At Chain Reaction, delegates are invited to participate in a fast-paced, intricate exploration of poverty, its causes, and the ways you or your organisation can join the fight against it! 

For one session only at Chain Reaction, Global Hand will offer a look into the pressures faced by those in poverty, through a hands-on, experiential activity.

Participants try to earn enough to survive by making paper bags out of newspaper and home made glue. They must earn enough to pay for rent, food, sanitation, medical needs and, if they are fortunate, education. Those that cannot make it end up in the hands of a loan shark. This game throws participants into the hopelessness and intricacy of the poverty web.

Ben Solanky, who will be leading this workshop at the event says;

“While only a reflection of a harsher reality, this simulation will offer fresh insights for those who have not lived beneath the complex web of poverty, and provides a unique platform for the solution-based discussion that will follow”

This session is not to be missed, and takes place in the Blue Space at 11:15 on Thursday 12 November.  For more information on the Basti Life Simulation please contact Global Hand at ukoffice@globalhand.org

By Gloria Abramoff, See the Difference

Pressure, pressure, pressure! It would be easier to organize a North West London bar mitzvah, where the competition is high and the expectations are great, but – at least – I know how to show off in front of my family and friends.

They call me ‘the talent’ for See The Difference. But it’s not my talent that I’m bringing to ‘the party’ next Thursday 12 November. It’s my passion; my firm belief in this movement. This is the story that charts Dominic Vallely’s passion. Dominic (or Dom to his friends) left the BBC some 3 years ago. He was the deputy Controller of BBC2 and developed formats like Strictly and Apprentice. But now,  he’s taken that knowledge, that experience and done some good. He has led this idea for almost 3 years and I can’t let him down by doing one duff workshop. So, no pressure – yea, right!

See The Difference is a one stop site that connects the donor to the charity through creative video story telling. In recent months, it’s become one of the most read stories on Third Sector Online and a buzz has been created, living up to our vision to create a movement. 300 people, 75 pioneering charities, 50 corporates and over 1000 Facebook friends; we want to tell you this story. There’ll be no gimmicks, no belly dancers or klezmer bands or cute cup cakes, but you’ll go away thinking ‘what a clever idea; I promise you! And the great thing is, it’s not just an idea, it’s actually happening!!!

See the Difference will be holding a lunch time session at Chain Reaction where Gloria will tell the story behind See The Difference & advise charitable organisations how they can get involved.  

• Click here to read more about See the Difference
• Click here to see the full programme for Chain Reaction 2009

One of the workshops at Chain Reaction is going to be all about campaigning. Maeve McGoldrick, one of the speakers, explains what she’ll be talking about…

The workshop will also hear from Liam Barrington of Bush NCVO, Muna Hassan from Uprising, & Young advisors from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

We would like to say a big thank you to Sun Startup Essentials for helping us ‘get connected’ at the Chain Reaction 2009.

Sun Startup Essentials are generously supplying us with laptops for use on the day – so that we can get the tweets, blogs, videos and audio online, and help connect people outside the event to the activity that is happening at the event.

This year we have an ambitious programme which will see us live stream some of the sessions to our website and upload video and vox pops to our YouTube channel throughout the day.  There will also be a team of bloggers on had to write up activity as it happens, plus we will have our young social reporter team capturing the event and making a film of the day.

Phew!  That’s a lot of activity, so we are very grateful for the extra support!

Read more about the Sun Startup Essentials Programme and the rest of our supporters here

A new post today over at our sister blog, LinksUK, reports on the impact of the recession on child poverty. Depressing reading, but illustrated with a really insightful film made in east London by young people on Community Links young reporters programme, working in collaboration with Save The Children.  The London film formed one part of a national campaigning video Wee Shots and the young people ably demonstrate what needs to change.

Over the summer the Chain Reaction team worked with Community Links youth workers to set up a project enabling  young people to tell their own stories and to report on events and activities that affect them. In the video below the young reporters talk about the making of the film (with professionals from Urban Croft ) and what they learned in the process.  Several of these film makers in the video below will be at Chain Reaction 2009 as part of our social reporting team. 

Just as we did at Chain Reaction 2008, this year we we plan to involve yong people in making a film of the event - to be shown at the end of the day- its an ambitious task but we are connecting with the vnspired Big V Bus who are going to work with our young reporters ont the day to shoot, edit and present their film.

Tools to make and share stories online are increasingly easy to access and simple to use in support of a project or campaign. Throughout the day at Chain Reaction we will be running Social Media Surgeries to demonstrate how online tools can be used to promote your work. Come along and join us  – and look out for our young reporters… they just might want to interview you!

The Chain Reaction 2009 event takes place next Thursday – 12 November – in London’s Canary Wharf. 

As well as inspiring speakers, practical workshops, and participative panel sessions, the event is a unique chance to share ideas, hear those of others, and then begin to make them real. 

One such idea that is looking for input from Chain Reaction participants at the event is The Electronic Collecting Tin – a new idea from The Pennies Foundation.

The idea is simple - to get the UK public to ‘give while they shop’ to help raise millions for organisations working 1:1 in local communities, and help support the lives of people in communities around the UK.

Hilary McVitty of The Pennies Foundation said;

“We are working to deliver the 21st century collecting tin, which gives consumers the choice to give pennies when they pay using a card. It may not sound much, but when millions give a little it soon adds up.  But raising funds is only half the story, efficiently getting that money to where it can make a difference is just as important.

We would like people to come to our workshop at Chain Reaction to hear more about our idea, and to help contribute their thoughts on two key questions:  How can we win the hearts and minds of the public – and their pennies; and what the best way to work with organisations working 1:1 in local communities to make the biggest impact with the money raised”

The Electronic Collecting Tin workshop will take place at 11:15 – 12:30 at the Chain Reaction event, so please come along and share your ideas!  You can also share your thoughts on the Chain Reaction Network.

