Postings from the front line

It's Right to get it Wrong

2008-10-02T21:58:00Z

The Rev Tim Hastie-Smith, chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, said in a speech at its annual gathering that young people would succeed not by retreating from society but by engaging with the big questions in a mature and reasoned way: "Offering possible answers and challenges rather than the passing fads of an X-Factor culture”. Apart from the sideswipe at the X-Factor, of which I am something of a fan, I have to agree with him, and I felt the keyword he used was challenge. A challenge implies a task that is not going to be definitely achievable, but a task you may fail at but also learn something. I really believe that allowing our Changemakers to fail is an essential part of their success.

Many organisations I come across seem to believe that building confidence in young people is about propping them up and putting them in positions in which they are cushioned from failure. This has created a fear of failing in our young people, a fear of Getting It Wrong. The big questions are not easy and I believe that part of our young people’s reluctance to engage with political issues comes not from laziness or ignorance but from a fear of not coming up with an immediate answer, of having to deal with the unsatisfying grey areas of life rather than the clear-cut. I believe in letting young people Get It Wrong, and supporting them through the process of discovering that it’s not life-threatening. Stopping them from ever Getting It Wrong is truly life-threatening.

Driving to success

2008-09-09T19:37:00Z

I was talking to a driving instructor recently, and was reminiscing about my terrifying glory days kangaroo-jumping around behind an L-plate. He told me that driving instructors face an even more difficult task these days, as many of the young people they are instructing either stopped attending school or lost interest in being taught anything years before they learn to drive. As a result they are out of practise at being taught, and also find it very difficult to assimilate the fact that they cannot avoid doing the test in order to drive. "Convincing them that if they do not change gear in the way I am showing them, or stop braking at the last minute, they will not pass their test is a real struggle. They have been independent for ages, even though they are only sixteen or seventeen, and they have lost the concept of the right way being the only way."

However, these students are the most rewarding to teach, he said, because of the sheer joy they experience at passing. Passing your driving test is a key to freedom, and expensive and laborious as it is, it is a goal for millions of young people every year. If we could somehow harness that desire for freedom, and link it to education and the freedom of choosing your career or lifestyle, we would have an ultra-motivated generation. Sadly currently education is simply not perceived as giving the same reward as that first solo drive.

Don't leave young people holding the baby

2008-09-01T21:49:00Z

For the last twenty years we have had dynasties in the White House. The Clinton and the Bush families have occupied the number one slot and demonstrated the support network that brings to great, if opportunistic (or some may say exploitative), effect. Not much disaffected young people can relate to. If your family is divided or divisive, their expectations of you are low and you fight your battles yourself then identifying with Chelsea Clinton nestling up to her mother on a stadium stage is going to be tricky. This is what the pollsters are hoping is going to attract first-time votes to Obama, that he has had it as hard as they have and they can identify with him. He has just used his children for the first time, to show what a united family they are and to allow his wife to soften her image by demonstrating what a good little wifey she is. Something about this made me feel slightly uneasy, especially on a day when we discover that Bristol Palin, the seventeen year old unmarried pregnant daughter of Republican McCain's Christian running mate, is "keeping the baby and marrying the father", (can't imagine there was much choice about that).

Young people need to be engaged in politics but parading "happy and normal" families in front of them is not the way to do it.

Unemployed for a day

2008-08-22T10:48:00Z

I'm excited and slightly apprehensive about giving up my job on 7th November 2008. Not permanently you understand, simply as part of the second 11 MILLION Takeover Day. My job is going to be taken by a young person for the day. The previous Takeover involved 400 organisations, giving 10,000 children the chance to work alongside decision makers. Our meeting about getting involved came after a discussion we'd just had in the office. We were trying to work out how to present the case studies of the young people we represent. We went through every permutation and then came to the conclusion that basically, we needed to keep out of the way and let the case studies speak for themselves. What we do best as an organisation, and what has brought us the most success, is to stay backstage and let our young people take the spotlight. This is why Takeover Day appeals to me as a concept, why it appeals to our young people, and also why I am feeling slightly anxious that I'll be permanently done out of a job on 8th November!

Votes at 16? It misses the point...

