TO IMPROVE OUR ABILITY TO NURTURE THE PARTICIPATION,

KNOWLEDGE AND POTENTIAL OF VULNERABLE YOUNG PEOPLE

I understand that the Churchill Trust may publish this Report, either in hard copy or on the internet or both,

and consent to such publication.

I indemnify the Churchill Trust against any loss, costs or damages it may suffer arising out of any claim or

proceedings made against the Trust in respect of or arising out of the publication of any Report submitted to

the Trust and which the Trust places on a website for access over the internet.

I also warrant that my Final Report is original and does not infringe the copyright of any person, or contain

anything which is, or the incorporation of which into the Final Report is, actionable for defamation, a breach

of any privacy law or obligation, breach of confidence, contempt of court, passing-off or contravention of any

other private right or of any law.

Signed: Lauren Oliver Date: 23rd October 2017

THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA Report by: LAUREN OLIVER - 2016 Churchill Fellow

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KEYWORDS: Youth, Engagement, Social, Systemic, Change, Empowerment.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

READING THIS REPORT ............................................................................................................... 2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................... 6

THE ARGUMENT FOR A RADICAL SHIFT ....................................................................................... 7

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 9

TRIP OVERVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 11

The United Kingdom .................................................................................................................................... 11

The United States of America ...................................................................................................................... 12

Nicaragua ..................................................................................................................................................... 13

Itinerary ....................................................................................................................................................... 14

THEMATIC ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 21

Successes ..................................................................................................................................................... 21

Barriers ........................................................................................................................................................ 24

Enablers ....................................................................................................................................................... 27

CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................ 38

RADICAL SHIFT: AN EARLY CONCEPT FRAMEWORK ................................................................... 39

Core Principles ............................................................................................................................................. 40

Domains ....................................................................................................................................................... 41

KNOWLEDGE-TO-ACTION ......................................................................................................... 42

Radical Shift Development .......................................................................................................................... 43

Recommendations ....................................................................................................................................... 43

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 45

APPENDIX 1: Y-CHANGE ........................................................................................................... 46

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READING THIS REPORT

I have chosen to use unapologetically strong terms in this report. Specifically the use of the term ‘radical’ is

intended as a call to action. If we want to prevent generations of young people from replicating the cycles of

disadvantage that they have been born into there must be a radical shift in how we conceptualise, engage

with and work alongside them. There is still a role for building young people’s capacity and for increasing

their visibility in traditionally exclusionary spaces, however that work is all but pointless when the structures

and systems they seek to address have no idea how to integrate their knowledge and their presence. An

overview of my argument for a radical shift is provided after the Executive Summary below.

My Fellowship has left me with a lot of questions as well as the beginnings of some answers and as such, in

addition to a conclusion, this report includes an early concept framework and a knowledge-to-action

approach for further development. In order to enable readers to understand how this point was reached I

have structured the report as follows:

1. Trip Overview

This section provides a brief socio-political context for the countries and organisations I visited as

well as the full list of individuals and organisations I met with.

2. Thematic Analysis

Although every meeting, workshop or experience I participated in yielded new information or new

perspectives, some significant themes began to emerge. These have informed the development of

an early concept model for a radical shift in how we work with young people to effect social change.

The themes are broken down here into successes, barriers and enablers.

3. Early Concept Framework

This section will outline the draft components of a model for a radical shift in enabling youth-driven

and informed social change. This model forms the basis of the outcomes of my Fellowship.

4. Report Conclusion

A summary of key points and conclusions drawn from the thinking and learning that have emerged

through my Churchill Fellowship.

5. Knowledge-to-Action

An overview of ideas and strategies (including those that are in-place, planned and under-

development) for dissemination and implementation of the knowledge gained during my Fellowship

as well as recommendations for building further knowledge to continue the development of the

model.

