Help and advice needed on charities - any bright ideas or experience welcome.

[flyingmum]

Hi
I wondered if anyone out there can help me. I'm not only mum of two (one of which is an aspie and dyspraxic) but also an english teacher at secondary and I volunteered to run Enrichment week this year for our year 9s. (seemed like a good idea at the time . We get a large group per day and have to do something 'fun' with them. Last year we did The Apprentice and each group thought of a marketing campaign for a product. This year I want to do the same kind of thing but make them develop a marketing and rebranding campaign for a charity (a made up one but on a real issue). I think it would be good for them to think about others and widen their limited knowledge of the wider world. I have some ideas already mainly to do with raising awareness of Tourettes (allowing people with Tourettes to get work) and also moving away from the comic picture that most kids have of 'its people swearing'. One of my less thoughtful year 9s told me the other day 'how cool would it be to have Tourettes' so I think this would be good. I also thought of male anorexia as its so often a condition associated with adolescent girls. Also a foundation which ensures that there are more serious sporting training facilities in local areas for disabled people. I think I might do something on acquired brain injury as we have had a lad in school who incurred massive injuries but still returned back to us.

Anyone else got any other ideas? Its a bit tricky not to copy any existing charities. Also the issues need to be ones that year 9s can identify with and won't be silly about. I'm not going to do anything with ASD or Aspies as its just too close to home for me and call me a wimp but I can't deck some little blighter because they've said something daft and I know I will want to and I can't risk getting upset presenting and leading 70 14 year olds.

Sorry this is so long. Any ideas most welcome. Many thanks

no ideas sorry, but i do like the tourettes idea, you are right that most kids that age would just see it as a funny thing, and raising awareness of it would be great, as would the male annorexia, sorry i've not been any help but just browsing through the posts and saw you down there unanswered, now i have bumped it you might get some good ideas, its great what you are doing, hopefully you will manage to have some fun doing it too, good luck

Hum. Well if you want to mimic some real world charities/issues there are a lot of little charities out there supporting local hospices who are dealing with fairly severe medical conditions and issues around end of life where the "official" agencies pretty much leave you to it. The standard publicity campaigns are about poor little sick children - but in practice much of the "real" work is with helping families to adapt, respite, sibling issues, etc: so there is a whole lot of room for discussion about what the real problems are in that situation, as opposed to the problems that people are willing to give money to support and what you should do, morally, with the delta.

Bit heavy, but have spent a chunk of today at a fantastic hospice which is effectively operating as a day centre because they have only got funds to staff half their beds.

a young carers charity? It would help them realise theya re but an acident away of having to help with the care of their parents or siblings.

I remember a girl when i was at school who had to care for her mum who had MS. none o f us realised what she went through until the last year of school when her mum died and the school gave an assembly and a chairty worker came in to talk to us all about it.

I like Mamzons idea- so many of our kids are helping with their siblings as wella s other young carers (I know ds2 does) and they get is so little awareness.

Thanks for all of these. I think the young carers charity would be good particularly as we have children in the school who have siblings and parents who need care. R3dH - I too thought of small charities and have one in mind that is local to us that runs training and job preparation for DS young adults. I was also wondering about a charity that runs a support network for selective mutism (we have had children in the school with this condition). The thing is the premise is that of the Apprentice and that a small charity has now decided to go national and needs a massive fund raising event and public awareness splurge (will think of a better word when not having drunk wine!). I cannot use an existing charity for various reasons so have to make one up. As one of the learning objectives is to look up and research info I need an issue that is fairly easy for them to internet search and find. They only have from around 10 till 2.00 to get their pitch ready and although we can all appreciate the needs of helping people adapt I think this might be a tough call for your average 13 to 14 year old given the ignorance that we meet from the adult population on this issue. Also some of this year's year 9 cohort are particularly tricky in discipline terms and a number, very sadly, are somewhat 'damaged' themselves which means I have to tread carefully on some issues. Also there are some that have a range of SEN and I don't want to make them feel like they are being identified - hence not picking out anything on ADHD, ASD, CP, or SSLD. I like the idea of telling them that we have had past pupils with some of the situations that they will be researching because it gives them an immediate 'hook' to empathise but obviously not some child sitting in their group who may or may not have a formal diagnosis (we have one who is soooo Aspie but for various reasons a diagnosis has not been forthcoming).

If its any consolation our House Charity this year is a small local charity, one girl in my tutor group is undergoing training in working with disabled children and is doing voluntary work, another regularly helps out with a local dance club for young disabled and three others have just won a singing competition with the children at the local SLD school.

Many Many thanks for all your help - just got to go and do some preparation!