2008-08-01T11:51:00Z

At its policy forum last weekend, Labour joined all the other mainstream British political parties in committing to lowering the franchise to 16 in its next election manifesto.

All to the good you might think. Surely fostering young people's civic engagement is what all of us are aiming to do? But I have always had serious concerns about this proposal.

Politicos of all colours believe that the way to switch young people on to civic and civil engagement is through voting and formal political structures. This is because these same structures were what got them involved back in the day. But the vast majority of young people (and indeed the population in general) are switched off by the existing structures and choose to engage in different ways (volunteering and single issue campaigns are both extremely popular with the 16-25 age group).

Introducing votes at 16 merely addresses the symptoms of political engagement, not the cause. And it is also guaranteed to fail - every survey that has ever been done of under 18s demonstrates conclusively that they don't want the vote. Similar 'eye catching' initiatives like entering people into a lottery if they vote in local elections suffer from the same misconception.

What we need to do is to look more fundamentally at why people aren't interested in mainstream politics anymore. The 2006 Power Inquiry provided an excellent roadmap for how this trend should be reversed, but now seems to have been largely forgotten. We need to start with 'civil' engagement and gradually introduce people to the concept of 'civic' engagement. There is no doubt that the former can lead to the latter, if correctly nurtured.

Votes at 16 will merely extend the reach of our political class, one of the main causes of disengagement and cynicism, to a younger age group.

PS Michael White wrote a very entertaining article on this in The Guardian earlier this week which has stimulated much impassioned blog debate.

Poverty of thought?

2008-06-24T21:41:00Z

The child poverty issue has raised its head again, and brings with it the familar feelings of guilt, hopelessness and frustration. Unless you're Gordon Brown or (hopefully) Barack Obama there's very little you can do. But it made me think about poverty of thought.

In the meritocracy that we are fortunate enough to live in it is possible (although unfortunately not likely) that a child's poverty-stricken upbringing need not necessarily affect the rest of its life. However, poverty of thought can blight someone forever. The young people that slip through the educational or social care net may never get the chance to view their own lives objectively. If you feel restricted and limited by your situation then you are not able to gain any perspective on the changes you could make.

The danger in talking about this is it is a very First world issue. It is so easy to lose sight of the fact that having the luxury of addressing the issue of poverty of thought, rather than simply life-sapping poverty, puts us in the top 10% of the world's population.

Boris confounds the doubters

2008-05-15T12:23:00Z

Boris Johnson has confounded doubts about his capability to be London mayor by making some interesting appointments in his first couple of weeks. In particular he has recruited Ray Lewis as deputy mayor with responsibility for young people. Ray is a former prison governor and founder of the East Side Young Leaders Academy and clearly has a track record in empowering and raising the aspirations of young people from marginalised backgrounds. He also challenges all the stereotypes you might have about the sort of person that might hold high office for the Conservative party.

I had the opportunity to meet Ray a few times when doing some work for the body created to advise David Cameron on Youth Policy . He is clearly a man of great integrity and I am sure that his no-nonsense and challenging attitude will inspire young people who might otherwise drift to the margins of society. It will be interesting to see how he shapes the brief over the weeks and months to come.

A new push for innovation

2008-05-08T16:19:00Z

Yesterday I attended the Innovation Exchange Festival of Ideas. The Innovation Exchange was set up by the Office of the Third Sector to stimulate new ideas and approaches. It has identified two areas to focus on initially: independent living and disadvantaged young people, the second of which has an obvious interest for Changemakers. The event was unusual in that it brought together funders from the private and trust sectors, public sector commissioners and third sector innovators. There was an open exchange of views and, whilst it was good to see organisations putting aside their normal sectoral barriers, it was also interesting to note that at coffee breaks and over lunch people tended to congregate to their colleagues from similar backgrounds! There is clearly still some way to go if our ambitions of truly integrated working are to be realised. Nonetheless the event threw up some very interesting ideas, from an organisation hiring scooters for young people from rural areas of Norfolk to enable them to better access services and facilities, to the efforts of the David Beckham Academy to use his obvious appeal and role model status to raise young people’s aspirations in east London. In John Craig the Innovation Exchange has an excellent leader and we are looking forward to working with him over the months to come to stimulate some exciting new ideas.

