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Building a local team and structure

As part of your campaign planning, decide on a structure that will work for you.

Example Campaign Structure

Each campaign city has developed a structure that works best locally. What works best for you will depend on rough sleeping in your area and what your campaign needs. Some of the committees and roles that have been effective are described here.

Running a campaign requires a variety of roles, experience and skills, including:

  1. project management
  2. leadership
  3. communications
  4. logistics
  5. event management
  6. volunteer recruitment and support

Decide on the skills and experience you need for the different roles and tasks within your campaign structure, and identify how to match these with the right people and organisations.  You may need to recruit outside your current group or network to find the skills you need.

Who to involve

To build your local campaign team think about anyone who could be useful – from charities and NGOs to government, faith-based groups, businesses and the public.  Cities have found that involving representatives from key sectors in early planning stages has helped make their local campaign more effective.

City example: A WHAT leadership group was formed of senior representatives of the partner organisations, including the City Council, and both commissioned and non-commissioned agencies, meeting regularly and committed to work together to make change.” (Westminster Homeless Action Together report, 2016)

This tracking template is designed to help you consider who to involve and how to involve them.  You can also carry out a more detailed Faction and WIIFM (‘What’s In It For Me’) analysis. This will help you to look not only at what others can contribute but also what they can gain from helping your campaign succeed – which may help you to persuade them to get involved if needed.

Your local campaign will likely include:

Individuals with lived experience of homelessness

These are the most important people of all to consider from the start. They are who the campaign is ultimately about and for, and the needs, views and aspirations of those who are or have experienced homelessness are what should help define and drive forward sustainable local solutions.

Key campaign team

The core people who will help you to drive or lead the campaign, are prepared to commit time, take a few risks if necessary, and be open to new ideas and ways of doing things to bring about the changes needed to end street homelessness. They will normally be the members of your steering group or project management team. They should be accountable to the wider group of stakeholders and ensure that the views of people who are homeless are represented.

Lead organisation

Successful collaborative campaigns generally rely on the presence of a lead organisation. Think about which organisation in your area is best placed to play the lead role. If none is present, can a small group take on this function?  The following external website provides more information about the role and remit for a lead organisation:  www.collaborationforimpact.com.

Local community

Many local people are concerned and want to do something to help end homelessness in their community – and can play important roles in your campaign as volunteers. There are many ways that the local community can help, from conducting interviews with homeless people, to data entry and analysis, to being part of working groups to find and secure long-term solutions. If you engage people as volunteers, ensure everyone understands and operates within relevant local or national laws and good practice. Remember volunteers are not a homogenous group and different people like getting involved in different ways, so think about a variety of ways people can contribute their time, resources, money and energy. More information about recruiting, supporting and sustaining volunteers is here.

Relevant stakeholders

Who is relevant to your local campaign will vary. However, most cities have involved the following groups or sectors in their campaign as they have a role or interest in ending homelessness.