Lesson video

Welcome, everybody.

This is the third out of six lessons of our skim of work, about how we can make a difference in our communities.

And today we're going to be looking at charities, NGOs, and, groups that work in our local community and beyond.

So, let's get started.

So, for these lessons you will need paper to make notes.

You can have a full aligned, and plain as well, that's good too.

A pen and colours and your enthusiastic learner head.

We all need that.

So, make sure you've got that ready and a nice space to work.

So, today we're going to learn about community organisations, what are community organisations? We're going to learn about, the issues charities address.

And we're going to look at some case studies as well of community organisations.

So, real life organisations that exist.

And you can look those up as well afterwards, if you like.

So, it is about improving our communities and it's not just up to government to make sure everything's there for our communities.

It's up to us too.

So, we're looking really today at what people do to make our communities better.

So, first thing we want to think about is what is a community organisation? Well, community organisations help to allow individuals to build a better society.

By working with other organisations, community organisations can help to maximise resources and influence change makers.

So, that's basically all about making sure that all the things that are there can be used in the best way possible.

So, say there's a community hall, different community groups could use that hall and that's a resource, and they're maximising it by using lots of different people using it.

Community organisations can be successful when everyone takes part or supports the group's work.

That really helps, lots of people, having a say in it, but also volunteering to help and actually putting the work in to make it work.

So volunteering your time and effort can make a difference in your community.

And once we're thinking through this, I want you to think about being a volunteer and how you can actually put a bit of your time into helping the community be better.

What different groups are there out there? We need to think about the role of groups because they've got important role in communities and what we call civil society.

This is different to government includes, a range of organisations, often including local citizens who work together to improve communities, support those in needs, and create a better society for all of us to live and flourish in.

The term groups can also include many different organisations who campaign on political and social issues.

You might have heard of the term pressure group, but we will look at those in another lesson.

Today, we will focus on three types of groups that work on issues and make a positive difference in local communities.

So charities, NGOs, and community groups.

So in these two, sorry, no.

In these three columns, we've got three different types of groups and we're going to have a look at each one.

So let's have a look at the first one, charity.

Charity is an organisation that exists for public benefit and any money raised has to be used for the charity's work and not treated as profit.

Charities must not be party political, and volunteers must govern the charity.

So that means if you go back to the party political bit, it means that they can't say, "Well, we are the Labour Party charity," or "We only support people who are Conservatives." They can't do that.

Charities can't do that.

It has to be for the benefit of everybody.

So let's look at NGOs.

Now NGOs stands for non-governmental organisation.

So it's non-profit as well voluntary citizens group.

It's independent of government.

So the government can't say, "Right, we'd want you to do this," because they don't have to do the things that the government wants them to do.

They can do the things that they feel are important.

It could be local, national, or international.

And it's often humanitarian or provides a service.

That means it's there to make things better for humans.

The last one is community group.

The volunteers work to benefit their group members improve their neighbourhood or run campaigns.

Groups are not for profit and the voting might happen in the group to make decisions.

So, for example, it might be a local neighbourhood engineers group.

And we've got one where I live and my father-in-law's a member, and he's in that group and they make steam engines and trains and they meet regularly.

They've got a group that have a building and they go off the steam fairs and things like that, but it's just an interest group.

They actually work together, and they really enjoy it, but it doesn't have to be for profit and it's not necessarily helping other people, but it is for everybody in that group.

So, everybody in the group benefits.

So, let's have a look at charities in more detail.

So, what sort of issues do charities address? Well, hundreds of different things, but you can kind of block them into three main columns, although there's lots of subsections after this as well.

So, the first one, the pink one here, it's humans.

So, I've put a big list of different charities that are there to benefit humans.

So, like the British Heart Foundation, and Stonewall, Help for Heroes, Save the Children.

All of these charities are all about humans, and humanitarian aid.

The green one there is about the environment.

So, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion is all about things climate change, about environmental protection and wellbeing and that's another main charity stream.

And then another one is about animals.

So, this is local, national, and global as well.

So, it might be a Battersea Dogs Home, a local charity that has a national reach, or it could be The Donkey Sanctuary or even, Compassion in World farming.

So, it's all about the treatment of animals in farms across the world.

So, all of these charities, they've got kind of different issues.

Lets have a look at the next one.

I'm going to ask you to see if you can sort some charities, into their categories now.

So, we've got three main categories, humans, environment, and animals.

And what I'd like you to do is if you can work out, which goes into which? Now, you've got two choice here, you can just do it in the front of the screen.

So, pause it and then, and then kind of work it out or you can write it down if you like, it's your choice in this one.

