MAKE POVERTY HISTORY Roadtrip – Our Impact

1000 Make Poverty History Ambassadors outside Parliament House

On the 8th of May 2010, 1000 young people embarked on a nationwide road trip to help end extreme poverty. Roadtrips departed from almost every capital city in the country, in order to spread the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY message and raise awareness of global poverty. This was Oaktree’s biggest campaign for the year, the largest youth run event of it’s kind in Australia. But what did we achieve?

PUBLIC IMPACT

• # of signatures: 50,000 people signed the Act To End Poverty in around 10 days. We created Australia’s biggest ever youth run petition and surpassed our goal of 40,000 signatures.
• # of face-to-face conversations: Over the Roadtrip we had at least 100,000 face-to-face interactions with members of the public.
• # of media hits: Over 360 media hits have been recorded so far, including coverage in all major print news and on all major TV stations. We’re uploading all of the clippings but in the meantime check out this article from the Herald Sun, this interview on Radio National or this article in the Sydney Morning Herld as examples. If you want to get a better idea of our hits you can go to news.google.com.au and search “make poverty history”.
• # of media readers: The above media hits have reached over 10 million people, not including radio listeners and TV viewers. With these included, media reach will exceed 15 million.
• # of total people reached: Our advertising campaign reached an extra 20 million or more impressions, 15 million of these on Facebook.
• Community Campaigning: There were dozens of grassroots community events, forums, dinners, speaking engagements, church visits, flash mobs, business visits, media stunts, music events, school visits, rotary lunches, Mother’s Day events, etc – these all greatly impacted and involved local community members.

POLITICAL IMPACT

• # of MPs engaged: 143 political representatives attended our Breakfast in Parliament House on Thursday 13th May. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith spoke, as well as Scott Morrison MP (Liberals), Senator Hanson-Young (Greens) and Senator Barnett (Liberals). Also in attendance were Climate Minister Penny Wong and Environment Minister Peter Garrett. Outside the breakfast we also engaged with The Hon. Bob McMullan MP, former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, deputy Greens leader Christine Milne, deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop, Greg Hunt MP and many others.
• # of electoral forums: At least 6 electoral forums happened along the Roadtrip in Corangamite, Perth (WA Senators), Deakin, McEwen, Wills, and Braddon, and other electorate events were held too.
• Act to End Poverty: After intensive lobbying, the Act to End Poverty was tabled in Parliament as a motion. It passed both the Senate and House of Representatives.

[pro-player width='400' height='300' type='video']http://vimeo.com/12196344[/pro-player]

MPs debate the Act to End Poverty in the House of Representatives (9:15pm, 31/5/2010)

• Policy Input: A number of policy papers were submitted in face to face meetings with MPs. All ambassadors also participated in an government policy consultation hosted by Australian Youth Forum, with Bob McMullan MP and Senator Ursula Stephens.

CAMPAIGNERS

• # of participants: From 1,700 original applicants, 1,000 young people were selected as MPH Ambassadors for the Roadtrip. Another 100-150 young people travelled to Canberra came for the Summit (May 12-15)
• # of volunteers: Over 100 Oaktree volunteers worked between 10 and 60 hours per week in the lead up to the Roadtrip, and an addition 100 volunteered as “Group  Leaders” on the Roadtrip itself.