So, January is over... I always think it's a bit like the "Monday of the year" so I'm not too sad to see it go, although it does seem to have happened rather quickly!
There are plenty of things to cause concern for the sector in 2011, with the economy and the coalition government's attempts to recover it being pretty high on the list. I have been lucky/unlucky (delete as desired) to hear both Nick Hurd and David Cameron speak on the issue of "Big Society" and whilst I obviously support the idea of strengthening communities and building social engagement I have not heard anything that leads me to believe that they know how this will happen and whether they intend to have any part in it doing so! There are a great many people out there doing brilliant things in their community but how are they going to get even more people involved instead of spending tax-payers money on teaching grandmothers to suck eggs? (figuratively speaking of course)
The reason why I am excited about 2011 despite the doom and gloom is there are some great things happening already this year and that shows the resilience and passion of the third sector. Action Aid's "What a Feeling" Campaign for instance is very interesting; the campaign focuses on what supporters get out of being involved in Action Aid's work rather than the services it delivers - the campaign itself has been very well orchestrated with multi-channel advertising and PR stunts. We all try to indicate what our donors and volunteers can get out of being involved with our causes but I think it is pretty brave for Action Aid to focus their whole campaign on this. Being a massive fan of Action Aid's "Bollocks to Poverty" youth channel and a previous volunteer with them I hope that their campaign achieves their organisational aims rather than just being a boost to the sector as a whole.
In fact, it's probably the kind of campaign that should be run to explain to us all what "Big Society" is all about....
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