Hello, how's it going? My name's Mrs. Tomassi and I'm gonna be working through with you on your Citizenship lesson today.

Hopefully, you've got everything you need and when you're all good to go, we all make a start.

Today's lesson title is: What role do NGOs, charities and civil society play in local communities? And this forms part of the unit: Where does power reside in the UK? So hopefully by the end of the lesson today, you'll be able to explain the contribution that NGOs, charities and civil society make to local communities.

We'll make a start with the keywords.

There are two keywords that you'll see through this lesson and they're gonna be in bold.

So if you ever need to, you can refer back to them here.

The first one is charity.

That is a group that supports those in need by providing direct help, giving information or raising the profile of particular issues.

Non-governmental organisation, NGO.

And you will most likely see it as NGO in the lesson.

And it's referred to that.

That is a non-profit, voluntary group of citizens who work on a local, national or international level to achieve an aim.

They're not controlled by the government but will often work closely with them.

Now we have free learning cycles today, so we'll make a start with the first one, which is, what is civil society? Now there are different sectors of society.

So to be able to start with what civil society is, it is working out what these other sectors are.

You've got an image there of a building.

Do you recognise that building? Do you know what it is? So this is the Palace of Westminster and it's representing the public sector of society like the government.

We then have a picture in the middle there.

Can you work out what this sector of society might be? This is the private sector which are businesses, and then we have our final sector, a little bit of a giveaway because of what our learning cycle is.

If you can work that one out.

That's civil society and that's what we're looking at now.

So civil society refers to voluntary and community organisations along with informal groups of people who work together to improve their community and make it a better place to live.

Civil society itself is quite a big section and there's lots of different things involved in that as well.

You've got some images there if you can work out what it's made up of.

So we've got charities which our keyword, non-governmental organisations, NGO, which is another keyword.

And then organisations and community groups.

And what we'll do is to break it down 'cause civil society is quite big.

We're gonna look at each one of these now individually.

Important thing about all of them is that they are all separate to the government and are sometimes referred to as the third sector of society.

So you might hear that, you might hear civil society, you might hear them referred to individually.

But the idea is we are talking about these groups that working together to improve their communities.

So true or false? Civil society is part of the Government.

That's false.

Why is that false? Did you manage to remember that? It is sometimes known as the third sector of society and it works separately from the government.

Now we'll start here with charity.

So a charity is an organisation exists for a public benefit.

They can only work on areas approved by the Charity Commission, a body that oversees the work of all charities.

And any money raised must be used for the charity's work and not treated as profit.

Important thing to note about charities.

So we said they're separate to the government.

They also need to be politically neutral.

And this is to ensure they maintain their charitable status and they're focusing on their core mission.

If you're not too sure on that, don't worry because we're gonna look at these more detail as we go on in the lesson.

But they're focusing on that core mission of benefiting the public rather than promoting political agendas.

They're typically governed by a board of trustees.

And the trustees are responsible for overseeing the charity's activities, ensuring it follows its mission, and making sure the charity is financially sound.

Now here to give you some examples because charities can address all sorts of issues.

Start getting you thinking cap on.

Can you already think of any charities? So from description we've given, you might have heard of some, can you think of any? Hopefully, you might have thought of some of these.

So we've got a list there and there are loads more.

This is just to give you an idea of some of the different breakdowns.

So we've got charities that focus on people, charities that focus on environment and animals.

Some of them there more well known ones such as the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research, Help for Heroes.

You might have heard of Age UK.

We will talk a little bit about that one in the lesson if you didn't.

And then the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF.

You've then got some that focus on the environment.

So Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Canal & River Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB.

And then some that are specifically for animals, RSPCA, you might have heard of that one.

That's quite well known.

Some of the others you might have as well.

So check for understanding.

Can you fill in the blanks? Any money that charities raise must go towards the charity's work and not treated as? Profit.

We'll now move on to NGOs.

So they were the non non-governmental organisations and they are independent groups that operate outside of governmental control.

I suppose the clues in the name non-governmental.

But yeah, what they're doing is they might work closely with the government to bring about change.

So they are not working for the government, but they might work alongside if there's change that they need.

And they tend to be about social, environmental or humanitarian issues, work locally or globally and focus on their mission.

They again, like charities are independent of political parties and usually don't endorse or support any political parties.

They are also often funded by donations, grants or fundraising activities.

Again, there are lots of NGOs and they might work locally, nationally, or internationally.

Having a think.

I mean you might not have heard the term, you might know some, so if you do, can you think of any? But if not, you might have heard of these organisations without realising that they are NGOs.

