Category: Charity Insights 2015

Week 2 – Sense About Science

During my time at Sense About Science one of my main responsibilities has been running the Energy Panel and the Plant Science Panels and for me this has been some of the most interesting work. The panels are made up of experts in the respective fields, who have made themselves available to answer public questions. As part of my responsibilities I field questions from the public, choose the appropriate scientist to answer (in the case of the Plant Science Panel there are over 50 different specialists), then if necessary edit the answer to make it more readable, before publicising it.

So what is the point in getting scientists to answer public questions? As a charity tasked with “increasing public understanding of science and evidence” SAS have on the face of it a near impossible task. On many hot topic issues the lines have now become so entrenched and polarised that people will not budge from their opinions. Take for example, climate change. For well over 20 years the science has been clear and even surpassed the most difficult tasks of being accepted by policy makers (the Kyoto protocol is 18 years old). But still even today there are many who aren’t convinced, often basing their objections on ideological stand points than any real evidence. Another example would be those who oppose vaccinating children, on the grounds that vaccines cause autism, a claim that has been disproved time and time again.

What the Panels aim to do is bridge the gap between scientists and the public, creating dialogue and trust that is so often lacking. In order to achieve this the approach take is one of public-led expert-fed discussion. The public choose the path of the debate with their questions, the scientists give the best answer they can. This is important because if scientists want to continue they need policy makers support, they need public support… so the public need to have their concerns addressed, they need to have their questions answered. Part of the problem so often with scientific discussion is people can feel they are being lectured or even patronised. The panels put the public in the driving seat, whilst allowing the scientists to make their case. In this way it is hoped that apparent controversial issues can be made acceptable to the public and to policy makers, or at the very least take some heat, hyperbole and misinformation out of the conversation. In the case of the energy panel issues include climate change, fracking, nuclear energy and renewable energy. For the plant science panel GMOs, the use of pesticides and plant diseases such as ash dieback.

So what I’m doing as part of my work at SAS is encouraging discourse between scientists and the public, sharing information and building trust; all from behind my small desk. Well at least that’s what I’m trying to do.

 

Week 2 at Bedfont Lakes Country Park

Thanks to the fantastic summer weather this week I was able to help with both butterfly and bird surveys. These involve following a set route around the park and noting down where and when different species were spotted, along with things such as weather conditions and the sex of individual. It takes far more skill than I had anticipated to be able to ID birds and butterflies, and the Junior Ecologist is able to tell a great tit from a long tailed tit just from the duration of its cheeps. Since the park is home to over 150 bird species it is safe to stay bird ID is still a mystery to me (for now)!

I also enjoyed helping out with another children’s session as part of the education side of my project, which this time was for Feltham Community and Development Association who are a youth group for children from selected estates in the local area. They particularly enjoyed following clues around the fishing lake as part of a treasure hunt! The clues had wildlife related facts sneaked into them to add the educational aspect, such as true or false questions they had to answer correctly to get given the next clue.

As with every job role I was office bound some afternoons and added data from the park’s surveys to the Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL) database. This is a centralised database that aims to analyse London’s wildlife as a whole, so that each individual greenspace can be managed as a component of a wider interconnected system. This is useful not only for small scale issues such as individual species protection and making sure there are the minimum number of habitats available to maintain populations, but also for wider scale issues such as which areas in London need to be targeted for the improvement of air quality.

Friends of the Earth-start

First a quick overview: I am Hossein; doing an engineering doctorate in water engineering. My Charity Insight project is with the Friends of the Earth (FOE), Birmingham.

FOE is an international network of environmental organisations operating in 74 countries. There are many different campaigns at local, national and international level that FOE is involved with. At the local branch in Birmingham, FOE are currently running few campaigns one of which is the ‘waste campaign’; this is the one I am currently working on.

The issue is quite straightforward; a lot of waste and not the best way to deal with it. The campaign is calling on Birmingham city council to implement a greener waste management system. This mainly includes making it easier for people to recycle more types of waste, recycling food waste and using local companies to process the waste.

