Mapping kindness in your community

Before you begin

• Make a list of organisations or projects that help people in your community. If you’ve already done the Who helps who? activity, you could use the lists people made.
• Cut the list up so each organisation is on a separate piece of paper.
• If you’ve got time, reach out to some of the organisations (especially the ones people identified in ‘Mapping kindness in your community’). It might make this activity a bit easier if you have a quick chat about what sorts of projects would help a few of the organisations.
• You could also print off some information, or gather some leaflets, in case some of the organisations are new to the group.

Choose an organisation

1. Everyone should split into small groups.
2. The person leading the game could give each group a piece of paper with the name of an organisation or project that helps people in their community.
3. Each group should chat about what their organisation or project does to help people. They should make up a short sketch that shows what the organisation does.
4. All of the groups should take it in turns to show off their sketches.
5. After each sketch, everyone else should guess what the organisation does and what they’re called. Someone should keep track of all the right answers on a big piece of paper.
6. Everyone should think of other organisations or projects in their area – they should explain a bit about them, and someone should add them to the big piece of paper. If some slips of paper weren’t given to a group, and the organisations still haven’t been mentioned, the person leading the game should talk about them while someone adds them to the big piece of paper.
7. Each group should choose a different organisation or project from the list. They should choose one they’d like to support.
8. Each group should spend about five minutes thinking of lots of kind acts they could do to support the organisation.

For example, they could collect food for a food bank or hygiene items for an organisation that supports refugees. They could support people who are lonely by visiting, writing cards, or organising a community event. They could bag clothes for a charity shop or improve the environment by adopting a garden or working on an open space.

9. Everyone should come back together and chat through their ideas.
10. Everyone should decide which organisation they’ll support and what project they’ll try. They could decide by chatting it through until everyone agrees, or they could hold a vote by raising hands or putting sticky dots or ticks next to their favourite idea.

It’s up to you whether you do one big project, or whether each smaller group takes on their own.

Plan the project

1. Everyone should think about what they’ll need to do to make their project a success. They should think about what they’ll do, and what they need to organise to make it happen. Maybe they need to find a venue and plan activities for an event, or create lots of content to schedule for a social media campaign.
2. Everyone should use the ‘Event planning checklist’ to make sure they’ve thought of everything. Even if they’re not planning on running an event, it may remind them of important things like risk assessments.

Run the project

1. Once they’re ready, everyone should start their project and follow their plan to make it a success.
2. When their project’s finished, everyone should take time to say thank you to any helpers and reflect on the difference they’ve made. Do they want to share the news, for example, on their social media or through local newspapers?

This activity helps contribute towards some of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Find out more about the SDGs, and how Scouts across the world are getting involved.