So we've got Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, WWF, Save the Children, Amnesty International and Slow Food.

And then we will look at some now.

There are slight differences between NGOs and charities as we've just seen.

So this check for understanding, can you remember which ones of the following are examples of NGOs? A, Amnesty International? B, British Heart Foundation? C, Doctors without Borders? D, the Donkey Sanctuary? It's A and it is C.

The others, as Laura is saying, there are examples of charities.

That brings us onto our third sector of the Civil Society, which is community groups and organisations.

Now they tend to bring together to address specific needs or issues within the community.

Again, they might have a national group, but then they work in specific local areas, but they always set up for a specific issue in a community.

So they might tend to be volunteer driven and rely on local support, focus on areas that affect their local community and are non-profit organisations.

They might work in partnership with other charities, NGOs or local authorities, but remain independent.

So again, charities, NGOs, community groups, there might be some crossovers, but they will all have their individual work that they are also doing.

This is a bit like I was saying, I mean it goes to, some of them might run in just one local area and specific to that community, others might run nationally or across motor for all areas.

So some examples, again, you might be able to think of some, you might actually know some that are really specific to your own local area that are making a difference and maybe not known in other places.

To give you an example of some more well-known ones, you've got here things like community centres, cultural organisations, the Rotary Club, Neighbourhood watch, food banks, sports and recreation clubs, community pantries, PTA, so Parent-Teacher Associations, youth clubs and environmental groups.

And again, these are just some, there are loads of different ones and you'd probably know one specific to your own area.

So check for understanding now.

Now we've gone through each three.

Can you match the organisation to their correct term? So we've got charity, NGO, community Group Organisation.

Take some time, see if you can quickly work them out.

Did you manage to work out that the charity is the Dogs Trust? NGO is Save the Children and the community group/organization is the Parent-Teacher Association, so PTA.

That moves us onto the first task.

Can you identify and describe what the three main parts of civil society are with an example for each? Take some time, have a think, and then when you're ready, unpause and we can have a look at feedback on the answers.

How did you get on with that? Now your answer could have looked like this.

So charities are group that support those in need by providing direct help, giving information or raising the profile of particular issues.

An example is the Wildlife Trust.

NGOs are non-profit, voluntary group of citizens who work on a local, national or international level to achieve an aim; they are not controlled by the government but will often work closely with them.

An example is Amnesty International.

Community groups and organisations support with issues in a specific area.

An example is Neighbourhood Watch.

Did you manage to get something like that? Did you think of any interesting examples that you might have known in your area? Hopefully you've managed to come up with something.

And that means we can now move on to the second learning cycle, which is how does civil society support local communities? So we've got Laura here and she says, "Civil society doesn't just support people in need.

They offer lots of different support." And that is very true.

So then lots of different ways that they provide some local support through offering relief and aid, campaigning or advocating for changes to laws, promoting social wellbeing, protecting human rights, providing support and services or lobbying part politicians, they can even take issues to court if they have reason to.

So there is so many different ways civil society supports.

We are gonna look at some of these in a bit more detail.

Each organisational group will not necessarily provide all the types of support.

So they might focus on one or two of what we just saw.

The support they offer will depend on their organization's mission statement.

Mission is the core purpose that drives the organisation.

They usually post them on their website, social media or any official documents.

So if you have a area of civil society that you are looking at a specific organisational group, you can have a look on their website, on their social media and they will probably somewhere have what their mission statement is.

We now have Sam here who says, "The mission helps them stay focused on their goals and make a positive impact in the local community or beyond." Here to show you in a bit more detail what a mission looks like.

We've got some examples of different missions.

So we've got Oxfam here.

They work to address the root cause of poverty and inequality by partnering with communities to create lasting change.

They provide support to people in crisis, advocate for justice and campaign for policies that protect the rights of vulnerable people.

Check for understanding.

How does Oxfam offer support to local communities? A, offering support to those in crisis? B, campaigning for policies to protect individuals? C, lobbying politicians? It is A and it is B.

This is the Refugee Council.

So they mission is to support and empower refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK.

They help refugees rebuild their lives with dignity and respect by offering advice, practical support, and advocating for their rights.

You've then got a Neighbourhood Watch here.

So this is an example of a community organisation.

Their aim is to create safer communities by encouraging local residents to work together to prevent crime and improve their neighborhood's quality of life.

They've achieved this through communication, awareness and cooperation.

Check for understanding.

Now that we've gone through all three.

So can you match the organisation to how it supports the local community? And you've got the three that we just looked at.

Oxfam, Refugee Council, and Neighbourhood Watch.

