Help for students

What’s your challenge?

Choose the best solution to a problem in your community, and persuade the decision-makers in the local council that it is a good solution that has community support.

What makes a good solution?

One that has economic, social and environmental benefits. Use the Community Benefit Checklist to decide which of the eight possible solutions you think is the best. You will have to take a test to prove that you have thought about the reasons behind your decision.

How does your solution get accepted?

The decision-makers on the council want a good solution, but you also need to influence them and help them see it has community support. In Activate, you choose from 13 strategies to help you gain community support and influence. Together, the six strategies you choose are your Action Plan.

When you are carrying out your Action Plan you will find there are obstacles. For example, what happens if you call a public meeting (strategy) and nobody comes (obstacle)? You will have to decide how you deal with such obstacles.

The result

After you have worked through your Action Plan you will learn whether your Action Plan has persuaded decision-makers that your solution is the best one.

Reflection

This result will help you understand what being an active citizen in a community means, and how it works.

Trying again

If you have not picked a good solution, or have not carried out an effective Action Plan to convince the council, and your plan was not accepted, don’t worry. You can try again, and use a different combination of strategies or responses to obstacles in your Action Plan. Even if you do get approval, you can still try again with a different set of strategies and see if you can beat your own previous score.

So, good luck, and start making good decisions!