So you can write in the three columns, sorry, the three different categories and then add the charities to it.

So, pause the video so that you can finish that task.

So, how did you get on? We've got the three categories here, humans, environment, and animals.

Let's have a look at the, the way that they match up.

So, in humans, we've got Cancer Research, Water aid, MIND, and Fair trade Foundation.

In the environment, we've got the Oceanic Preservation Society, Surfers Against Sewage, and Greenpeace.

And in animals, we've got The Sloth Conservation Society.

Oh, sorry, that's The Sloth Conservation Foundation, the Orangutan Foundation, and Save the Whales.

So, if you've mixed a couple up, that's okay.

Put them around the right way.

If you got it right give yourself a big tick, excellent job well done.

So, now we're going to have a look at a charity case study and this is local to me where I live, and it's STEPS club for young people in Weymouth.

Now, STEPS history, it's, it goes back a long way before I was even born, so that really is a long way.

So, the aims of STEPS is to help and educate young people aged 12 to 19 to grow as individuals and members of society, and also to improve their life chances through the delivery of youth work.

Now in 1964, STEPS was built and founded in Weymouth as a boys' club and a charity.

And we kind of couldn't imagine just a separate boys club now.

I mean maybe scouts and guides that are a bit separated, but not completely.

So actually it's hard to understand that now isn't it, but we've got a boys club in 1964.

In 1989, this is when I was 18 if you want to work out how old I am, it turned into a mixed youth club, and this meant that girls and boys could both go to these clubs.

And in 1995, it became STEPS club for young people.

Now, STEPS Young, club for young people got on going.

It was really well attended.

Lots of people in the local area came along lots of young people and they did some excellent, excellent projects.

And the lots of young people use it as a platform to help them in the next stage of their life.

And it's, there's really good news that STEPS.

in, 2009, they got some funding for a new £3 million building from the government's MyPlace funding.

And because of that, it was taken over by Dorset County Council because before that STEPS was a charity and some of the staff worked for the Council.

But it was a youth club that was a charity.

And then, that was built in Dorset County Council built that and it was, it is the most beautiful building there's lots of different parts to it.

There's a sports hall, there's music studio, there's a lovely place it's set for IT rooms is great.

But in 2015/16, due to austerity Dorset County Council withdrew funding and closed all youth clubs in their County.

All of them, there's 22 youth clubs and they all closed down and devastatingly that included STEPS.

So, that means that Dorset County Council weren't supporting STEPS anymore.

So, in 2016 STEPS club for young people's charity was formed and youth workers were employed.

So, this was a trust of people who had an interest in news club already and he said, look, this is a community resource that we cannot lose.

We can't lose this for young people who live here.

And also, it's a beautiful £3 million building we really have to use it.

Now, how do they get to survive? How do they survive? Well, they have to have an income and they get that from donations, from fundraising activities, from crowdfunding, renting the building and club fees.

So, they've managed to keep going.

So, what I'd like you to do now is watch a really short clip that I've edited together from a much bigger film and STEPS has given me permission to use this.

And I'd like you to watch this short clip and then we'll do an activity after that.

♪ Maybe together we can get somewhere ♪ ♪ Any place is better ♪ ♪ Starting from zero, got nothing to lose ♪ STEPS have given an amazing chance for great fun place and to let the part go on.

♪ You got a fast car ♪ ♪ I got a plan to get us out of here ♪ ♪ I been working at the convenience store ♪ ♪ Managed to save just a little bit of money ♪ ♪ Won't have to drive too far ♪ STEPS has helped me a lot, actually they're the reason I'm in college.

I've learnt more in a week here doing the film studies than I have been during the year course in A level-- I love STEPS, so I've learnt to play the Arcadian guitar.

And, I've load of friends.

Yeah.

Yes.

Look at his cute face.

.

Look at him.

♪ So I remember we were driving, driving in your car ♪ ♪ Speed so fast, I felt like I was drunk ♪ ♪ City lights lay out before ♪ Singing an Arcadian guitar is great.

So, like when I first did it, I thought it was going to cost me.

I was surprised that its frame-- I must love acting and writing, and it's just the best place ever to be.

Did I like, like look then, and it won't be no good.

Lovely.

That's eloquent, beautiful, that's it.

I couldn't imagine I've lost out.

It just wouldn't, wouldn't be the same.

I wouldn't have as many friends as I do now.

I wouldn't have this money also.

I wouldn't have anything to do that.

That's why you got to come down here.

It is a place to be.

