Seven Steps to Social Action
The goal of the O Ambassadors program is to empower young leaders and educators to dream big and accelerate global change through a step-by-step exploration of active learning, idea-sharing and taking action.
Before beginning a journey, everyone needs a solid plan. The Seven Steps to Social Action is a planner, road map and travel guide all rolled into one. It’s a seven step process that helps students become socially responsible youth. These Seven Steps are the platform through which you can effectively teach the Millennium Development Goals and their four core themes (poverty, education, health and sustainable development), while encouraging research, learning, idea-sharing and the most important step—action.
Use these steps over and over again as the O Ambassadors program rolls out each theme of the Millennium Development Goals. Your role is integral in Steps #1 and #2, when you teach your students about a theme. During these first two steps, use the lesson plans and other teaching materials to help your students create an empathetic connection with the issues. With Steps #3-#7, your students should take over the action-planning and execution of their awareness and fundraising activities. At this stage, your role is to provide guidance and feedback. Then, with the introduction of a new theme, you go through these seven steps all over again. (Please note: Once you have completed one cycle of the Seven Steps, many of the details can carry over to the next cycle. For example, once your students build a “dream team,” that same team can lead the activities for any or all of the other cycles that follow.)
To introduce you to the Seven Steps, this section will explore each of these steps and help you identify how you, as an educator, can facilitate student activity at each stage. Discussion of each of the Seven Steps below begins with the instructions for your students, and next turns to strategies you can use to help your students get the most out of each stage.
Step #1: Find a cause you care about
Do you care about the environment? What about world hunger? The first step to making a difference is knowing what you care about.
Take a Moment
What do you wish you could change about the world?
- What do you think is unfair?
- What makes you angry?
- What makes you speak your mind?
Tips and Strategies
For students to care about social issues, they need to feel a connection or empathize with the people affected by the issues. Statistics are important because they help paint the big picture for any issue, but they can also create detachment. That’s why personalizing an issue by telling the story of a child affected by the issue helps create links. You may also present related newspaper articles or videos.
Keep in mind that social issues often evoke strong emotional responses. After sharing stories or videos, group discussions are a natural follow up. But it is difficult to predict when a personal connection for each student will be made. It may be immediate and, if students are vocal participants, their feelings and opinions will be offered in an open discussion. Other students may need additional time, more direction or a more private way to reflect on their feelings. An individual writing activity like open-ended journal response or an un-sent letter written to the person highlighted in the story may help.
Problem Solving
Students often have strong feelings about justice issues and, at the same time, may question their ability to bring about any real change. It is our job to acknowledge and validate all types of reactions.
Step #2: Do your research
Learn as much as you can about your cause. The more you know the more difference you can make!
Research Tips
- Make a list of questions.
- Find information. Try the library, textbooks, teachers, people in your community, news media, websites and more!
- Stay alert! Always think about all points of view.
Tips and Strategies
It is important for students to realize that information listed on websites is regularly updated. The statistics presented in this binder were current at the date of publication, but as the program continues, check the O Ambassadors website for updates. Remember that your youth coordinator is also a terrific source of information.
Problem Solving
Students must learn how to gauge the reliability of online sources. Not everything on the internet is reliable, and quality control is always an issue. Students should consider if the site is linked to a reliable institution or organization, whether or not there is an author, a bibliography and links to other reliable sites.
Step #3: Build your dream team
Build a strong team by drawing on different people’s skills.
Strong teams bring together many different kinds of people:
- Dreamers who are imaginative
- Doers who are energetic
- Reasoners who are thinkers and well organized
- Bridge-builders who are good communicators and team players
Tips and Strategies
To empower students to take action on social issues we must explore their understanding of leadership. It is important to create opportunities for students to identify what type of leader they want to become. For many young people, the O Ambassadors program is a first chance to develop leadership skills. Your students may be asking themselves:
- Am I a leader?
- What does a leader look like?
- How do they act?
- If I become a leader, will it change the way I act with my peers?
- Am I comfortable with the role of a leader within my school?
- If I become a student leader, can I really affect change?
Luckily, there are many ways to challenge old assumptions and help students shift their mindset. The key is to help each student discover what they have to give.
Problem Solving
Your students may not initially be confident about their own potential for leadership. One activity that can help students re-examine their assumptions involves encouraging them to think about the characteristics of an ideal leader. Try asking students to individually generate a list of adjectives that describe their ideal “leader” and a list of leadership verbs. Next, have them work in small teams to draw a picture of their ideal leader on chart paper. Topics to discuss: What were our assumptions? Did these new ideas change our minds? Encourage each group to create a working definition of what it means to be a leader and, as a group, agree on this definition.
