This half-term, we hosted a series of activities for Young People to get them engaging creatively and engaging with social issues. Over the course of three days, the 10-16 year olds discussed how they want to see their communities change, they learnt design skills, created socially active prototypes and even recorded their own podcast.
What did they get up to?
Just in case you weren’t aware, it’s not particularly easy right now to host our usual half-term programmes in person. So, we’ve adapted to holding the sessions over Microsoft Teams.
At the start of the week, each young person was sent a pack to try and keep them away from their screens for as long as possible – considering how many hours per day of screen-time they are having right now.
The first day was all about opening up the discussions for change.
What changes do the young people want to see in their communities?
Imagine the communities you’re in right now. What changes would you like to see?
“BE POSITIVE not negative” and “UP THE ANTI” stood out as some really positive messaging from the discussions the young people had on the changes they want to see in their communities.
There was strong dialogue around issues in the environment and different forms of discrimination, which really shows just how encouraging the next generation is.
Our second group really focused on environmental issues as their main piece of conversation, which is no surprise considering how big a topic it is today.
Whilst they talked about the need for renewable energy, it was also nice to hear a desire for new places where young people can socialise with one another.
Their Prototypes
With the discussions ongoing, the young people began creating their prototypes that could make a difference.
Here are just a short selection of the prototypes we saw…
But how did they find it?
This was only a sneak-peak of everything the young people got up to during half-term, but how did they find it?
It was really great to see just how much they enjoyed it.
It’s never going to be an ideal situation when they have to sit in their own rooms, rather than be in a creative and engaging environment, but to hear that they are still inspired and having fun is a fantastic sign.
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