, the
education sector and faith groups to work together to raise the number of young
people getting involved in their communities.
How they get people involved is through their website. Their website
allows people to contact them n what the individual is planning on doing and
they provide any information the person may need to create their pledge.
The Step Up and Serve website is very organised and professional. It is
easily understandable and very user-friendly. It keeps a very simple but effective
style throughout all its pages; white background with orange headers. I think this
is an effective way to keep the reader of the page concentrated on its content. It
contains very little photos, again to keep the viewer of the site concentrated on
its content. The photos they do use are large groups of young people; this is
clearly linked to the message that this organisation is trying to promote; youth
working together to increase quality, quantity and frequency of social action.
They do have a twitter page with 2,800+ followers. However I believe for them to
get better involvement from people they need to increase their fame, most young
people like to follow a trend. If Step Up T Serve can create one, people will follow.
Movember
http://uk.movember.com/?home

Movember is a campaign run by the Movember Foundation. It is committed to
changing, saving and improving the lives of men affected by prostate cancer,
testicular cancer and mental health problems. The Movember Foundation
challenges men to grow moustaches during the month of November. Through the
huge growth of social media and the huge following of this campaign it sparks
conversation and raises vital funds for its mens health programs. The
Movember movement started back in 2003 in Australia and has now grown to be
a truly global one. It currently runs official campaigns in 21 countries. The
Movember community has raised 346 million to date and funded over 800
programmes.