50 Campaigns to Shout About

Ellie Levenson

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781851688920
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Make the difference that politicians don't The always provocative Ellie Levenson is here to drive us into action. From building more affordable housing to lobbying for more ethical banking and clean drinking water for all, Ellie introduces 50 of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, explaining exactly why they are so important and why now is the time to get on your feet and be heard. She offers practical advice on involving politicians and other leaders, getting media interest, and planning events, and shares insights from top campaigners, including the Rwandan Genocide Survivor's Fund, Oxfam, and the mental health charity Rethink, on how to make the leap from issue to action.
Packed with rousing facts and insider tips, 50 Campaigns to Shout About is an indispensable resource for finding your voice and making a difference – whether your sights are set on the halls of government or closer to home.

1

Provide a home for everyone

At its worst, homelessness entails sleeping on the streets. In London alone, 3500 people sleep on the streets at some point each year – 250 people on any one night. Shockingly, according to the charity Crisis, such ‘rough sleepers’ have a life expectancy of just forty-two years.

But homelessness encompasses more than these potentially dangerous and soul-destroying situations. It includes living in squats, which in many cases lack electricity or running water, and which involves breaking the law and risking arrest. It also includes living in a B&B or other temporary accommodation, which, if they’re affordable, are often of a low standard, and which can cause people to feel a lack of control. Homelessness even includes living in overcrowded flats with family or friends, in what is known as ‘concealed housing’ – that is, sleeping on the floor or a sofa, when the space is available.

The limbo of homelessness is dislocating and isolating. As well as not having the comfort of a space to call home, the lack of a permanent address can make it difficult, even impossible, to get a permanent job, receive benefits, get paid for work, build a history of credit, or stay in touch with loved ones. What’s more, homeless people have high levels of other vulnerabilities, including mental health problems, drug and alcohol dependencies, abuse, and other traumatic experiences, and these become exacerbated without proper help and support.

Think about how much it means to you to have a physical space you can call ‘home’, a place where you can go at the end of a day and know you will be warm and safe. It might be big or it might be small, but it is a space where you can relax, be yourself, and keep your possessions. Such a place is something everyone deserves.

Take Action

Give in kind. Persuade your employer or a local business to donate ‘in kind’, which means to donate things rather than money. For example, homelessness charities are often looking for paints and brushes to stock their art room. Are there any lying about in that recently renovated café on the high street that could be given away? IT equipment is often needed for job training and administration. Has your company recently upgraded its computers or changed its routers? Or while you’re cleaning out your own home you may find second-hand bikes or bike parts that could be used in a homelessness centre’s bicycle repair workshops, or musical instruments that might provide a creative outlet for homeless children and families.

Ask for better housing. Help prevent people becoming homeless in the first place. Monitor the planning applications for ‘new build’ developments filed with your local council – these will be available to view online – and if you see an application that includes affordable housing, send a letter of support. Attend the local council meeting and use the public questions time to request that more affordable homes be built in your area. And find out which of your council members is in charge of housing, and write to him or her to ask the same.

Make the homeless visible. Keep an eye out for rough sleepers as you walk around your neighbourhood or make your commute to work. If you are concerned about the safety or health of a rough sleeper, let a local homelessness charity know. Its outreach team can try to make contact with the person and see if he or she needs assistance of any kind.

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned
MAYA ANGELOU

 

Where to Get Started

Shelter works to alleviate the distress caused by homelessness and bad housing.
88 Old Street
London EC1V 9HU
Tel [phone]
www.shelter.org.uk

Crisis provides resources for single people who are homeless across the UK.
66 Commercial Street
London E1 6LT
Tel [phone]
www.crisis.org.uk

St Mungo’s is a London-based charity providing accommodation, support projects, and emergency services to homeless people and working to prevent homelessness.
St Mungo’s Griffin House
161 Hammersmith Road
London W6 8BS
Tel [phone]
www.mungos.org

 

On the ground:
Get to know the people you’re helping

Jessica Studdert previously worked for St Mungo’s, the charity working with London’s homeless (www.mungos.org). She stresses the importance of finding out what the people you’re helping want and including them in the campaign.

Q Tell me about your campaign on mental health and homelessness.

A At St Mungo’s we devised a campaign to raise awareness of mental health problems amongst street homeless people and campaign for better services for them. There was a clear gap in the health services available, especially for people who end up on the streets. Street homelessness is often caused and prolonged by a health problem, and mental health problems are the most under-resourced area of the NHS.

Because we were emphasizing that this was a health issue, not a housing issue, we wanted the Department of Health, rather than the Department of Communities and Local Government, to address the problem. We also wanted to make sure that our goals and our key campaign messages matched the reality of life on the streets for homeless people, not our assumptions as charity professionals.

Q How did you go about getting information from homeless people about what they needed and wanted to improve their health?

A The first thing we did was gather a group of currently homeless people for a two-day discussion session. The idea was to generate a set of questions that they would take out to the streets. They would ask other homeless people about their individual experiences and bring that substantive information back to us, so we could incorporate it into the campaign’s goals and messages.