♪ I'd always hoped for better ♪ ♪ Thought maybe together you and me would find it ♪ ♪ I got no plans, I aint going nowhere ♪ ♪ So take your fast car and keep on driving ♪ So, what do you think? There's lots of people that absolutely love STEPS, and you can see that how important it is for young people in Weymouth.

So, I'd like to do this next task.

This is a fill the gaps activity.

So, there's a sentence, there's sorry.

There's full sentences there.

And there's words underneath, and I'd like you to write the full sentence, each full sentence please and fill in the gaps with the correct words, which you'll find at the bottom.

So, pause the video and, restart when you're done.

So, how did he get on? Let's have a look.

STEPS club for young people is a charity in Weymouth, Dorset.

It is for young people aged 12 to 19.

It is run by volunteers and youth workers.

It was opened in 1964 as a club for boys, but changed to a mixed youth club in 1989.

They raised money for the club by crowd funding and renting out the building.

The aims of the club are to help and educate young people, to grow as individuals and members of society and to improve life chances of young people.

So, if you've got all that tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, if you need to change it and, make some amendments absolutely fine.

Put the right words in the right places.

And when you finish that, restart the video and then we can move on.

So now we're going to have a look at NGOs, non-government organisations.

Now we're going to have a look at a non-government organisation called ShelterBox.

Now this is a charity, that was formed in Helston in Cornwall, by the local rotary club.

It feels like a local charity to me because I also live in the West country.

But this has grown from a local charity into something massive into an international non-government organisation.

So, ShelterBox International was established in 2000.

So, 20 years ago, in fact 20 years ago in July 2020.

Wait, that was their 20-year anniversary.

It was in Cornwall and it was formed and established by local rotary club.

ShelterBox is a charity that delivers aid to families, devastated by conflict or natural disaster to give them durable shelter and the tools to rebuild communities.

Their global network of supporters, staff, volunteers, make it possible to deliver aid to some of the most remote communities in the world.

They deliver the essentials families need to begin rebuilding their lives after disaster.

Each disaster is different.

And so is every community.

They don't believe that one size fits all.

So, they spend time talking to effective families to make sure they provide the right supports at the right time.

For some disaster-hit communities, family tents are the best solution until people are able to start rebuilding their homes.

In other disasters, heavy duty, tarpaulins, ropes and nails are needed to create emergency shelter or to patch up damaged buildings.

When disaster hits ShelterBox is ready to respond.

ShelterBox, do something that I don't think any other charity does.

Without shelter, it doesn't really matter what else you have.

You need a safe space to be, a roof over your head and that's what we do best.

Their primary function is to help those people that perhaps nobody else is going to help.

I'm Pam and I'm a volunteer with ShelterBox.

My name's Richard, I'm a Canadian ShelterBox Response Team member and when disaster strikes, I'm one of the volunteers that goes out and delivers aid.

Families are there with nothing, but just what they stood up in and what they can hold in their hands.

When people are stood in the rain and their homes are gone, we need to get a roof over their heads as quickly as we possibly can to stabilise things so they can rebuild their lives.

There are a lot of different organisations that come in at the time of the natural disaster but we specialise in shelter.

That cornerstone, that building block for families to rebuild their lives.

We've got this incredibly agile group of Response Team Volunteers across the globe.

And today we're loading up another 240 shelter kits that are going to go out to communities in the Northeast of the Island.

I'm Alf Evans, I'm the Head of Operations here at ShelterBox We are unique, because what we want to do is to concentrate on that one thing and do it as well as we possibly can.

We've deployed to over 100 countries and, all kinds of disasters, conflict, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis.

These are brutal situations where you see things that people shouldn't have to see and they're supporting people that are in their absolute worst, worst hour.

And I think that's a time when humanity shines through.

To be able to help someone on the other side of the world.

It's just amazing.

Everything we do is about families and keeping that family together.

When a family who have been at the mercy of the conditions, the mercy of the disaster suddenly get a space to call their own, that family unit can repair and heal.

.

Keeping that family together, giving them a home, albeit a temporary home.

It means that that family has got something that they can hang on to, to help them help themselves rebuild their lives.

For us, it's all about teamwork.

We are project partners with Rotary International, but that doesn't cover how local that partnership really goes.

We work with Rotarians on the ground who have amazing insight and connections in that local area that we're working in.

In the countries we go to, there are volunteers and networks that support us to do what we do.

We'll try and get the aid there through any means possible.

Canoes, ships, tractors, Tuk Tuks, scooters, you name it, we've done it.

And it gets increasingly difficult as you get towards that, what they call the last mile.

And that is when you may be carrying it by hand with damage to the infrastructure.