Click here to see the full programme for Chain Reaction 2009 >>>

UnLtd, The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, is giving delegates at Chain Reaction 2009 on 12 November in Canary Wharf, London, the opportunity to secure one UnLtd Level 1 Award with support and up to £5,000 of cash to turn their idea into a reality.

Level 1 Awards are designed to help make new ideas become real projects and are aimed at individuals or informal groups of people who want to get their idea off the ground. The winner will receive funding to help with the running costs of the project alongside a package of ongoing support.

Delegates will have a window of three hours from the start of the event at 9am to drop in and pitch their ideas in the hope of being shortlisted by an acclaimed panel including Oli Barrett (Connected Capital, Make Your Mark With A Tenner), Rachel Elnaugh (Serial Entrepreneur, former BBC Dragon from Dragon’s Den), and Natalie Campbell (Enterprise UK).

The chosen finalists will take part in a Dragon’s Den style live pitching session to present their ideas where the winner will be decided by a unique audience vote. UnLtd’s very own Cliff Prior, CEO, will be compere at the session and alongside the panel, will be on hand to answer any questions relating to the start up of social ventures, providing expert advice.

The Chain Reaction event brings people together to share ideas for social change, including those from government, charity and business. Key themes of the day include new ideas for financing social change, new ideas for delivering public services, new ideas for organising the business of social change and new ideas for engaging communities. Speakers include, Liam Byrne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Tessa Jowell MP, Minister for London, Martha Lane Fox, Chair of the Digital Inclusion Task Force, and Kerry McCarthy MP, Labour New Media Campaign Spokesperson.

Cliff Prior, CEO at UnLtd said, ‘Chain Reaction is an important event because it brings together people who have the power to make social change and presents a unique platform to hear the latest ideas. UnLtd are proud to be a catalyst for social change and to provide the necessary funding and support to turn those ideas into a reality’.

For more information on UnLtd, visit www.UnLtd.org.uk or to register as a delegate at Chain Reaction, click here (Under 21’s go free!)

Silly question really, most people involved in charities are worried about their funding most of the time, particularly at the moment. Well, we can’t promise to solve all your problems, but you might get off to a good start at Chain Reaction this year.

Throughout the day the Social Investment Business will be running a drop-in service for third sector organisations. As the largest social investor in the UK, they provide loans, grants and support to third sector organisations. Find out how they could support your organisation.

Once you’ve had a chat with them, there are sessions looking at how to finance social change running all day (see the full programme (pdf) for more). Angela Smith MP, Minister for the Third Sector, will be talking alongside Sophi Tranchell, CEO of Divine Chocolate, discussing different ways to invest in social value. Later on, the head of Kiva in Italy will talk about their innovative microlending scheme as part a session on ‘Ideas for Financing Social Change,’ alongside Michael Green, author of Philanthrocapitalism. And in the final session Sue Cooper from Triodos bank will talk about some of the tools available.

The last year has been very tough for charities, and it’s becoming clear we can’t just return to business-as-usual. We’re all looking around for new ideas, new ways of raising money so we can continue achieving our aims, and luckily this year’s Chain Reaction will be full of them.

Simon Berry is one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Chain Reaction event. He’s behind a fantastic campaign to harness Coca-cola’s distribution chain in developing countries for social good, and he explains it below. Find out more about Colalife at http://www.colalife.org/

My name’s Beth Tilston and I attended Chain Reaction last year.  Despite the fact that I couldn’t eat the lovely food (you’ll read why below) I had a great time and made some important connections.

I was looking for ideas and opportunities for food-related projects and through putting a sign up on the board, I met Ian Collingwood who organised the Middlesborough Urban Farming Project.   We discussed the possibility of running a similar event in Brighton.

After Chain Reaction I went back to Brighton and investigated whether this would be possible.  I found out that a similar scheme, called Harvest Brighton and Hove was already in the pipeline and ready to set the town alight with its championing of local food.  Ian had, however, piqued an interest in urban agriculture and I during the year I have gone on to help set up the ‘Edible Campus’ at Brighton University and am in the planning process of a research trip to North and South America to learn lessons in urban agriculture that can inform what we do here in Britain.

Last year I was in the middle of a 100 mile food challenge.  This meant that everything I ate for a year came from within 100 miles of where I was (hence why I didn’t eat the lovely food provided – there will be no such restrictions this year).  I wrote an article about this for Permaculture Magazine and was contacted by an agent who asked me if I would be interested in writing a book about it.  I’m now working with my agent to develop a proposal to send to publishers.  The current working title is ‘Local: Finding value in the things close to home’.

I’ve also just started my own social enterprise, Go Light (www.golight.org.uk) which has been set up  to provide positive action for energy descent. We have grown out of the Transition Town movement and focus on projects that help build connected and resilient communities that are better able to cope with the effects of peak oil, climate change and economic instability.

We work towards:

• Developing people’s practical skills in key ‘resilience’ areas such as cooking, growing and appropriate technology.
• Education and awareness around climate change, peak oil and energy and resource use.
• Setting agendas and shaping ideas with decision makers around individual and community resilience to climate change and peak oil.

We have worked with Sprout Design as Permaculture consultants on a new product design and are currently developing the new schools education programme for The Low Carbon Trust.

I’ll be at Chain Reaction this year and I’d like to make even more connections than I did at the last event.  I’d like to meet people from think tanks who value my skill and knowledge set and would like to hear what I have to say.  I’d like to hear from climate change, peak oil and community building organisations who would like to work with Go Light.  I’d like to talk to people who are teaching practical skills about the challenges and opportunities.

See you all at Chain Reaction 09.