If you need some time, pause it, but if not, see if you can match them and then you can check them.

Did you manage to work out: Oxfam, campaigns for policies that tackle poverty and inequality.

Refugee Council: supports those who have relocated by providing advice and practical support.

And its Neighbour Watch: that encourage local residents to support to reduce crime.

Okay, so we've got Jacob and Alex and they're discussing their concerns in their local community.

Jacob says, "There have been some dogs in our area that are getting out of their houses and running in the road." Alex says, "Homelessness is an issue in our area is there's not enough housing." You only need to pick one of these concerns and the which one you pick is your choice.

And then identify the support civil society can provide for them.

So just pick one, have a think what support civil society can provide for their concern? Take some time now, pause and then we'll be able to feedback on your answer.

How did you get on? Now if you picked Jacob's concern, your answer could look like this.

So civil society could offer support and advice to show dog owners how to make sure their homes are secured.

Community groups could campaign for stricter regulations around pet ownership or work with local government to offer more secure spaces for dogs in the area.

Did you think of something like that? Or maybe you had some different ideas maybe of how charities might offer guidance or maybe some form of education in the area.

Any ideas that could be provided by civil society would work for this.

Now, if you picked Alex's concern, you could have said Civil society could provide emergency shelter and support for people experiencing homelessness, offering food and essentials.

Community groups could campaign for more affordable housing and work with local government to build more houses.

They could also provide services like job training, mental health support, and help navigating housing programmes.

That again, you could have gone down the line of looking at lobbying politicians.

That would be a great answer as well.

There are lots of different routes here, but hopefully you managed to find some way that civil society could provide support.

We're now moving on to the second part and now we're specifically looking at Alex here.

Alex has decided to set up a charity to address his concerns.

Alex says, "I'm going to set up a charity at my local youth club to offer the homeless in our area a warm space in the evenings.

Hopefully, in the future I'll be able to work with local government to build more housing in our area." For the second part of this task, can you write a mission statement that will be suitable for Alex's charity? Include the purpose of the charity and the action the charity will take.

If you're trying to think about a mission statement, remember we had a look at some in this learning cycle when we looked at examples from Oxfam, Refugee Council.

They are all examples of mission statements and that might give you a bit of an idea to get you started on this task.

Take some time, have some thought, see if you can come up with your mission statement and then we'll go through and see if it's similar to the one in the feedback.

Hopefully you've managed to create your mission statement now.

It could have looked like something like this.

So we believe everyone in our community deserves a safe place to live.

Our mission is to provide support and resources for those experiencing homelessness, including shelter and food.

Eventually, we aim to work with the local government to provide a thousand more homes in our local area.

Again, this has been quite specific.

Maybe you might have gone down a different route, but yeah, as long as you've got the purpose in there and the action, that would be great.

Now we are moving on to the final learning cycle for this session, which is what power does civil society hold? And that obviously links in with our unit, which is about where does power reside in the UK? So we're gonna have a look here in terms of the distribution of power in the UK.

So we've got UK Parliament, which is central government holding the power.

Power is distributed through devolved, regional governments and local governments.

Already thinking, 'cause we've had a look at some of them already in this session.

We've had a look at local government and how community and local groups might work with them.

So a bit of a reminder power has been devolved to these areas.

So it's this idea of transferring some of the powers to them and decision making.

And there are other areas in society that hold power such as civil society.

Like we said, it might be in terms of working alongside them and it might be in terms of their own power.

Now civil society has the power to influence the policies of government and business.

Amplify the voices of marginalised groups by offering a platform to advocate their rights and needs.

We're gonna look at some examples of these.

So you've got a picture there, which is Amnesty International.

Now, Amnesty International run this campaign.

Well they run lots of different campaigns, but to give you an example of one it's called Right for Rights.

And what they're doing there is hoping to hold governments accountable by getting people to write in and support some rights that haven't been adhere to.

By doing this, it helps to raise awareness of human rights and demonstrates the power of collective action.

There are some that have had so many responses and it's actually caused governments to go, okay, yeah, we've made a mistake.

And some people that actually were accused of crimes have ended up being released through this programme.

So it has made a huge impact.

Another example of how change can be made, charities can create change and influence future.

For example, Age UK.

So we saw them earlier.

Now if you don't know what Age UK are, they provide a range of services for the elderly in the community.

What they also do is they lobby the government.

So they attend an all party parliamentary group for ageing and older people.

And what they're trying to do is to improve and bring in services that are benefit to the elderly.

They do a lot of research and then they provide evidence to the groups that helps to highlight some of the challenges faced by this group of people such as loneliness and healthcare access.

