Help Give Them a Voice

I haven’t mentioned the ‘Give Them a Voice’ campaign that has been trickling out videos to promote social work as a career over the past few weeks– and as it is due to launch the beginning of September – and looking at my calendar, that seems to be about now, I think it’s as good a time to bring them up.

There are a number of short clips they have compiled

There are many more on their site and it’s worth having a look through them

It’s clearly the start of a campaign which is to be rolled out more broadly. In the meantime, you can follow @GiveThemaVoice on Twitter to see what they are up to next (they are launching their TV campaign today in fact – see, Twitter can be incredibly useful).

I wonder if putting the words of recipients of social work services into the mouths of ‘famous’ people is the best way, but like it or not, it is the recognisable faces that draw the attention in. I don’t think it is a bad way of going and the messages are strong. These adverts aren’t meant for people like me, who know what social workers do but for people who haven’t got a clue and in that sense, famous faces and supportive words do, I think, really help.  Some of the actors/musicians involved in the project have written some words about ‘their’ persona (all situations are based on reality) and there are follow-ups on the Help Give Them a Voice website.

Some of those involved in the campaign such as Samantha Morton and Goldie have talked about their own experiences of growing up within the care system and have spoken positively of the impact that social workers have had on their lives. In this respect, I think the words feel stronger.

All in all, I think it’s a rather good project – I like to think positive and hope that it will inspire some people who had been deterred from social work by false perceptions and negative press that there is a good career to be had in the field – as I genuinely believe there is.