Because homeless people often distrust authority figures and professionals, who have frequently let them down in the past, this ‘peer research’ approach works much better. They are much more likely to open up to someone who has ‘been there’ than to a professional ‘busybody’. The homeless people who had volunteered for our discussion session were able to interview one hundred other homeless people – including fifteen or so who were currently on the streets and completely disengaged from society. The information they gathered was gold; they were giving voice to a group of people who are usually voiceless, and making their experiences central to our campaign for health services.

Q How did you use the information that was gathered by the peer researcher team?

A On the basis that the real Health Select Committee wouldn’t take up mental health services for the homeless as an issue, we held a mock committee event at Parliament. As part of the event, we hosted a reception at which one of the peer researchers spoke. He had the guests gripped as he described his own spiral into drug addiction after the death of his daughter – he hadn’t received the support he needed during his grief and, unable to get access to professional mental health services, he had ended up on the streets.

At the same time we launched a national ‘Call for Evidence on Mental Health and Street Homelessness’. This was run on the model of a government consultation because we wanted to make the point that the Department of Health wouldn’t do their own consultation to solicit the opinion of experts in this area. We got eighty responses from professionals, the voluntary sector, and government departments, from which we published a major report outlining clear actions for the government to take.

So much of the campaign involved getting in front of the government the voices of people who usually don’t get to speak directly to the government. But we also used the voices of St Mungo’s donors and supporters – we got them to write to their members in Parliament, using a template letter, to ask that the minister for mental health consider the mental health needs of homeless people. This public involvement added to the momentum we had on the issue.

In the end, the Department of Health’s next mental health strategy contained explicit reference to street homelessness, something they had never previously recognized responsibility for.

2

Support our military

It sometimes seems fashionable to view the military as either unwitting stooges used by corrupt governments or as returning, triumphant heroes. In fact most members of the military are neither of these. They are ordinary people who work as public servants in extraordinary circumstances, carrying out the decisions made by our government. Few of us would like there to be no military at all: they help to maintain our feeling of security every day and respond to disasters at home and abroad. Even people who are opposed to all offensive military actions can appreciate the huge amount of peacekeeping and humanitarian work carried out by the military.

Members of our armed forces work exceptionally hard and frequently put their lives in danger. They earn a relatively low wage, are required to work very long hours, and leave their families behind for long stretches of time. Yet we often fail them when they return to civilian life. High numbers end up in prison or homeless, or find it hard to get a civilian job. A 2009 article in the Guardian reported a study by Napo, the family court and probation officers’ trade union, which showed that 20,000 former servicemen were in prison or on probation or parole in the UK – over double the number of British servicemen serving in Afghanistan at the time. Of these former military personnel, 8500 were in prison – almost one in ten of the full prison population. The study also found evidence linking mental health problems, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic violence with the experience of serving in combat zones.

How we view our military and ex-military often comes down to our views of a particular political situation. But whatever you think about a specific conflict and whatever preconceptions you may have about military life, we owe it to these men and women to make life for them and their dependents easier, not harder.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few
WINSTON CHURCHILL DURING THE B...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction: Get some issues
• A note on contact information
• 1. Provide a home for everyone
• 2. Support our military
• 3. Look after your local community
• 4. Help prevent loneliness
• 5. Support a free press
• 6. Fight racism
• 7. Reform prisons
• 8. Object to discriminatory policing
• 9. Kill the death penalty
• 10. Campaign against torture
• 11. Be kind to refugees and migrants
• 12. Make businesses act responsibly
• 13. Insist on better banking
• 14. Demand a living wage for all
• 15. Close the wealth gap
• 16. Join the trade union movement
• 17. Care for carers
• 18. Help people to achieve a good death
• 19. Support parents
• 20. Talk about sex
• 21. Prevent HIV and AIDS from being a death sentence
• 22. Eradicate preventable diseases
• 23. Give all women choice over abortion
• 24. End the stigma of mental health issues
• 25. Be disability aware
• 26. Promote ‘unsexy’ causes
• 27. Call for more public toilets
• 28. Insist on equal representation
• 29. Campaign for gay equality
• 30. Stop age discrimination
• 31. Let children be children
• 32. Say no to child labour
• 33. Stop human trafficking
• 34. Control the arms trade
• 35. Protect indigenous peoples
• 36. End hunger
• 37. Avoid wasting food
• 38. Ensure access to clean water
• 39. Recycle everything
• 40. Use reusable bags
• 41. Push for more and safer cycling
• 42. Clean up our beaches and protect our seas
• 43. Treat animals well
• 44. Appreciate art for art’s sake
• 45. Increase literacy and basic skills
• 46. Use plain English
• 47. Support people with learning disabilities
• 48. Educate everyone
• 49. Prepare for disasters and respond quickly to emergencies
• 50. Use your vote
• 51. Care about climate change
• Afterword: What are you going to shout about?
• Acknowledgements
• Index