Identifying a campaign target

Spend time as group agreeing and defining as clearly as possible the issue or problem on which everyone will focus on.

Creating a shared vision and the changes sought helps campaigners to stay motivated and focused during the campaign. It is a good idea to explore and come to an agreement on a specific target because the problem one Disabled person chooses may not be the priority of another.

It is also important to ‘cut the issue’ to narrow down bigger picture problems into more manageable parts. For example, transforming social care is a broad, long-term aim and it is often helpful to focus more narrowly for example on scrapping social care charges,  demanding full implementation of the Care Act or demanding adequate funding for independent living.

Exercise to identify a campaign target

Objectives:

  • To identify a key problem participants want to work to address
  • To help the participants identify potential areas for future collaborative efforts

Getting Ready: This exercise should take approximately 30 minutes. The materials you will need include: blank/notebook paper; pens/pencils for each person in the group; flip chart paper; marker pen.

The Group Exercise Process:

  1. Individual Process (5 minutes): Ask each person to reflect and write on a piece of paper three problems or issues that are most important to them.
  2. Ask each member of the group to share their two problems or issues with the others in the group.
  3. Everyone in the group works together to decide on the ONE problem or issue that they will all agree to work on together during the workshop.

Reflection and Sharing: Now that the group has decided on a problem, everyone in the group should work together to describe the problem or issue in a short phrase. As the facilitator, write these short phrases on a piece of flip chart paper to share with everyone in the workshop.

Source: Initially developed and written by Philippe Duhamel and Nancy Pearson for the New Tactics Asia Regional Workshop, August 2005.