Throughout the report I use youth participation and youth engagement interchangeably to refer to young

people’s active and informed involvement in decision-making and action (design, development, delivery). I

also use the term ‘young people who have experienced disadvantage’, because I believe it is important to

extricate the experiences from a young person’s identity; disadvantage is not who they are, it is the

circumstance they find themselves in through no fault of their own.

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Lauren K Oliver

Senior Advisor Youth Engagement, Berry Street Childhood Institute

| +61 (0)430 784 366 | loliver@berrystreet.org.au |

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Aim: To improve our ability to nurture the participation, knowledge and potential of vulnerable young

people

Countries Visited: United Kingdom, United States of America, Nicaragua

Prior to departure on my Churchill Fellowship I had undertaken a course1 that caused me to rethink the angle

from which I was approaching the issues facing young people who have experienced disadvantage. It had

become apparent that the greatest barrier to young people exercising their potential, engaging with their

knowledge and exercising their right to participate was not young people themselves; it was the opportunity

structures around them. Or the lack thereof and the inadequacy of those that did exist.

While overseas I met with almost 100 people from 24 different organisations and networks, gathering almost

40 hours of recorded interviews over the four weeks. The amount of information I amassed was somewhat

overwhelming and it has taken me some time to process its significance.

My hope is that Australia will lead the way in demonstrating how the expertise young people derive from

experiences of disadvantage is not only valuable to social and systemic change efforts, but it is fundamental

to the development of relevant, effective and sustainable change. I want young people who are experiencing

or who have experienced disadvantage to have access to the opportunity to tackle social justice head on and

to have confidence that their lived reality is evidence of what works, what doesn’t and what is missing.

Key Learnings

Young people who have

experienced disadvantage

are not the primary barrier

to youth engagement or to

social change. They are

ready, willing and open to

being supported to

become more able to drive

change;

The youth engagement

landscape is evolving and

increasingly young people

are asked to the decision-

making table, but still on adult terms;

A radical shift in the way we work with young people and approach social change is required in order

to bolster the evolving work and to avoid perpetuating disadvantage;

While there is not a plethora of examples of social change and social action driven by the lived

experience of young people who have experienced disadvantage, the successes that do exist teach

us about:

o The need for clarity in defining the purpose of social action;

1 The Crunch, social enterprise accelerator run by Social Traders.

Street scene, Managua, Nicaragua

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o The importance of assessing the risks that threaten the sustainability of any change that is

achieved and incorporating that thinking into social action strategies;

There remains a global tendency to underestimate and undervalue the role of young people in social

change;

There is a need to build a body of evidence around the quantifiable loss we experience by not working

with young people as partners and not engaging with their lived experience as expertise.

Fear, ignorance and a lack of clarity are the greatest enemies of youth engagement and effective

social change;

There are many more enabling tools and approaches to support effective youth engagement and

social action than there are barriers and they are (for the most part) freely accessible (involving, as

they do, changes to one’s attitude, approach and understanding);

Highlights

A long, impassioned rant and discussion in a London park with Rys Farthing whose work I have

followed and been excited by for some time;

The entire team from Step up to Serve (UK) downing tools to talk to me on a steaming hot London

day about their work and the barriers to participation as they see them;

Mariam Ahmed (Young People’s Coordinator, The Fixers, UK) who generously shared some of her

own story to help me understand how Fixers works and how she advocates for the young people she

works with;

Meeting with Carol Homden (CEO, Coram, UK) who, despite it being the end of her work day, took

the time to challenge my thinking about professionalising youth experience;

Meeting with Amelia Viney (Founder & Director, the Advocacy Academy, UK), whose politically

charged passion was infectious… and made me cry (in a good way);

Meeting some of my academic heroes (Prof. Nigel Thomas, Dr. Cath Larkin and Prof. Barry Percy-

Smith);

Meeting with Meredith Hamilton (COO, Peace First, USA) for the term ‘Exemplary Unicorn’ which

pops up in this report, and for insights into the Peace First framework which has had a big impact on

my thinking;

Spending time with the Inner Harbour Project (Baltimore USA) Youth Leaders who had a huge impact

on my understanding of the role of visibility and the need to avoid over-simplification;

Visiting CESESMA, the organisation that has been the home of much of (another academic hero)

Harry Shier’s research and ongoing work;

Spending time with young people living in the smaller towns and villages in Nicaragua’s coffee

growing region and learning so much from them about compassion, self-insight and respect in the

social change process.

