Reimagining Local Media for Good
One&Other inspire and empower communities for good via co-created local media platforms.
About You
Background Information
First Name
Stuart
Last Name
Goulden
Twitter URL
Facebook URL
The competition is only open to people between 18-34 years-old and resident in UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands. Does this apply to you
Country of residence of entrepreneur
UK
Tell us about your personal background. Why are you passionate about this issue? Making an idea a reality takes innovation, dedication and strong leadership. Do you have the necessary entrepreneurial skills to realize your vision?
For me, One&Other is a wonderful opportunity to combine two passions – media and social change – to make a real difference in my local community and society as a whole. I have always possessed a desire to apply my marketing and publishing background, together with personal drive, to good causes and did just that last year on a successful pilot of the basic concept on which One&Other is based.
Together with fellow Directors Ben & Vicky, we have rallied a 70-strong collective of journalists, illustrators, designers, photographers, videographers, hackers and hobbyists to change local media for the better and to inspire a new generation of volunteers.
About Your Organization
Organization Name
One&Other®
Organization Website
Organization Country
United Kingdom, NYK
Country where this project is creating social impact
United Kingdom, NYK
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
Innovation
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
It’s no secret that whole generations are disengaged with tradition local media, which puts to waste their power (and responsibility) to foster community cohesion, highlight key social and environmental issues, and rally positive change.
Issue #1: Community Cohesion/Activity
• 31% of the UK population provides nearly 90% of volunteer hours, just under 80% of charitable giving, and around 70% of civic participation (NCVO, March 2011)
• Only 32% of adults feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area (2010-11 Citizenship Survey)
Issue #2: Charity cuts
• Voluntary Sector cuts of £5bn are reported at a time when it is needed most (various sources)
• Only 15% (of small charities) have a marketing dpt to hand, with the same % engaging in digital marketing (Media Trust)
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
Our solution is simple: we cultivate goodwill in our editorial and channel this for social good by matching the would-be volunteers in our readership with the specific needs of their local communities, charities, and the planet.
This change is presented to people as actions to do good everyday in a way that is fun, easy, rewarding, and social. This could be donations of their time or talent to promoting causes their care about, or starting a petition or movement of their own. At the same time, our intervention gives our beneficiaries a stronger voice and allows them to harness the collective power of the crowd to make a positive difference in their local area.
By integrating this engine for change into our popular media platforms we can reach a broad and engaged audience, amplifying the positive difference we are able to make.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
For example, "Sally" is a student in York who is also a pretty nifty graphic designer when she hasn't got her head in her books. She reads and/or contributes to One&Other because she finds it more relevant to her daily life than the doom and gloom of the stuffy local newspaper. Through reading one of our articles about a particular cause or charity she decides she cares enough to offer her help via one of our many calls to action. This could be in the form of painting a classroom in the school down the road with a nice group of other do-gooders who she might not have met otherwise, simply sharing the issue on her Facebook wall, or by using her design skills to do that poster they need. Either way, she's happy that giving back is so easy and flexible. The charity thank her, we give her a pat on the back (and maybe a smoothie donated by a local shop, who is also an advertiser), and she can see the difference she's making in the follow-up article. She shares this with her friends, they realise how easy and fun it is, and next time Sally decides to help out she's accompanied by 3 of her friends. What's more, if Sally ever needs help herself, she knows where to look as we've featured lots of support charities on our pages. Lots of people helping out in lots of different ways (big and small) starts to make a real dent in these big issues and everybody wins.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Traditional media fall far short of this approach. In fact, the sad truth is that their editorial practices actually reinforce damaging perceptions of big social issues (e.g. poverty). What's more, their readerships are dwindling and getting older - this makes certain demographics harder to reach for these charities (etc).
The concept of volunteering is not new, but it is forever changing and the industry is slow to adapt to new opportunities. What's more, many only cater to the minority only actively looking to volunteer at that particular moment in time. The stories behind these issues are rarely told in engaging ways and often the fun is sucked out of giving back/helping in the community. We are trialling a different approach and will happily share everything we learn all the way.
Select the stage that best applies to your business
Operating for less than a year
This Entry is about (Issues)
Social Impact
What is the social impact you have had to date and how you measure it?
One&Other launched in beta in September 2011: in our pilot city of York people have already donated over 10,000 hours of their time & talent to give a voice to local causes, the environment and those in poverty in our editorial. Our impact is currently measured by ongoing dialogue with these charities and causes and case studies. We are currently building better digital tools and implementing SROI to quantify the number of pledges made and the collective difference these actions have delivered.
Of course each time we receive feedback we are nimble enough to be able to refine our solution.
Sustainability
How does your model address financial, social, and environmental sustainability?
We have spent the past five months validating the main assumptions behind our model and believe it has the potential to (cost-effectively) transform communities and the environment across the world. We have built a strong network around our core team, fostering relationships with the likes of the leading thinkers on poverty Joseph Rowntree Foundation, all round good guys UnLtd, 50+ local charities, and the local universities and colleges.
Our Theory Of Change centres on community engagement and empowerment, channeled for social good. We believe the UK is a compassionate nation that cares about the problems faced by our communities and planet, and that many individuals foster a latent desire to make a difference.
While 51% feel being more active in their community could make a difference, only one in 10 said they were certain to do so in the next two years. Summarily there is an aspiration within small-medium sized charities to improve and do more in a marketing capacity, however many feel out of their depth, short of the resources and manpower required, and paralysed as a result. Clearly a catalyst and helping hand is needed to kick-start the change needed.
In our model, this change is presented as actions to do good everyday in a way that is fun, easy, rewarding, and social.
At its most simplistic level, it is about connecting and inspiring a new generation to solve 21st century problems.
Awareness & learning
How do you see social entrepreneurship contributing to the improvement of developing countries?
It goes without saying that the issues developing countries are more diverse & pressing, and as such require bigger solutions.
Social Entrepreneurship succeeds in creating opportunities. Opportunities for communities not just to earn and trade in order to support their families, but also to find their self-expression & pursue their chosen paths. Opportunities to educate & advance societies, to protect their corner of the planet & care for other citizens, and to have a louder voice. These individual & collective opportunities are currencies of arguably greater value than the Uganda Shillings, Haitian Gourde, or Vietnamese Dong that they generate.
To trade as a Social Enterprise is to invest in the future, where all the profits are reinvested back into the creation of more social value. This cycle is a more sustainable and liberating option than charitable handouts.
What aspects of your stay in Uganda as part of the competition do you think you will find most challenging and rewarding?
Where to start?
I have to confess that in the past I have had my eyes forced open during the moments when I've stepped out of my daily routine and into lives of others. It's no surprise that these are also the experiences and images that I treasure the most. As a result, they are woven deep into everything that defines and drives One&Other.
Such experiences are important reminders that we must not replicate the 'use and them' dichotomy that haunts most traditional media. Instead, I want to use the stay to absorb as knowledge much as I can, to give as much as I receive when there, and to use it to inform our plans for the future.
The individual stories and circumstances make sense of the facts and figures and are critical to helping me understand how we can achieve our dream to have a One&Other in every village, town, and city the world over. That journey cannot happen without first hand experiences such as Uganda.
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| 16 weeks agoStuart Goulden updated this Competition Entry. |
| 16 weeks agoStuart Goulden submitted this idea. |
