A campaigner that I spoke to recently about their time riding the Campaign Carousel said that it had ‘opened my eyes to amazing people doing amazing things in a space that currently feels fragmented.’
I know exactly what she meant. Styliana is a year into her role as a campaigner in a team of two. They are committed to organising responses to government consultations – often at short notice – to make sure that young people’s views on mental health provision are heard. Naana told me about the bold new campaign she is currently researching about what most impacts girls’ life chances. Both these campaigners are doing vital work to ensure marginalised voices are heard against a complex political backdrop.
SMK’s Campaign Carousel training programme is designed with people like Styliana and Naana in mind. People who may be part of small teams wanting to build outwards or people who want to find creative ways to think outside the box.
How the Campaign Carousel can support you
The Carousel programme focusses on context, community, and capacity.
Throughout the training, early-stage campaigners are urged to be curious about the world around them; to analyse the political context they want to campaign in and to practise active solidarity in social change.
Carousel riders consistently tell us that they enjoy feeling part of a wider community which SMK nurtures through bringing past and present riders together at an informal quarterly Campaigns Brunch event. It’s a great opportunity to discuss burning issues of the day, hear from inspiring speakers and build your own campaigning network.
We provide a practical toolkit of tools and tactics to help build campaigner capacity and draw on real-time examples of which campaigns are winning and why, not least through the stories of our National Campaigner Award winners. We pride ourselves on grounding our approach in what works. As one recent workshop participant explained, ‘it’s not about shiny whizzy technical skills, but rather it’s about the basics of campaign strategy and working out where specific tools can support your actions’.
Layering up your know-how
Most Carousel riders also appreciate the two-stage approach to the programme designed to ‘layer up’ your know-how. You first take four foundational workshops to give you a grounding in what social change is, how to plan effectively, developing clear communications and finally, how to evaluate what matters. Then you choose five further workshops from a diverse plate of specialist skills ranging from influencing parliament to community organising. Importantly, SMK regularly reviews and updates its workshops to ensure they deliver value for money.
Announcing a new social media workshop
We are delighted to add a new ‘social media to win campaigns’ workshop to the Carousel. In this fast paced and interactive session, you’ll consider how to successfully reach different key audiences across various social media platforms and learn how to come up with high performing pieces of social media content. We know campaigners are resource strapped, so this workshop delivers 50-100 ideas for high performing pieces of social content. You can learn more about the approach used here.
We have just launched the Campaign Carousel September 2023 programme. To find out more visit https://smk.org.uk/what-we-do/training/campaign-carousel/ Book now and join a diverse cohort of impressive campaigners and change-makers.