The Great Schools StandUp Against Poverty 2009

A suggested basic e-mail to diocesan or LA schools or other contacts

I thought all our schools and colleges would appreciate getting early word of an unusual invite we've been sent - for all of us together to Stand Up Against Poverty on 16th October.

It's a little extra in your PSHE/RE or social responsibility activities - simple, uplifting, and no-cost!

I think you'll see it as something most schools will love doing. So I'm going to enrol all schools and send in our totals to the worldwide count. Of course, if you don't want to join in, you don't have to. And you don't have to tell me!

The key information is at www.just1.org.uk/standups.

The basic idea is called Schools StandUp Against Poverty. It takes only a few minutes in an assembly or classrooms on Friday 16th October, or the nearest convenient day before. Pupils, staff and others are invited to stand up together and share out loud some simple Promises to the Poor based on the Millennium Development Goals.

You'll be alongside hundreds of thousands of children and teachers already signed up to do the same thing elsewhere in this country - and not only in schools with a caring ethos, but in churches and other communities. And it's part of the annual follow-on to MakePovertyHistory, in which over 100 million people around the world take part - around the World Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

There are other suggested StandUp activities which may interest and benefit you - such as writing to the government, telling your local press, and composing your own standup songs!

I hope you'll find this is worthwhile extra for all in the autumn.


Why? How? Who?	For Schools	For Faith Groups	For Anyone Else	Promises to Poor	News & Views	About GCAP/UNMC	About Just1
Compose StandUp School Songs	Invite other schools to join you	Ask your MP to StandUp with you	Tell your local press good news	Tell governments what you stand for	Download/print simple material	Lend a helping E-hand	Contact Just1
The Just1 2009 StandUps Against Poverty and for the UN Millennium Development Goals This page tells you how some people can play a much-valued part just by spreading the word

	How to sit down and be counted as an E-Angel Consider lending a huge-helping hand - to so that your schools don't miss the StandUps Against Poverty this October especially if you're... a director or team leader in an education/schools department in an Anglican or Catholic diocese or their counterpart in another faith group - or an open-to-ideas LA or a Chair of a SACRE or a member of a diocesan J&P team, chaplains' group, a WDA, or a leader of youth development or social responsibility or someone on the same lines		It was indeed heartwarming to hear of your successes last year... Each and every person taking part in the 50 Days of Global Action Against Poverty reaffirms my belief that individuals can come together to make a difference." It is therefore very encouraging to hear of proactive and positive community action in support of these same goals. I wish you every success in your efforts for this October's StandUp. ... UK Prime Minister in May 2009 letter to Hugh Gibbons

	Hugh Gibbons has a small plea to a small number of people - including you, perhaps - who can make a huge difference to the success of Schools StandUp Against Poverty. When head teachers and PSHE/RE co-ordinators and other teachers hear about the Schools StandUps Against Poverty, they usually like the idea a lot. But simply making them aware that StandUps are going to be around is the major problem for me - operating on my own, with a minute budget and limited time. The contact information is usually there in the public domain - on diocesan and LA and school websites, for example. But extracting and logging even a couple of hundred addresses takes me days - and there are 20,000+ schools in this country... And then there's the matter of reaching past electronic and human gatekeepers to get the message into the consciousness of the deciders... A suggestion for Heads of Schools/Education in Anglican and Roman Catholic dioceses, other faith groupings, and LAs If you like the idea of schools Standing Up Against Poverty, perhaps you might find a few minutes to lend a huge helping hand. You'd use the day-to-day e-address lists you have at your fingertips just to let schools know of the StandUps. Simply e-mail heads or other contacts in schools or elsewhere drawing the concept of StandUp to their attention. To help you, there's a basic email below with key information - which you can copy and paste, or amend, or use as a starting point. Suggest that they get the date in their diaries now, well before the autumn term. They can make the specific arrangements nearer the time - such as that week, or the day before, on the morning! Tell Hugh Gibbons what you've done - and send him information on the total number of schools and a guesstimate of pupils and teachers in them (to to nearest 10,000 is fine!) Your figures will be put up on the school pages on this website. You'll also get your own page listing all the schools and their location if you supply these in some simple electronic form (you can get an idea from this entry for Blackburn CofE diocese). A special suggestion for SACREs and other groups Here's a StandUp idea to help spread the word about your work and worth. How about arranging for all of you to StandUp and say the Promises to the Poor wherever you happen to be on Friday 16th October? If you like the idea, we can put up a new page listing, for example, SACREs taking part (eg Justoneton SACRE, 25 members representing 7 faiths.) Or do you have another idea? And what's in it for all of you? An Outstanding on your personal OffGod report to help fast-track your application when you arrive at the Pearly Gates, perhaps? A pat on the back from your teachers? Applause at a conference when you suggest everyone stands up and rehearses the Promises? In the meantime, there'll be a St Andup's Helpful Hands Star for you - awarded for Just1 support above and beyond the call of St Andup making you a member of the very special team that you can see here		NB Just1's DIOCESAN DIRECTORS' DISCRETIONARY DISPENSATION All Anglican and Catholic bishops in the UK and Ireland have been asked to help by declaring theirs a StandUp Diocese - inviting everyone in their schools and churches to join in on 16-18th October. It'll save them having to enrol individually, and have all the advantages of a great collective action. Some bishops have already signed up, and others have asked advisors to look at the idea. In other cases, the concept may be sitting in an in-tray - maybe yours... While the wider decision's being made or mulled over, heads of education or related teams in dioceses might like to take the initiative and make their own discretionary declaration of Schools StandUp. Tell the schools. Tell Just1. And tell the bishop! This would make sure schools don't miss out, are aware of what's on, are counted in, and have the date inked into their diaries. Yes?
	A suggested basic e-mail to diocesan or LA schools or other contacts I thought all our schools and colleges would appreciate getting early word of an unusual invite we've been sent - for all of us together to Stand Up Against Poverty on 16th October. It's a little extra in your PSHE/RE or social responsibility activities - simple, uplifting, and no-cost! I think you'll see it as something most schools will love doing. So I'm going to enrol all schools and send in our totals to the worldwide count. Of course, if you don't want to join in, you don't have to. And you don't have to tell me! The key information is at www.just1.org.uk/standups. The basic idea is called Schools StandUp Against Poverty. It takes only a few minutes in an assembly or classrooms on Friday 16th October, or the nearest convenient day before. Pupils, staff and others are invited to stand up together and share out loud some simple Promises to the Poor based on the Millennium Development Goals. You'll be alongside hundreds of thousands of children and teachers already signed up to do the same thing elsewhere in this country - and not only in schools with a caring ethos, but in churches and other communities. And it's part of the annual follow-on to MakePovertyHistory, in which over 100 million people around the world take part - around the World Day for the Eradication of Poverty. There are other suggested StandUp activities which may interest and benefit you - such as writing to the government, telling your local press, and composing your own standup songs! I hope you'll find this is worthwhile extra for all in the autumn.		"I am pleased to encourage schools to take part in StandUps as it offers a simple but powerful way of showing solidarity with a cause with which young people have a great affinity. And it offers another opportunity to engage our students in the ongoing discussion about important issues of justice for the poor and marginalized." From a Diocesan Director of Schools after joining in StandUp 2008 at Schools Conference