Tyseley-IncineratorAn Incinerator (courtesy of: birminghampost)

Birmingham is not doing great in recycling, and around 70% of the waste goes to incinerator, that means “burned”! Well, trying to make some electricity from the process, but not very efficient and also not very good for CO2 emissions… it is estimated more than 40% of the residual waste sent to the incinerator is organic matter; and if this is taken out, it can be treated in much better ways, e.g. anaerobic digestion, to generate renewable energy. Of course, it is better to follow the waste hierarchy to reduce what waste is actually produced.

2000px-Waste_hierarchy.svg

Waste hierarchy (courtesy of: Wikipedia)

Here we are campaigning for the council to take a better waste management strategy for when the current contract of waste burning comes to an end (2019). I am doing background research to investigate what other councils are doing in this matter and also what capabilities exists in the area to deliver the new waste plan.

Watch the space, more update coming as how I and the campaign are doing 🙂

Reflecting on Week One at WildHearts

GELThe main focus of my first week at WildHearts was to generate leads for the Edinburgh Global Entrepreneurial Leaders (GEL) summit. In order to find viable leads I was required to compile a list of organisations that would benefit from attending the GEL. During my research, it was important to keep in mind the GEL’s objective – to promote the use of business as a force for positive change. This provided a profile for the target attendees in that they aught to be current and future change-makers.

To this end I produced a database of over one hundred Scotland-based organisations that included schools, businesses and networking groups. The businesses that appear on the list are very influential and are regulars in rankings of profitability. Once the organisations were identified I moved on to researching the relevant individuals to invite.

For businesses, the focus was on those individuals involved with either human resources or procurement as these people have respectively the ability to influence talent development and to consider social value when sourcing services/products. One of the main tools that I used for this research was LinkedIn and, given the popularity of the platform, it was a valuable lesson in people research. The results from my LinkedIn research provided me with names of the relevant departmental contact and from this point the objective was to find the contact details for each now-known individual. For most of the businesses, the contact phone number would simply be the head office phone number. Through the course of my research I developed a routine that I used to find email addresses for these individuals as this information did not tend to be trivially obtainable.

In the case of schools, contact details proved to be more readily available. The individual that I researched tended to be the head teacher and contact details for the school were be obtained through the Scottish education website. One of the big motivations for inviting schools is there is the opportunity for them to learn more about the Micro-Tyco challenge and this may encourage them to enrol their schools into the programme. This is key for inspiring the next generation of socially responsibly entrepreneurs.

Aside from my main task, I have also been assisting with the preparation of WildHearts promotional material, conducting wider general research (examining the philanthropic efforts of every firm on “The Sunday Times’ 100 Best Companies To Work For 2015”) and helping to manage the logistics of the three GEL summits (answering email queries and signing people up).

All in all, the week has taught me a great deal and I feel confident that the leads that I have found will convert to attendees at the GEL – roll on week two!

Bedfont Lakes Country Park: Week 1

I’ve spent the last week at Bedfont Lakes Country Park, which is a 180 acre haven situated less than 1.5km from the bustling Heathrow Airport. Despite this, it is home to a multitude of protected species and habitats, such as tufty heathland and beautiful wild flower meadows. In its small petting zoo it also cares for some rescued pets (including tarantulas and racoon dogs!).

My Charity Insights placement involves working with both the Education and the Ecology Team at the park, and so far I have waded through the River Crane, cuddled bearded dragons and answered some very strange questions from seven year old children!

The Education Team runs children’s activities which aim to both inform and provide some fun during the summer holiday, and so with this team I will be learning how to run these activities and eventually provide them independently later on in my placement. For example this week I helped with an Animal Handling session given to a group of children visiting with the 2cool4school summer play-scheme, which helps children from disadvantaged backgrounds. They enjoyed meeting Chunky the rabbit, two snakes, and a baby goat, which of course couldn’t help but poo on a child’s foot and trigger a conversation about whether human girls can or cannot also poo…

With the Ecology Team my project involves working towards the reintroduction of both the water shrew and the great crested newt to the park, which is endangered in the UK. This will require some habitat creation in order to make sure the park can sustain the species once they do arrive, and so I have also been doing some serious raking to get rid of some unwanted brambles and stinging nettles!