We've all got our part to play.

You could go out into the community, you could go into schools.

You can stand on the street corner, shaking the pot.

I hope the money I've raised goes a long way to helping people who need the aid.

It became quite infectious, supporting this charity that just does things differently, that goes where help is needed most and gets there as quickly as possible.

And I think what's exciting is there are different ways for people to get involved.

If you're thinking about getting involved, you've only made that step, get involved.

It gives me something to shout about, and be proud of.

Our vision is a world where no family goes without shelter after disaster.

And I'm really proud to play my part in that.

Thank you for watching.

So, you've watched the video about ShelterBox.

Now I'd like to write three sentences about what you've seen starting with these sentence starters.

So, I see, I think, I wonder, so pause the video and then resume when you're ready.

So, what did you write? Let's have a look at the possible answer.

I see people being helped in times of disaster.

I think that it's really inspiring to see that ShelterBox have been able to respond instantly to terrible situations.

I wonder if I can persuade my school to help ShelterBox.

So, if you have written, something different, that's okay because this is about you reflecting on what you've seen.

So, When you've, when you've checked through what you've written, let's move on.

So now let's have a look at community groups and community groups are a little bit different.

They're not necessarily there to benefit everybody, but, they are usually groups of people who work together democratically and, do things to make the community better.

Now once again, I'm going to use a local case study to me, and we're going to be looking at Weyforward Community Interest Company, which is a community group in Weymouth.

So, let's have a look at what Weyforward Community Interest Company have actually done.

They've been working with unemployed people to help them to learn whatever skills they've identified they would like.

They've supported a literary festival in the town.

And they provide mentors to schools, to work with young people in the Ideas League project, which is basically, project that we do in schools that where young people can work in groups to actually brainstorm and pitch new ideas for wave with in Portland.

They've introduced something called, "Better Reykjavik", which is an Icelandic platform and this allow people to debate and vote and influence local issues.

So in a normal town meeting, you wouldn't get that much time to speak, but in an online platform, it means people could share ideas and actually debate issues and kind of put their point across and listen to what other people's opinions are in more depth.

So, following on from that, Weyforward promotes new ways of doing things with technology, networks, and dedication.

So now I'm going to show you a video from Weyforward, where I've interviewed Baron Miles, who is the, one of the directors.

After you've watched the video, you will be asked to write down an interesting point, a new piece of information, a question you would like to ask.

So, what I'd like to do at this point is to watch the video, pen at the ready.

You might want to make notes as you go.

I'd like to introduce you to Borrow Miles.

Baron is a director from a Community Interest Company called Weyforward, which is based in Weymouth in Dorset.

Hello Baron.

Hi there.

Nice to meeting you.

Nice to meet you too.

Baron tell me, what is Weyforward? What's it all about? Well, we are a community group.

We are really organised to try and make our town a better place to live in, a better place to work in, to visit, improve it for businesses and try and make it safe for the future, that's our goal is to make it a place for the future.

So, what do you do in Weyforward then? I mean, you've given me a list of this things that you do.

Is it a wide-ranging thing? Was it quite narrow in your goal? Yeah, well, I think a lot of our, the way we do things is we're kind of a network, so things pop up and then we sort of take hold of them and run with them.

So, I can give you some examples.

So, one of the things that we do was we rally young people to give them mentors in our Ideas League project.

It's been going for four or five years now.

And they're thinking about what they're going to do and what might do with Weymouth in the future, and then take Yeah.

Those projects on.

We have people, unemployed people working with Jason, to learn anything they want using the internet and he's teaching them how to do that effectively, setting themselves goals.

And we raised money to support the community, to support democracy, to support development.

And we try to bring people together.

So, we might introduce, we might know somebody and think these people need to meet them and we'll put them together so that they can work together and mutually support one another and making things happen.

So we kind of considered who might benefit and actually there's lots of different groups within the community who benefit from the work that you do? Absolutely.

There's young people already benefiting in schools, also we said the unemployed people.

But just the fact that soon as you have introducing one group to another, you're not only helping those groups, but the groups that help other people.

So then there, they might be doing their work more efficiently by having extra financial support or, extra volunteers that are helping them out on the day.

And that's might be helping old people to learn, digital skills, for example.

Yeah.

Its been happening.

So I mean, it sounds like, you've, you're quite successful.

Do you make money from that success? Well, because we're a CIC, we're not supposed to actually make profit.

So, we do raise money and can have, we could be a business, in the traditional sense, but any money that we'd make, we'd have to plough back into what we do.

But we've raised, we've raised money through bidding.