Key Recommendations

The recommendations emerging from my fellowship are all framed around the ongoing development of a

concept I have entitled Radical Shift. This concept calls for a radical shift in the way we conceptualise, work

with and support young people experiencing disadvantage. It also proposes that we focus on changing the

systems and structures that currently prevent young people from leading, advocating and driving social

action. The concept is guided by four Core Principles and focuses on four Domains.

Core Principles:

1. Self-Knowledge – insight into one’s own motivation, values, behaviours etc.

2. Compassion – consideration of others in everything we do.

3. Seek Insight – digging deep into the issue, overcoming assumptions and stereotypes.

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4. Cross Lines of Difference – understanding resistance, engaging with those perpetuating the barriers.

Domains:

1. Value – change the way we value young people and lived experience as a source of expertise.

2. Back & Build – Invest in young people and the infrastructure that supports and empowers them.

3. Lead – step up, young people, professionals, advocate and drive change.

4. Demonstrate – be visible, develop evidence of the impact of failing to work with young people.

This remains a work in progress. The knowledge to action approach includes an outline of development steps.

In addition my recommendations are:

The development and execution of research into the value of lived experience in social change

processes;

A critical review of youth work qualifications to ensure future youth workers are able to adequately

support and elevate young people experiencing disadvantage to advocate, lead and drive social

action;

The development of a youth study tour in which young people who have experienced disadvantage

and who are engaging in social action could connect with other groups of young people doing the

same across the globe.

Knowledge-to-Action

My workplace, the Berry Street Childhood Institute (BSCI) has a focus on the translation of knowledge into

action. My plan includes:

Social media – establishing a network and an audience to stimulate discussion, test ideas and reach

more people.

Flagship demonstration project – Y-Change 2018 – an 18-month social action, training and

employment opportunity for young people who have experienced disadvantage. Y-Change offers an

opportunity to test the Radical Shift concept in real time.

Training development & delivery – YOUth exCHANGE is a two-day training event that uses some of

the Radical Shift concepts to take participants to the next level with their engagement work;

Event series – Webinars and forums engaging the broader youth sector in a discussion about radically

shifting our work. In partnership with Youth Affairs Council of Victoria.

Writing & publication – Blog posts, journal submissions, opinion pieces.

Conference presentations

University lecturing

International collaborations

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am profoundly grateful to the young

people I met who gave me their time,

let me invade their meetings, and

generously shared their stories, their

expertise and their experiences with

me. Your insights challenged me and

have caused me to rethink my

assumptions and ideas. Thank you all:

Thirza, Millie, Nicolle Hargadon, Lisa,

Sam, Iqra, Chantelle, Bradley, Angy

Rivera, Damon Martin, Mikequeal

Clowney, Markell Robinson, Jazmean

McFadden, Antonio Coates, Diamond

Sampson, Dayjanae Jones, Jessica

Pope, Miranda Jones, Destini Henry, Peterson Rodriguez, Antonio Turner, Liz Meyling Lanzas Lopez, Horvin

Arturo Orozco Castro, Emilia Mayuri Martinez Paiz, Yubelka Junieth Lopez, Yemni Montoya Diaz, Rebeca

Julissa Gonzalez, Izdania Suyen Diaz, Alvaro Antonio Diaz Velasquez, Eveling Yosari Arauz Cruz, Ruth Paola

Arauz Castro.

