Cafe Do

south west | community | announcement Thursday December 20, 2012 14:48 by Miss Jessica Lockey jlockey at oxfam dot org dot uk

Oxfam South West are Iooking to recruit like-minded groups who may be interested in working with us on a new way of campaigning, cafe style!

Our collaborative model suggests that

-          We collaborate with 2/3 other national organisations with shared values to host a public evening meeting in a cafe

-          Each group takes a turn in hosting an evening and presenting a campaign/issue

-          Emphasis on making events social, educational, active, engaging (a light-touch approach)

-          There should be an activity (e.g. film showing, banner making, guest speaker, discussion) and action (e.g. letter writing, petition signing) associated with each event

-          Groups can give ‘parish notices’ or split off in to own group meetings to plan events etc. after whole group activity - this will ensure that the campaign groups involved will maintain their individual identities.

Pushing for a collaborative, creative and above all else, FUN engagement with campaigns is a step that we believe will encourage a wider audience who are interested in what we have to say, but are not necessarily enticed by the idea of 'meetings'.

We think that these social spaces will act as a positive environment where like-minded people can learn together about change. And if an idea for an event or social or stunt comes out of this, it will be an organic one with real enthusiasm and drive behind it.

We have already been in touch with possible venues, and have found a keen cafe who would love to host us and help us. So all we need now are people! We would love to know your thoughts, examples of where you think this kind of thing is already happening, and groups in Bristol that we could potentially collaborate with. And if you have any ideas for getting this off the ground, get in touch.