Throughout history, we have seen major political and social changes that have brought greater equality and social justice. These have not been granted through the goodwill of those in power, but through the tireless work of campaigners.

The Universal right to vote; nations gaining independence from colonialism; the right to safe and legal abortion; break times and weekends off work; equal marriage: all these major developments in humanity were driven by the people who were most affected by these issues coming together to stand up for their rights, drive public debate and push for political action.

Campaigning is an essential skill that empowers communities to come together and drive social change.

What does campaigning look like at KCLSU?

As a democratic, membership-led organisation, KCLSU supports our members to develop campaigns that will make change for students at KCL.

Everything we do must have a democratic mandate from our membership, so the majority of our campaigns are developed from the manifestos of elected officers or through elected Network Committees, Union Development Committees and Academic Associations. This helps make sure KCLSU backed campaigns are representative of the needs of the student body.

We also support student members in establishing their own KCLSU supported campaigns. To ensure we are working in students’ interest, an idea must gain support from 50 student members and receive approval from our elected student officers. Simply submit a campaign idea on our website and our campaigns team will get in touch to support you through the next steps.

Due to UK charity law KCLSU can only support campaigns that directly improve the experience of studying at King’s, but we know that students have always been passionate about the world around them and we want to support you to feel powerful and make your voices heard on any issue that matters to you.

So how does KCLSU support all students to become campaigners?

Today we are launching our brand new KCLSU Campaigns Handbook. An accessible and comprehensive guide to all things campaigning, suitable for both KCLSU backed campaigns and other forms of student campaigns and activism. We’ve compiled a huge selection of resources, campaigning exercises, check-lists and suggestions that we’ve picked up from our experience of supporting student campaigning and beyond.

We hope that this step-by-step guide to all things campaigning provides our student activists with a useful framework they can tailor to their own campaigning needs. Covering the early days of identifying an issue, designing a mission statement and building a team, all the way up to choosing tactics and evaluating your campaign, the KCLSU Campaigns Handbook is designed to provide suggestions, resources and top tips, empowering students to effectively organise and win change.

We hope you find the KCLSU Campaigns Handbook a useful addition to your campaigning toolkit. Remember KCLSU is here for you and if you have any questions or suggestions about campaigning at KCLSU or our handbook, you can contact us at [email protected].

Happy campaigning!