This month at MacComms, we launched our corporate social responsibility initiative, which will see us undertake one charity day per month, where a team member will offer support to a charity of their choice.
This month, as part of my ongoing voluntary work with Leeds-based young women’s organisation, Getaway Girls, I travelled to London to attend a workshop with Comic Relief about creating effective videos for charity campaigns.
Comic Relief is providing ten charities with the opportunity to receive ‘crowd-match’ funding, in a campaign running from 1st October to 31st November 2017. Getaway Girls has been chosen as one of the charities to participate, raising funds to continue their group for Syrian young women. Over the next few weeks, myself, Alison (complex needs worker at Getaway Girls), and the girls will be working hard to develop a series of videos to promote their crowdfunding campaign.
Getaway Girls is a charity which focuses on empowering young women, supporting a diverse range of young women through both group work and individually. Based in Harehills, Leeds, Getaway Girls provides groups for various needs, such as, young mum’s, young women new to the country and numerous creative groups including music and arts.
The money raised in the crowdfunding campaign will go towards continuing the Syrian Girls Friendship(SGF)project, which is a balance of support, challenge and fun. The aim of the group is to help the young women to develop confidence, and provides a space for them to make new friends, visit new places, and partake in fun activities. There are both English and Arabic speaking workers to allow girls that may be new to the country to participate and feel welcome.
Taking part in the Comic Relief workshop was a fantastic experience, meeting the people behind the renowned Comic Relief campaigns, and hard-hitting films, was an amazing opportunity. I gained a great insight into how they make their films so memorable and successful in getting people to empathise with those in need.
The team has been brainstorming ideas and is set to begin filming in the next few days. I can’t wait to see our vision come to life, and hopefully push the crowd-funding campaign towards success!
Be sure to keep an eye out for the videos on social media! (and if you could donate towards the campaign when it goes live that would be greatly appreciated!)
For more information about Getaway Girls, please visit: https://www.getawaygirls.co.uk/ Follow them on Twitter : @getawaygirlslds
