We Are What We Do Charitable Foundation: The Action Tracker and Empowering Young People as Activists

Here’s a bit more information about the Action Tracker and the work empowering young people as activists run by the We Are What We Do Charitable Foundation.

Enhancing curriculum delivery

Our Action Tracker’s approach to simple everyday actions and entertaining methods of campaigning has high educational value in that it appeals to a wide audience, breaks down complex concepts into accessible ideas and encourages creative expression. We integrate this approach into curriculum delivery through a range of supported projects, online resources and products that are functional and educationally viable while portraying the brand tone of voice. Our programme to enhance curriculum delivery aims:

• To provide an accessible and engaging approach to developing curriculum understanding and skills around social and environmental responsibility
• To engage a wider audience of young people than traditional extra-curricular activities through integration into mainstream curriculum delivery
• To challenge preconceptions of altruistic behaviour and promote proactivity, confidence and creativity
• To showcase models of good practice around community engagement, collaboration, creative curriculums and sustainable schools.

In order meet these aims, we have created and continue to support:

• A teacher planning tool to show where We Are What We Do Actions and campaigning activities fit into curriculum requirements
• Packages of resources and workshops to introduce We Are What We Do campaigning to different age groups
• Templates, activity tools and creative assets around each of the Actions for classroom use
• A series of challenges and events to engage young people in particular Actions or campaigns and encourage schools to work with the wider community
• Case study examples of school campaigns and activities to inspire others.

Young Activists Programme

The Foundation’s Young Activists Programme gives young people the skills, resources and confidence to go out into their communities as powerful social activitists and public speakers. They create and run social and environmental campaigns, using interactive presentations, communications materials, online tracking tools and plenty of enthusiasm in their schools and community groups, spreading the message that small, simple actions can create big social change.

Key Young Activist concepts

1. Creativity. At the heart of everything we do is a distinct look and feel that articulates social and environmental action in a unique and exciting way. Alongside this, thorough research and consultation feeds this creativity and keeps it grounded in accurate and current information and statistics. These same standards will ensure that the tools we create for young people stand out and provide a special platform for their activism.
2. Open source activism. We Are What We Do uses its campaigning and youth experience to deliver a new concept in activism: co-creation of resources. Alongside the resources that we create, young activists are empowered to create their own – from simple posters and campaign messages, to presentations, films and online virals. These new resources create an evolving pool of tools for young activists, shaped by their own vision of what works in their school or community.
3. Becoming part of something bigger.As well as producing high quality resources and providing a platform for co-creation, our role is also to show the place of each activist within the bigger picture and to bring to life the larger impact to which they each contribute. We do this by using visual tools to illustrate the accumulation of activism and by playing back the success of our young activists to a massive audience via the media.
4. Sustainability.As a social enterprise, we believe that the best way to drive long term change is by creating sustainable campaigns. We use enterprise and partnerships to sustain our work and this is what we will pass on in the toolkit.
5. Partnerships and networks.At every stage of development, delivery and support, we add value to what we and our young activists achieve by working in partnership and plugging into existing networks.
6. PR and media.Crucial to our success has been an ability to engage the media and win prime space for our campaigns. We use this experience and the contacts we have developed to provide young people with the means of presenting a different version of themselves to that often presented in the media. We have been overwhelmed by the creativity and enthusiasm of young people in creating solutions to the sustainability issues that face us and can support and equip them in taking this message to the media.

Key elements of the Young Activist programme

1. Tools to stand up and say something. A range of presentations are downloadable by young people, along with some simple advice on giving interactive talks. Short films, animations, killer statistics and graphics and simple methods to get the audience taking part, whether it’s a small group of friends or family or a whole school, bring to life the power of simple actions and inspire immediate participation. The advice includes examples of talks and plenty of simple techniques to help young activists to personalize their presentations.
2. Tools to spread the word online. Young people are able to get their hands on everything they need to take their campaigns and the power of simple actions onto websites and social networks. Cutting edge virals, HTML coded resources and applications enable young people to plug their activism into their online world without having to sacrifice their credibility.
3. Tools to create campaign materials. Templates, branding, design assets and style guides are available to young people to help them create whatever they need to get people doing and tracking actions in their schools and communities. By handing over these assets we give our activists a high quality framework, while putting their ideas in centre stage.
4. Co-creation facilities. This unique online space gives activists the chance to add what they have created to the toolkit. This could be different versions of our own resources or totally new ones; they could be uploaded to the site, or made available through other websites, such as YouTube and Flickr; they could consist of simple examples of campaign posters or summaries of campaigns or share new viral and HTML coded resources for online activism.
5. Tracking facilities. Facilities to showcase the impact of our activists are crucial to illustrating their part of the bigger picture. A combination of quantitative and qualitative tracking facilities give activists the chance to share and pool their activities and provide inspiration to more young people. From this, we are also be able to assess the specific impacts of the overall programme.