Their input has actually influenced discussions and increased government funding for social care.

So it shows charities can really have the power because the research and the evidence that they have put in has ended up creating more funding that's gone to local governments to support the older people in the area.

Now Sofia says here, "All Party Parliamentary Groups are MPs from a range of political parties that discuss a range of issues and write reports." So this is a great example of showing how charities are separate, but they can work alongside the government in order to create change.

That was a lot of information there, so check for understanding just to make sure you've still got an idea of what's going on.

So which of the following ways shows Age UK have power in the UK? A, taking part in All Party Parliamentary Groups? B, by being part of the Government? C, by creating laws for elderly care.

It is A, they're not part of the government, they're a charity and they're separate, but they work alongside by getting involved in the All Party Parliamentary Groups.

They might be able to influence laws, but they wouldn't be the ones that create it.

That would be government.

And now we will move on to NGOs.

So NGOs create change and influence.

For example, Save the Children.

Now they had an influence in being able to secure free school meals for disadvantaged children in the UK.

How they did this was through campaigning for government support.

They were highlighted how child hunger affects education and health.

So a bit like Age UK in terms of the research and evidence.

And they've researched and create reports that provided evidence to policy makers to extend the free school meals programme.

They also work with politicians and local authorities to ensure more children receive nutritious meals to help reduce the impact of poverty.

We've then got community groups who can speak up for residents needs and create better local services.

So a couple of examples here.

Brixton Soup Kitchen and they provide a community space for homeless people, people in need.

They're offer consultation sessions.

And what that means is that people that are clients that attend, they might support them with housing or information on benefits or training that they might need.

So they're not only just then helping in the short term, the aim is then to support in the longer term as well.

Which links a bit to actually, like we were looking in task two actually, an example linked to that would be what the work that the Brixton Soup Kitchen are doing.

You've then got Parent-Teacher Associations.

So this one's a little bit different, but it might be something that you've heard of.

If you are in schools, you might know people that are part of them and they can support the schools by improving policies.

They can raise funds for additional equipment that might not be covered by the funding that the schools get.

So again, an organisation that can help to create better services in them schools.

Another check for understanding here.

So Sofia's got a bit confused about what support Brixton Soup Kitchen provide.

Can you rewrite her description, changing just one word to make it correct.

Brixton Soup Kitchen provides a community space for young people.

They also offer consultation sessions for those that need support with housing, benefits or training.

It isn't young people.

They specifically provide support for homeless people.

Did you remember that one? Hopefully you did.

Great job if you did.

And we are moving on to the final task.

So hopefully we're gonna tie everything in and link it all together.

Back to our unit title, which is about power in the UK.

So can you explain, with an example, what power civil society holds in the UK? Take some time to reflect and think of an example.

It would be really good if you knew an example from your local area.

If not, we did talk through some in that learning cycle.

So you could always use one of them if you're not too sure.

Take some time, when you're ready, unpause and we'll go through it together.

How did you get on with that.

Now brilliant, if you did manage to think of a example from your local area.

If not, hopefully you managed to think of one example from what we've looked at.

And we'll go through one here.

So your answer could look like this.

Civil society plays an important part in our democracy as it's separate from the government and businesses and includes various groups such as NGOs and charities.

These organisations have the ability to hold governments accountable, raise awareness, and provide research and evidence support changes to laws.

Charities, such as Age UK, provide support for elderly individuals in the community.

In addition, they have helped secure more government funding by taking part in All Party Parliamentary Groups for ageing and older people.

Now that actually brings us to the end of this lesson.

So all we are gonna do now is just summarise what we have gone through.

So the title is, what role do NGOs, charities and civil society play in local communities? Now what we've looked at is that civil societies made up of charities, NGOs, and community groups and organisations.

These all have mission statements that address what their goals are and how they support local communities.

Support is provided in a variety of ways, including offering relief and aid, campaigning or advocating for changes to laws and protecting human rights.

Civil society is separate from the government but still holds power in society through lobbying politicians, taking part in All Party Parliamentary Groups, campaigning for change, and raising awareness of specific issues.

I suppose that's the most important thing to take away, is actually, although separate from the government, civil society really still holds power and they do make a lot of change in society.

We've looked at a couple of examples like Amnesty International, the Brixton Soup Kitchen, Age UK, but there are so many.

You might want to go away and have a look at some that might mean something to you that are specific and have a look and see at the difference that they have made to the local communities and the people around them.

So on that note, thanks so much for working with me today and hopefully you have a better understanding of the role NGOs, charities and civil society play in local communities.

Have a great rest of your day.