national work
Council on Social Action
The Council on Social Action, was led between 2007 and 2009 by Community Links co-founder David Robinson. CoSA brought together innovators from every sector to generate ideas and initiatives through which Government and other key stakeholders can catalyse, celebrate and develop social action.
CoSA defined ‘social action’ to include the wide range of ways in which individuals, communities, organisations and businesses can seek through their choices, actions and commitments to address the social issues they care about.
The Council on Social Action made recommendations to government and to others in its capacity as an advisory body, independent of government.
Council on Social Action
Members
David Robinson, Community Links
Kay Allen, Royal Mail
Oli Barrett, Connected Capital
Shankari Chandran, Allen & Overy
Olga Heaven, Hibiscus
Geoff Mulgan, Young Foundation
Julia Ogilvy, Project Scotland
Rob Owen, St. Giles Trust
Tim Smit, Eden Project
Kevin Steele, Inspired Campaigns
David Thomlinson, Accenture
Sophi Tranchell, Divine Chocolate Ltd.
Paul Twivy, Communications Consultant
Julia Unwin, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Peter Wheeler, Investment and Philanthropy Specialist
Publications
The Council on Social Action produced the following series of publications, each of which are available to download:
- Willing Citizens, CoSA Paper No. 1, January 2008 [PDF 223KB, 16 pages]
- Side by side: a report setting out the Council on Social Action’s work on one-to-one, CoSA Paper No. 2, November 2008 [PDF 735KB, 56 pages]
- Side by side and the implications for public service, CoSA Paper No. 3, November 2008 [PDF 227KB, 18 pages]
- Collaborative Commitments, CoSA Paper No. 4, written by Prof David Grayson, Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility on behalf of CoSA, November 2008 [PDF 226KB, 12 pages]
- Council on Social Action: Commentary on Year One, CoSA Paper No. 5, November 2008 [PDF 352KB, 36 pages]
- Heart of The City: Building stronger communities through business colaboration, CoSA paper No. 6, January 2009 [PDF 515KB 14 pages]
- Introducing the National Talent Bank, CoSA paper No. 7, July 2009 [PDF 365KB 24 pages]
- People of Influence: A progress report on the Council on Social Action’s work on one-to-one, CoSA Paper No. 9, November 2009 [PDF 2MB, 36 pages]
- Time well-spent: The importance of the one-to-one relationship between advice workers and their clients, CoSA Paper No. 10, November 2009 [PDF 511KB, 36 pages]
- Means and ends: A concluding commentary on the work of the Council on Social Action, CoSA Paper No. 11, November 2009 [PDF 1.9MB, 36 pages]
Events
Chain Reaction: In November 2008, the inaugural Chain Reaction event brought together over 1000 participants from 16 countries and from across the public, private and third sectors including social leaders, community activists, policy makers, business leaders, CSR practitioners, ministers and young people.
In November 2009 Chain Reaction reconvened, this time at the heart of London's finacial centre Canary Wharf.
The aim of the event is to share learning and to generate new ideas for social change locally, nationally and globally. Learn more on the website about how you can ‘connect, collaborate, commit’ for social change: www.chain-reaction.org .
Chain Reaction is a project of Community Links who also provided administration, publishing and support for the work of CoSA.