MyPlace or MyPeople?

2008-04-28T17:49:00Z

Last week I attended a briefing on the government’s new MyPlace programme, a £190m investment in youth facilities across England. It is clearly very exciting that the government is making this kind of commitment, and there is no doubt that the youth building stock is in dire need of revitalisation. However, there are a number of pitfalls that I feel ought to be avoided in order to ensure that this project is a success. Firstly, there is an assumption that local youth organisations have the capacity to develop and manage large scale capital projects. Talking to colleagues around the sector, there is widespread concern that this capacity does not exist and that some organisations may overstretch themselves or that the opportunity cost will simply be too high for them to take advantage. Secondly, the funding is ringfenced for bricks and mortar but, as we have seen with the Building Schools for the Future programme, erecting a beautiful building does not in itself transform a young person’s experience. What really makes centres like Bolton Girls’ and Lads’ Club and the Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey successful is high quality leadership and strength of the relationships they have with their young people. We would like to see MyPlace to allow and encourage its funded projects to invest in the human dimension of the facilities. Finally, there is a danger that these new facilities are unsustainable in the medium to long term; both in terms of funding and having talented people available to run them. Therefore, MyPlace should consider increasing its investment in the ability of organisations running these new facilities to create sustainable income after their financial commitments have finished.

There is always a tendency for the voluntary sector to respond with cynicism when exciting new initiatives like MyPlace are launched. My observations are therefore meant as a constructive critique of MyPlace’s initial plans. We remain hugely supportive of this initiative.

Future leaders

2008-01-25T22:56:00Z

It’s been a good start to the New Year for Changemakers - we have been commissioned by the DCSF to do a feasibility study on the proposed new National Institute for Youth Leadership. Over the next few weeks we will be convening groups of experts from all sections of society and civic life to gather their views on how young people can be most effectively supported to become the leaders of the future.

Changemakers has been developing leadership potential since we first started fourteen years ago. We have found that if you can inspire young people, you can show them that with tenacity and courage they can make really substantial positive changes in their communities. For us it’s about lighting the fire of their enthusiasm. Our approach has always been to facilitate rather than direct their potential so the young people themselves can own their success. We have also discovered, rather like in politics or business, that leaders come in all shapes and sizes and it’s not necessarily the vocal ones who push themselves forward at the beginning of a project that will emerge as the true leaders by the end. It’s not just the budding Richard Bransons or David Millibands that can have a substantial impact or enthuse their peers to do something great.

We are particularly interested in the different leadership qualities that might be needed to meet the big global challenges of the mid 21^st century, like climate change, cultural and community cohesion. Young people turning 18 in ’18, the young leaders of the future, will be facing very different demands as leaders to their counterparts of the last fifty years. I’m coming to the conclusion that it is up to us to equip them to equip themselves. I would be very interested in hearing your views on how we can best develop the leaders of the future.

All we want for Christmas

2008-01-03T20:00:00Z

Organising your database is like picking up your dry cleaning – you avoid it for ages but once you do the feeling of virtue is so overwhelming you cannot understand why you didn’t do it before. We are just girding our loins, waiting the arrival of the management consultants who are magically doing some pro bono work for us to sort out our database. At present our database is in the state I imagine many charities’ are. We have a spreadsheet, compiled in a hurry, made up of people with whom we have come into contact. As it has been formed from the records of each of our staff the notes are practically incomprehensible to anyone but the author. Acronyms litter the page like the spelling of a madman and there are more duplicates than you can shake a Christmas stocking at. As a result it sits on our server, doing the virtual equivalent of gathering dust.

So all we want for Christmas this year is a database that actually means something. We should be using it every day for mailings and updating contact details. Our aim is to create the kind of database that lobbyists use, that’s updated after every meeting with their views and interests so that when analysed it shows who should be meeting who to get things done. We’re a long way from that, but when the rest of the world is committed to giving things up, we’re committed to starting something – and more importantly keeping it going. It’s the admin version of going to the gym. So I look forward to seeing you in the New Year and showing off our muscled, flexible database…