SWU Campaign Fund launches the #FoodIsCare campaign

We are pleased to announce that the SWU Campaign Fund in partnership with Campaign Collective has launched its first campaign!

The #FoodIsCare campaign, led by social worker Dominic Watters (@SingleDadSW), aims to uncover the extend of food poverty in the UK and call for more support for social workers and the vulnerable people they help.

Household finances have been under increasing pressure and the COVID-19 crisis has had a disproportionately high impact on the poorest in society. This campaign will urge urgent action from the Government and call for more training and advice on food insecurity to be available to social workers who see this problem on the frontline.

In support of the #FoodIsCare campaign, SWU has launched a survey to better understand the extent of this problem as witnessed by social workers. The survey, which takes no more than two minutes to complete, explores how food insecurity affects the people that social workers support.

SWU and BASW members are invited to take the survey online by clicking here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SWUFood

FoodisCare founder and social work activist Dominic Watters (@SingleDadSW) said about the campaign, “For too long social work authorities have merely given a nod to poverty existing and this needs to change. Speaking as a single dad living in council estate poverty, in a system that puts so much in the way of poor families flourishing, it's time nutrition and hunger wasn't another obstacle. I designed the Food is Care campaign to tackle this inequality by improving the daily experience of the most vulnerable in society, including children in care. Help us to start achieving this by completing the survey.”

The new SWU Campaign Fund was created earlier this year in partnership with social enterprise Campaign Collective, and it was set into motion when we received our first round of brilliant campaign proposals from SWU members.

John McGowan, SWU General Secretary, said, “This is a terrific way for SWU to support member-led campaigns, and it builds on our present funding of the Austerity Action Group. SWU now has well over 15,000 members and the SWU Campaign Fund partnership with Campaign Collective will be a platform for social workers to feel seen and heard, with social workers at the heart of every campaign.”

We are also excited to announce that two other successful applications to the SWU Campaign Fund will launch their campaigns in 2022. These two campaigns will focus on barriers faced by social work students in Wales and the media’s coverage of social work. Stay tuned for more details on these campaigns and how you can support them.

Any SWU member who would like to run their own campaign is encouraged to submit ideas for funding by filling out the SWU Campaign Fund Application Form and returning it via email. The Campaign Fund Committee will be reviewing proposals every 2 months throughout 2021/2022, and will be available as needed to review any time sensitive requests that are marked urgent.

More details along with the application form can be found on the SWU Campaign Fund webpage.