Step #4: Meet around the round table
Once you build your team, it’s time to hold a meeting! Start by choosing a date, time and place for everyone to get together. Remember that successful meetings follow an agenda and have a goal.
Your map to a marvellous meeting:
- Thank everyone for coming
- Play a quick game to raise your energy
- Explain why you’re meeting
- Share your research on the issue
- Make an action plan that gives each person a job to do
- Set a date and location for your next meeting
Tips and Strategies
Successful meetings are structured to keep your students on track, but they must also be conducive to discussions and the sharing of ideas. This is often a fine balance. Your students need to take a leadership role to plan and conduct a meeting, but your help is needed to coach them through the process, especially for the first few meetings.
Problem Solving
Some students need extra encouragement to lead a meeting, especially shy or reluctant ones. Depending on the experience level of your group, a review of the group norms at the beginning of each meeting will help. As well, students who do not have the confidence to lead a meeting may respond well to individual coaching before and after. Remember that any student can emerge as a leader given the right circumstances and support.
Step #5: Make a Plan of Action
The best way to set goals is to think about your cause as a group of smaller issues. For example, if your cause is the environment, you may want to focus on saving energy or protecting a forest.
Next, brainstorm ways to achieve these goals, and put it into a plan of action. This plan will become your guide to making a difference!
Things to think about when making your plan:
- What is your goal?
- Who can help you reach your goal?
- What will your team need to do to reach this goal?
- What challenges will you face? How can you overcome them?
Tips and Strategies
Students will need a solid conceptual understanding of terms like goal and plan. Consider a short lesson to help students understand the differences between a long range goal, short term goal and a plan. It will help to use examples that students can easily relate to, such as the one below.
- Long term goal – to become the ultimate pianist
- Short term goal – take piano lessons starting at the age six
- Action – sign up for piano lessons
- Daily action – practice the piano every day
Ask students to find an example from their life experience. Next, ask students to generate examples related to social issues and the actions they wish to undertake. Don’t forget to look at the fundraising and awareness ideas on the next few pages.
Problem Solving
When students make their first set of plans, they will need direction and support. A discussion of real life examples can help to reinforce the differences between the long and short term goals. Consider doing this first as a whole group and then let individual students take the lead for the remaining list of issues.
Remember that while students take the lead in the process, your experience will be of great importance when it comes to planning actions. As students share their plans with you, consider the following areas for feedback:
- Scale – What is appropriate? Try to set them up for success
- Timing – Ensure activities fit into the school calendar
- Logistics – Advise on furniture, equipment, technical support etc.
- Safety Net – Mistakes will naturally be made, you’re there to catch them when they need you
Step #6: Take Action!
Now the time has come to take action! This is the key to turning your plan into reality. “Think globally, but act locally.” Through your students’ actions, find ways to make global issues relate to local issues in your home and community (e.g. running a food drive will raise awareness about local and global hunger while helping to stock the shelves of the local food bank). Remember, moral leaders “walk the walk.”
You and your team have a plan and your event is ready to go. Make the most of your big day by keeping these things in mind:
- Ensure that ‘raising awareness’ is an important part of the day.
- Spread the word about your long-term plans.
- Sign up new members with new skills and talents for your group.
- Ask your guests for feedback on the event.
Tips and Strategies
When actions are underway, be sure to allow students to take the lead but provide support as necessary. After each event, debriefing sessions will help students reflect on both their successes and the challenges they faced. Keeping the group norms in mind, any difficulties are also opportunities for learning and to further students’ leadership development.
During these conversations, a positive and supportive attitude is a must but, as their coach, you need to help guide them on how to improve. In addition to the agenda listed above, consider exploring these questions.
- What were the most empowering moments?
- Were there any surprises?
- What did they learn about themselves and the group as a whole?
- Do they have people to thank and recognize, either publicly or privately?
Problem Solving
Reflection should take place after every event or action students take. This will allow room for improvement as your students proceed through the year.
Step #7: Bring in the fun!
The most amazing, fantastic and electrifying thing about taking action is that, to truly succeed, you must have fun!
Setting the Fun Meter on high means:
- Making sure meetings are enjoyable, with snacks and energizers
- Creating opportunities for friendship
- Thinking about how things went with all actions you take (What did you do well? What can be done differently?)
- Celebrating victories!
Tips and Strategies
As the educator, you are in an ideal position to be a cheerleader for the group. Recognition for your students’ work in the school can be something that you help happen. For example, a group status report can be added to the school-wide announcement schedule or assembly agendas. Students can also be recognized through the school website or newsletter and in a more permanent way, in a group scrapbook or the school yearbook.
Problem Solving
Both you and your students are already making a difference by being involved. That’s why you and your students should not be discouraged when things don’t necessarily go as planned. Remember, everything is a learning process and a chance to improve, both personally and as a team!