The Campaign Carousel™ was a perfect fit for me because it built on my existing knowledge, filled in some important gaps, and introduced topics and ideas that I hadn’t encountered before.
I work for Unlock Democracy, a non-profit organisation who campaigns for a vibrant, inclusive democracy. We campaign to make radical changes to our political system, like upgrading our electoral system, reforming the House of Lords, and devolving more power out of Westminster. All my campaigning experience before the Campaign Carousel™ had been built up in an ad hoc way according to whatever campaigns I happened to be working on at the time. It’s been a good way to learn, but I knew there were a lot of gaps in my knowledge and wanted to do some formal training to address that.
I enjoyed all the SMK workshops I attended, but two of them particularly stand out for me.
The Influencing Parliament and central government workshop gave me practical information on how Westminster works and filled in the detail of the various stages a piece of legislation must pass through before it becomes law. The workshop provided practical, concrete knowledge which I now draw on regularly in my work.
I also enjoyed the workshop about Power, participation and lived experience with people who have lived experience. This was a more intimate session which provided a great space to think and talk through some of the more nuanced aspects of the topic. This session focussed on supporting us as we thought through the ways in which power works in our organisations.
A lasting benefit of being on the Carousel is the many different practical frameworks and tools provided for thinking through campaign focus and strategies, which Unlock Democracy now uses to plan all of our campaigns.