Portsmouth: A Young Changemakers City is Unloc’s exciting new project funded by the Ellis Campbell Foundation. This innovative new programme seeks to better embed democracy and democratic practices within schools, and inspire and empower young people to become changemakers in their own right.
The plan is to develop the project further and roll out the Young Changemaker Cities project to schools across the country in the future. As the city where it all started for Unloc, Portsmouth is the location for our launch of the project, and provides an exciting new innovation for Portsmouth schools and the young people that attend them.
The Project
The Young Changemaker Cities project has 4 key strands to it.
Firstly, we create a localised toolkit of resources which schools can use across tutorials and the curriculum. This bespoke toolkit is specifically designed for purpose, and has been co-produced with teachers and young people themselves.
Secondly, we host in-school Democracy Days – which allows our Unloc Facilitators to bring democracy to life with young people in an interactive, high-energised delivery style that’s both fun and rewarding. It takes the topic of democracy and makes it engaging and interesting in a way that appeals more to young minds.
Thirdly, we are delivering an incubation programme which is open access for young people who show a deeper interest in democracy. This engagement opens up channels of thought that they may not have accessed before, and allows us to empower them to become changemakers themselves.
Young people will get the chance to experience 4 weekend-long experiences which provides them with the chance to boost their democracy and leadership skills.
Finally, we provide ongoing support to schools to help better imbed democracy into the culture of the school.
This is an extremely exciting project that allows schools to really connect with their students around democracy and work together to ensure best practice is followed in the school.
Portsmouth: A Young Changemakers City launches
Recently, we delivered our first Changemaker Democracy Day at Admiral Lord Nelson School in Portsmouth. As part of the day, we had fifty enthusiastic students from all year groups who are keen to ensure democracy is a common theme within their school life.
They had the chance to explore what makes a ‘changemaker’ and what they would do to make a difference both in their local community and beyond.
Each student got the chance to pitch to their peers about what they would do ‘If they were prime minister for the day’, and how they would rally support for their manifesto with a democratic fashion.
The students were also lucky enough to hear inspiring talks from Destiny Kennedy, the Member of Youth Parliament in Portsmouth, and Cllr Suzy Horton, Deputy Leader for Portsmouth City Council, and Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education.
Finally, the students were also given a safe space to actively discuss democracy in their school, their experience of it and what they would like to see improved in their learning environment.
The day was a huge success and we heard some really inspiring ideas from young people about how they would like to make positive differences in their local communities.
Admiral Lord Nelson School students commented:
’I have gained the knowledge of how I can make change today ‘
and
‘We have gained the knowledge to be motivational and self-confident’
Unloc Facilitator Steve Baker commented:
“The Portsmouth: A Young Changemaker Cities project is important to enhance the pupil voice across the area. Giving young people the practical skills and knowledge they need to make the change they wish to see in their schools, as well as in the wider communities in which they live”
Fellow Unloc Facilitator Clair Martin added:
“The Young Changemakers Cities project is an essential tool to spark creative thinking and doing to help bring about social change. The project gives young people the confidence to ask for change and to feel confident change will happen.”
The initial launch of the Young Changemaker Cities project in Portsmouth will allow our team to develop the programme even further, refining and developing it with young people themselves so that it benefits young people across the UK in the future.
To find out more about the Ellis Campbell Foundation and the fantastic work they do simply click here.
