Recently the Unloc team took a group of our young changemakers from the PAC programme to the PAC Liverpool Conference and the Gamerchanger Awards 2022, one of which turned out to be a true winner!
In partnership with Co-op the Gamechanger Awards celebrate the work of ten incredible young people and projects, who are part of PAC, a ground-breaking new youth-led network, which is funded by the Youth Endowment Fund, the #iwill Fund (a joint investment between The National Lottery Community Fund and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) and The Co-op.
Through the programme, over 120 peer researchers listened to over 4,500 young people, recording their lived-experiences of violence, and finding out what needs to happen to make their area a better place to live. They’ve also been working with local partners to turn what they’ve learned into action.
The awards ceremony was held in partnership with Co-op in front of an audience of local leaders and other young researchers.
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We were absolutely thrilled to see our young changemaker Ace Merriott win the Networker Extraordinaire Award! Ace took part in our Unloc Inspiring Change programme last Summer, a social action programme for young people in partnership with the Peer Action Collective, Artswork, Co-op, and Youth Options.
Ace really worked hard to push themselves outside of their comfort-zone to connect with range of different stakeholders to increase the impact of their team’s social action project, called the Teal Umbrella, focused on to de-stigmatising people talking about their experiences of sexual harassment.
The project was promoted by an article in a local newspaper in the area as a result of Ace’s networking skills which led to Ace giving a brilliant interview about their project.
Ace didn’t just stop there however, Ace pushed onward and spoke to the Crime Commissioner about the current projects the local authority are running and how the voices of the young people from the Teal Umbrella can help to influence change to make young people feel safe.
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Ace said: “Having the opportunity to go to the PAC conference and see everyone else’s projects as well as discusses my team’s project made me realise how much of an impact young people are making. We are the future of societal change.”
Through this the Teal Umbrella team are now in talks with a range of different mental health services in the area to help put young people’s voices at the heart of their practises! A fantastic result, we’re incredibly proud of Ace and we’ll be closely watching to see what this talented group of young people achieve next!
Massive thanks to the Peer Action Collective, the Co-op, Youth Options, and Artswork for their dedication to improving the lives of young people and the wider community. Knowing we have such inspiring organisations around us with the same mission to improve the lives and opportunities of young people energises us on our mission to develop young potential! Together we can make such lasting change.
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For more information about the Peer Action Collective Conference and Awards click here!