During my time here, I hope to learn as much as possible about the multidisciplinary approach needed to make a park in such an urban setting not only thrive as a nature reserve but also provide invaluable services to all members of the community.

 

Collage-downsized

(Fantastic invertebrate diversity…left: wasp spider – about 2 inches wide, an invasive species from Europe! right: wolf moth caterpillar, also very large)

Week 4 with Samaritans

Following my final week with Samaritans it’s safe to say it’s been an experience.

I will keep this entry short and sweet as my last (rather long) one got deleted when I tried to publish it, which was frustrating!

My final week has consisted of collaborating my survey responses, interviews and research into a written report for my supervisor. Though I have learned a lot during my time here I unfortunately did not have as many survey respondents as I would have liked, so drawing any meaningful conclusions has been rather difficult. However, I’ve done my best to work with what I have.

It’s been a privilege to work with Samaritans and I look forward very much to undergoing my own training to become a listening volunteer in the autumn, and soon after taking calls. Every Samaritan I’ve met so far has been a wonderful person, and I can only hope to become half of what they are now.

My focus now will turn to the stigma surrounding mental health. I hope to address this both within and outside of my professional career, especially through events such as Mental Health Awareness Week.

Working with Samaritans has helped me to realise that my career aspirations are now directed towards mental health, and I hope to follow this through next year in my BSc in Neuroscience in Mental Health!MHAW_RGB

Sense About Science – Week 1

I first knew I wanted to apply for Charity Insights this summer around November 2014, I first knew I wanted to work at Sense About Science about 2 days later. And by Monday morning 3rd August 2015 I just really wanted to get going, to find out what exactly Sense About Science does and how I would fit in.

To give some background to Sense About Science are a “charitable trust that equips people to make sense of scientific and medical claims in public discussion“, pretty self-explanatory yes? well maybe not.

Part of the problem faced by scientists is that they are (often) not in touch with public opinion. This is also a problem for the public, they don’t know what scientists are doing and the only tool many have is the media. The media can be very bad at helping to explain science.

So what SAS try to do is bridge that gap between scientists and the public whilst also helping to combat sensationalism in the media. They achieve this through; guides on certain issues known as “Making sense of…“, responding to media misreporting through for the record, helping equip scientists to become more active in public policy, through Voice of Young Science and encouraging the public to value evidence and evidence based policy through the Ask for Evidence Campaign.

So this small office of 10 people in no small way are helping the public make sense of science, hardly an easy task.

I knew a lot of the work of SAS before I came here, having viewed the website a few times, but mainly I knew what they did through twitter, I seem to learn most things through twitter (@senseaboutsci in case you’re interested). But after my first week here what I have really come to notice is they also do so much more and I don’t think I’ll have anything remotely close to a full picture even after four weeks. And i guess that’s what I’m most excited about.

Week 2 – YMCA Corporate Office

 

The start of my second week began with writing my summative report. After 2500 words about the extent of integration at the YMCA White House, I relocated to the Corporate Office for a more office based project. So far this week I have been assessing the application packs for prospective job applicants. Through investigation of previous resources I wrote an interim report and then starting redrafting the Application Form, Equal Opportunities Form and Criminal Declaration Form.

YMCA Surbiton
YMCA Surbiton Centre

Also this week I have been reviewing the YMCA’s Human Resource’s Policies and Procedures: collating the policies and rewriting where necessary in order to upload to the new computer system. As part of this project I have had to research current information on a variety of topics from Infectious Diseases and Employment Law in order to make meaningful changes.

CDP Blog #3: Chord Diagrams!