So you can get money.

We got money from the national lottery to run our ideas league thing that's about £8,000 that roundabout, we've raised a couple of thousand pounds in crowdfunding.

For a lawyer to do some work for us on the building.

And, we've raised money to, for our basic income campaign.

So we raise money, but we don't get paid.

Okay.

So, you-- No, we could.

You're a volunteer, you-- Yeah, I volunteer too.

Okay, so both you and your, the co-director, Jason Jason.

Are both volunteers, right? Right, yeah.

You're a volunteer.

What? What's in it for you? why do you do it? Well, I think it's, I have a job already and I enjoy that.

But it kind of gives me, firstly, it actually helps my job.

I meet lots of people, I work as a teacher in careers and that allows me to introduce these people, to our young people as well.

On top of that, I get the joy of seeing people working together.

I just love bringing people together and that's kind of the key thing.

And just having something that you've built is really important I think.

Especially as you get older you start thinking well what have I done that I can look back and go, yeah, that was impressive I'm pleased with myself.

So, you get that from it.

So if you, a young person came to you and said perhaps from another town and they said that they'd be interested in starting a community group what would you say to them? Generally, I'll say go for it.

In terms of advice then it's just, it's not really advice really.

It's just know that things are.

Sometimes it will go wrong.

You have to learn from it.

People won't always understand what you're trying to do.

You have to be, we've been going for seven years and we still probably haven't achieved our vision of what we'd really like to happen, but you keep ploughing on there's no point giving up to just keep going with it.

If you've got a good idea and you just got to keep going until you get it.

Absolutely.

So, this is a question that I didn't pre-warn you about.

Have you come up with any like curve ball, should we say? So have you come up against any, obstacles or difficulties that have meant you've had to change tack? Yeah, I think there are big, the biggest problem of any voluntary stuff.

And this is quite big in voluntary actually is that there it's difficult to get money.

There are, you, you're competing with other groups often doing very similar things.

And is it a bit crazy that you're competing for the same thing, actually, what you need to bring those groups together and bit together, which that's part of what we're trying to do now is bring groups together so that they bid together, they crowd fund together.

They share volunteers and stop competing over.

well, it's effectively scarce amount of resources.

So that would be the biggest thing that a barrier wise.

Other than that, it's just people knowing what you're doing.

And that takes time seven years.

Now that anything that's linked to that kind of idea, people seem to think is that, sometimes it gets mixed up with the council.

We're just a couple of guys and the network they've built, it's not always easy for everyone else to understand what you're doing, is it so? No.

That's everything we're trying to resolve.

Well, hopefully just by interviewing you today, that's given us an opportunity to kind of explore a couple of the questions and make it a little bit more prominent and people can understand what's going on.

So, thanks you today.

Definitely.

Thank you Baron, for allowing me to interview you.

I really appreciate it.

And hopefully, I'll meet you again one day.

So, you've watched the video and now I'd like you to write those three things that I mentioned earlier.

An interesting point, a new piece of information and a question you'd like to ask.

So, pause this video, answer those questions and then start again when you're ready to go.

So, let's have a look at some model answers.

An interesting point, Weyforward have got mentors to work with young people on community projects.

The question to ask, why have you made Weyforward a community interest company instead of a business? So, what did we learn today? Well, we learnt what are community organisations, we looked at some issues that charities address.

So, you might think about some local charities in your area that have addressed some of those issues as well.

And we've had some case studies of community organisations or charity and Non-government organisation and a community interest company.

So, let's have a look at takeaway task I'd like you to do.

So, the takeaway task is a task I'd like you to do, on your own before next lesson would be great.

So, think of this scenario.

I want you to imagine that your school is running an active citizenship week, focusing on the role of charities and your class has been asked to put forward to local charities that the school can support.

But in order to do this, you have to go and find out what's out there.

So, the next part of the task is to research.

I want you to research a local charity or NGO in your area, make a presentation about them and show to a family member or with your class, you can always forward it to your teacher as well.

Now, keep these notes, keep the things that you find out because they will help you in future lessons in this, unit of work.

Now don't forget to do the exit quiz and test what you've learned today.

Hopefully, you're watching and listening very carefully and you can test that.

Now share your work with Oak National.

If you'd like to do that, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

And I'd like you to tag @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

So there you go, everybody.

I hope that you feel, you know, a lot more about community groups, charities and non-government organisations and the reasons that they exist.

And if you think about it, it's actually, to make our society a far better place for us all to live in.

And that has to be a good thing, doesn't it? So, I hope you enjoy the takeaway task and I will catch up with you next time.

Bye.