1. Get students to watch the Behind The News video 'Volunteer week'. It recognises the work volunteers do as part of National Volunteer Week. The journalist Tash interviews some students making a difference to the lives of older people.
2. Over 3 years ago, Versova beach in Mumbai in India was little more than a dumping ground for garbage and waste. After witnessing the devastating impact the refuse was having on the ocean, Afroz Shah decided to take matters into his own hands. A single man’s mission to clean up his favourite childhood beach turned into the world’s largest beach clean-up initiative. As of today, Shah and hundreds of volunteers have cleaned up over nine million kilograms of plastic and waste, with hopes to expand their initiative to other beaches in the future. Get students to watch the video 'The man behind the world’s largest beach cleanup' and 'Mumbai beach clean up'.

In each of the videos, students learn about civic participation and civic action and can: 

• identify the community issue and its civic goal
• describe the strategies used to achieve that goal through civic action
• identify the common values being demonstrated by the volunteers
• list the successes and difficulties experienced by the volunteers
• consider how volunteers might address those difficulties.

For teachers

• Start with students prior learning and present understanding of volunteering and civic action.
• Proceed to questions and research.
• Students learn about civic participation and civic action by creating mind maps of volunteers that impact their lives, for example, sports coaches, school canteen and parent classroom volunteers and community arts groups. The key learning focus will be to identify the issue and civic goal and social action taken to make a difference.
• Students may select a local issue and design a plan of action that will encourage change. This could be the home page of a social media or another digital platform, and demonstrate content that should have an impact. This may incorporate social media hashtags. Students can draw on the expertise of family members who volunteer in community-based organisations.
• Be clear about assessment, support and requirements.