For blog #3, I wanted to talk about an graph or visualisation I’ve been working on, to help CDP display their data in a new way. It’s called a chord diagram, looks a bit like a spider’s web and is used to show the strength and range of interconnections in whatever system you are looking at, for example the total imports and exports between different countries (PLEASE click for interactive version-much more fun!). Source: http://www.delimited.io/2014/11/18/interactive-chord-diagrams-in-d3.

d3-chord-diagram

 

In short, segments around the edge of the circle represent components of the system you are looking at, in this case countries, lines that link two segments indicate a relationship between the segments, in this case a trade relationship, and the width of the lines shows the strength of the relationship, in this example the total imports and exports between countries.

So how is that applicable to CDP? In the CDP water questionnaire that goes out to the world’s biggest companies, one of the questions CDP asks of the responders is to identify the impacts and risks that water issues have or could have on their business. For example, a company might say that water scarcity in the region where they work has led to an increase in water prices and hence operating costs or that flooding has caused damage to one of their facilities. Companies identify a cause, the effect and how they have or will respond. It is important for CDP to understand the links that companies are making between these 3 elements, as this can make it clear why companies are feeling effects and how they are approaching impacts and risk. By understanding this, CDP can highlight good practice and propose ways in which companies can improve their water policy. And hence, we can use chord diagrams to illustrate the links that companies are making between cause and effect and risk and response.

By using this diagram, hopefully readers of CDP’s Global Water Report or visitors to the water results website can get a quick snapshot of the data and digest the statistics in a unique way that can capture the attention and resonate more than numbers would.

So I used my limited programming expertise I use in my PhD work at Imperial to make a little program that counts the links between cause and effect and risk and response, then put the results into a matrix, something that excel unfortunately can’t do with CDPs’ data. Then I found a makeshift excel workbook (try it yourself) that you can input your data into to make a very basic ‘my first chord diagram’. This was used as a proof of concept, to show what the diagrams can do. Hopefully we can go from my less-good looking excel version, to swanky interactive versions like these:

Visualising the composition of a computer program code (goes over my head but the interactivity is really good)

chord2

Uber journeys in San Francisco

SO COOL!

The feedback on the diagrams was really good, and they have been shared with other teams within CDP and could potentially be used with other data!

So I guess for prospective internship applicants I would say try to bring in your expertise to do things in a new way if possible, benefiting your organisation whilst also showing them what you can do. Don’t be afraid to give feedback about how things are done, I think a lot of organisations will appreciate an outside perspective. That has definitely been the case here at CDP, where everyone has supported suggestions and ideas.

Week 3 with Samaritans

This week I’ve met with several Samaritans listening volunteers in person as well as over the phone. These interviews have been quite revealing and in large part provided me with the information that I had hoped they would.

In addition I have received more survey responses, and was pleasantly surprised to find emails from more listening volunteers expressing their interest in being interviewed. I hope to see them as soon as possible, as I’m aware that my remaining time will pass all too quickly!

Since last week I have also conducted more research on advertising techniques employed by Samaritans, and looked into their online presence via their website. There is currently considerable interest (and also controversy) around the role of social media platforms regarding the mental health of their users. Is it their role to look after their users, and would they go so far as to report a potentially at risk individual? I learned that Samaritans recently sought to expand its online presence via the use of an app called Samaritans Radar, which was employed on twitter to connect users who posted potentially worrying tweets (i.e. with phrases such as “depressed”, “so alone” or other related phrases) with friends who could in theory help. However the app was pulled late in 2014 due to serious concerns over privacy issues.

Though an interesting area, it has less to do with recruitment and more with Samaritans’ main aim. I will shortly be meeting with my supervisor with whom I hope to consolidate what I’ve gathered so far, and then produce my report detailing what I’ve found.

It will be a shame to have to leave Hereford again; though a small town, it is where I grew up and has a certain undeniable charm.

Hereford Cathedral and River Wye, Herefordshire