What we can do

Ideas for Stand Up Against Poverty events
Get yourselves noticed! Standing up is an ordinary thing, but if you do it together in an unusual way, you’ll definitely get people’s attention and get them to take action by using action cards or petitions.
• Gather a group of people together in a town or city centre and wrap them in a giant white band – while they’re standing up. You could use a roll of white material, rolls of wallpaper, banqueting roll, old sheets tied together, or


anything else white. Alternatively you could get people to dress in white and form a human white band.
• If you’ve got prominent town steps or a public staircase, get people to gather on these for impact especially if it’s a media focused event with photo opportunities.
• Instead of a “sit in”, why not organise a “stand in”, gathering together as many people as possible to stand together in solidarity against poverty at one time. You could do this inside or outside and you could choose somewhere unexpected to create a bit of a stir, e.g. a supermarket or a coffee shop.
• Organise a ”flash mob” – this is where a group of people arrange by text or email to gather together at a prearranged time, carry out an action, and then disperse without explanation about what you’re doing. Organising a few “stand up” flash mobs in a limited time (a week or two) in a town or city centre should get talk flowing, and could be in the build up to a big event with clear messaging and branding. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob for useful information.

Linking with what is already happening where you are
• Contact local cinemas, theatres, concerts or other audience-focused events and ask them to all stand up before the event starts, explaining why.
• Link with comedy nights or open mic comedy nights, and persuade them to do “stand up against poverty comedy”, with an information and action stall at the event and asking people to stand up together during the event.
• Get local sports teams or sports stadia on board. You could ask if they could put a loudspeaker announcement out to get people to all stand together before the match, or even do a Mexican stand up wave. The sports clubs could include information in the match programme and get the players involved.

People you could try to get involved
To provide additional local media interest or to generate more of a talking point, get local celebrities or influentials involved, but also think about people who are known for sitting down and use any links your town has with developing countries.
• Use any twinning links your town has with developing countries to make a link to campaigning in those countries. Involve local twinning groups in your planning.
• Work with local refugee and asylum groups if appropriate to see if any people would be willing to talk about the poverty and issues in their home countries.
• Get schools, universities, supermarkets and shopping centres on board to see if they could hold a stand up at a certain time – perhaps as part of the world record attempt.
• Get local faith groups from all faiths on board, encourage them to organise their own stand up events in their places of worship and also to get involved in any actions in your town/city centre.
• Get local newsreaders and radio presenters known for sitting down to stand up.
• Don’t forget to get your sitting MP involved. For more information about who your local MP is visit: www.locata.co.uk/commons

Materials for events
You can use the Make Trade Fair and More Teachers and Health Worker materials for your events, but you can also make your own materials.
• Make a stand up people paper chain before or at events. Schools and youth groups or people at the stall could colour in those people using the flags of all
the different countries that are taking part in the Global Month of Action. This paper chain could be used as a decoration, or as a symbol of events at events.
• Create flags or banners with key messages on them, or with images of people standing up on them.
• Balloons work well at public events and engage people, especially children, in the activity. You could get balloons made with a message, or just use bought balloons with the message attached. Using white balloons could also enable you to create a band of balloons during your stand up events.



source: www.oxfam.org.uk