Step 1. Spreading the word
- Holding a successful Fairtrade stall
- Sweet Injustice: The chocolate game
- Winning them over: Frequently Asked Questions
- From football to fashion shows: More ideas for Fairtrade events
Step 2. Get Fairtrade products stocked in your school or university
Step 3. Becoming a Fairtrade school or university
In order to get all this done successfully, you´re going to have to plan and think strategically. One way to start is to make a campaign plan based on aims, objectives and tactics. Think about what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. Think about the resources available to you as well as possible opportunities and constraints. The initial groundwork you´ve done by running stalls should provide you with a good basis from which to plan your campaign. Here´s one possible way of looking at it:
Aims could be:
- To increase the number of producers in the global south who are getting a better deal through Fairtrade
- To make Fairtrade, and the principles behind Fairtrade an integral part of your institution´s policies
Objectives could be:
- To get Fairtrade products are stocked in all catering outlets
- To ensure Fairade products are served at internal meetings
- To form a steering group
- To get relevant parties to create and endorse a school/university Fairtrade policy
Tactics could be
- Holding Fairtrade stalls
- Getting petitions signed
- Meetings with catering managers
- Meeting with headteacher/vice-chancellor
NB: This is just one way to approach it. Your aims, objectives and tactics might be different, depending on your priorities. For example, you could make your objective getting all sports team clothing made out of Fairtrade cotton, or any other goal you feel will lead to the principle of Fairtrade being embedded in your school or university´s policy.
As you get into carrying out your campaign you’ll probably find most of your energy and attention focused on tactics and shorter-term objectives — basically, on taking action! While you’re doing this however, make sure you bear the longer-term objectives and aims in mind, and make decisions based on the eventual aims you want to achieve
Before doing anything, we recommend you come up with a plan for how you are going to approach decision-makers at your university or school. Here are some of the key questions your group needs to ask.
Research pays off
The People & Planet group at King Edward the VII Upper and Community School in Melton Mowbray have proved that doing your research pays off. They´d had loads of weekly stalls and Fairtrade was becoming really popular with students, but they couldn´t convince the school to stock it. So they arranged meeting upon meeting with the headteacher and catering manager, armed with loads of information — about different Fairtrade vending machine options and about Fairtrade suppliers and products. They also gave them examples of how stocking Fairtrade had worked at other schools in the region. They made their case and as Frankie from the group says:
“We’ve been having meetings with various important people in the school and things have happened so quickly.”
They now have Fairtrade chocolate stocked in the canteen and hopefully more to come!
Oxford Brookes was the first university in the world to be awarded Fairtrade Status. According to the P&P group, their first and most important step was research - they found out how the university worked, who made the decisions, who ran the catering outlets and what tea or coffee was used.
They also conducted some simple ‘market research’ (i.e. a questionnaire survey) to prove that students and lecturers wanted Fairtrade status on campus. The information made them look very professional when they finally approached the university ‘catering forum’ to present their proposal to decision makers.
In order to raise support from students the group had sign up sheets at their tastings for students to pledge their commitment to buying Fairtrade.
The group was so successful because they didn´t just target one person. The person they initially approached just wasn´t interested, but soon after, when they found a Fairtrade enthusiast somewhere else in the university adminstration, the campaign took off.
Who do you need to target? What are you asking them to do?
Possible target groups include: University/school staff; Catering staff; Media; Student Union e.g. Environment and Ethics rep; Student Council; Local council; MPs; Catering suppliers. This will vary in different schools and universities. Be clear about what action needs to be taken to meet each of your objectives — and who is in a position to make it happen.
There are several key people who can decide whether your school or university will work to get Fairtrade status.
- At a school these are likely to be the Headteacher and the Catering Manager.
- At a University this could be the Vice-Chancellor, the Director of Estates/Facilities and the Head of Catering Services.
Getting teachers engaged
It´s really important to get all sectors of your school or university behind your campaign, and teaching staff can be particularly influential. For a school campaign it’s additionally important to get teachers engaged, because Fairtrade Status for a school involves a commitment to ensuring the whole school learns about Fairtrade issues, using curriculum based lessons and wider learning activities.
Hopefully, your teaching staff will be really interested in integrating Fairtrade into their teaching. Fairtrade fits in with citizenship studies, and complements a host of other curriculum areas. The Department for Education and Skills states that Citizenship “provides learning opportunities for pupils to gain the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to play an effective role in society at local, national and international levels. Fairtrade provides an ideal opportunity for pupils to take on this role”.
There are a host of resources and lots of support available for teachers:
- People & Planet has an online resource library
- The Fairtrade Foundation has more information
Who can influence who? What allies can you find to support your approach?
There are also a number of people who can influence these key people, and sometimes the best way to reach decision makers may be to target them indirectly. Think about who your allies could be and arrange meetings with them to see if they are sympathetic.
Think about how you could influence each of these groups and how you could get them to influence each other. It might be worth brainstorming as a group who can affect who and thus who are the most appropriate people to target.
Good potential allies in a school could be teachers, governors, or parents, especially if they are on the Parents Teachers Association, the canteen staff and representatives from your local Fairtrade town initiative, if there is one.
Good potential allies in a university could be Students’ Union Officers, lecturers, catering staff, chaplains and representatives from the lecturers’ trade union, the Director of Estates & Facilities, and other societies on campus, and representatives from your local Fairtrade Towns initiative.
What tactics/approach are you going to use to influence them?
- How will you convince them that Fairtrade is a good idea?
- How are you going to demonstrate student and staff support? Do you have enough staff and student support?
- How are you going to convince them of the benefits of going Fairtrade for the school/university?
- Are there any other objections you need to counter? Do you need to do any further research?
A bit of research might help you to choose the best way to tackle any concerns decision-makers have. For example, are they hoping to boost the school or university’s profile locally? If so, you could collect together positive media coverage of Fairtrade initiatives, or get your local paper to cover your group’s campaigning. If their concerns about Fairtrade are financial, you could gather evidence on the relative costs of Fairtrade from other schools and universities that have made the change. Check out the trouble-shooting section of this guide for more ideas, and the P&P website for further resources and contacts.
Some of the arguments you can use to convince decision-makers to stock Fairtrade products and sign up to a Fairtrade policy are given in the ‘Writing a Proposal’ section
NB. Different groups will obviously have different priorities and it is fine to use different arguments to convince each of them about Fairtrade. Make sure, however, that your arguments aren’t contradictory and that you, as much as possible, convince them that Fairtrade is something worthwhile in itself — apart from the benefits stocking Fairtrade products and signing up to a Fairtrade policy might bring to particular groups.
The tactics you choose will vary according to who you are targeting and the message you want to convey. For example, when you’re meeting decision-makers it may be more important to appear reasonable, well-informed and professional to get them behind your campaign. But sometimes you might come up against obstacles that mean you need to try a different approach (see the ‘Responding to objections’ section for some ideas.) The P&P Groups´ Guide contains lots of ideas for different tactics and how to get your message across.
What resources do you have?
- How many active group members do you have?
- How much time do you have?
- What skills do you have?
- How much money do you have?
What events will affect the timing of your campaign or provide you with opportunities?
- When do the catering team meet?
- When is Fairtrade Fortnight?
- When is the next Students’ Union Annual General Meeting or school Governors´ meeting?
- When is the school/university catering contract up for renewal?
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