I am also grateful to the adult professionals who made time in their incredibly busy schedules and shared

their professional insights. I’m thankful for the frank reflections on context, on failure on challenges and

successes, which helped me understand their work. I am particularly grateful to those who challenged my

theories and made me think twice.

To the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust I am truly thankful for the opportunity that has pulled together all

the strings of my career and created a platform from which to propel forwards. Particular thanks go to Meg

Gilmartin for her patience, her responsiveness and her unquestioning support when things got tough.

To Berry Street and the Berry Street Childhood Institute, particularly Sandie de Wolf and Marg Hamley, for

supporting me to pursue such an amazing opportunity and for embracing the learnings on my return.

Finally, and importantly, thank you to my family: To my partner, Erin, for so ably caring for our two small

children so that I could take up this opportunity; and to my mum and stepdad for hosting my little family for

such a long period. I promise I won’t abandon ship for such a long time again until the kids are teenagers!

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THE ARGUMENT FOR A RADICAL SHIFT

In the course of exploring the opportunities for a social enterprise prior to my Churchill Fellowship I

interviewed a lot of different people about their youth engagement practices. Overwhelmingly what I heard

was that they are stuck. They know it is the right thing to do, they want to do it well, but they are struggling

to establish consistent, effective youth engagement practices. When young people are consulted or engaged

the challenge that stumps people becomes how to translate what young people suggest or recommend into

practical reality. Further, the prospect of working alongside young people as partners in a solution-finding

and development process is not generally considered at all.

Our collective perception of young people who have experienced disadvantage is that of either a victim, a

threat, or a delinquent (Cahill, Coffey & Beadle 2015). These archetypal notions invoke fear and paternalism,

positioning young people as requiring either protection, punishment or correction. None position them as

having something to offer, or the potential to live a good, productive life. All of them suggest that their

experiences of disadvantage are at best wholly negative and at worst a source of evil. In what world would a

society entrust the responsibility of leadership, or even participation in decision making on any significant

level to people who are broken, dangerous or unpredictable?

Yet what I have experienced in my own work and what I saw while undertaking my Churchill Fellowship is

indication of creative, intelligent, informed and innovative leadership and decision-making by young people.

In the face of hugely challenging life circumstances, regular denial of their rights and abilities, and adult-

professional-constructed systems that continuously speak over and make assumptions about their needs

these young people continue to get up, front up and push back. Imagine if the opportunities to advocate,

lead and make change happen were not only available, but avidly supported and promoted by those who

currently construct barriers. Imagine if young people’s collaboration was an expectation rather than a vague

consideration.

The youth sector has become complacent, believing that knowledge of conceptual frameworks such as Roger

Hart’s Ladder of Participation2 and Harry Shier’s Pathways to Participation3 is enough to ensure that tokenism

is not the default engagement strategy. In actual fact it is not enough to establish, for example, a youth

advisory group with direct access to an organisation’s Board, or even to plough resources into young people’s

civic participation. If the purpose of one’s youth participation strategies continues to be the development

and perpetuation of existing, adult-established and designed structures or assumptions then, as one UK

academic told me “that’s not participation, its labour” (Cath Larkin, University of Central Lancaster).

Very little of the work that needs doing in this space is about ‘improving’ young people. In fact, although a

great source of the ‘warm and fuzzies’, in my opinion personal growth and development are red herrings in

social change dialogue. The ultimate aim is not to make participants better people, but to challenge and

address an injustice. Hence the call for a radical shift.

At the core of resistance to young people who have experienced disadvantage being recognised for their

expertise is a fundamental failure to comprehend the value that they have to offer. We have to shift

perceptions away from young people as victims/threats/delinquents and away from the idea that

experiences of disadvantage inherently limit a young person’s potential. Once we are able to accept that they

are capable social actors who also hold unique and valuable insight and expertise their exclusion from

decision-making becomes negligent.

The Brazilian educator and philosopher, Paolo Freire, in his seminal text ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ (Friere

2017) talks about the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed in which the oppressed has

2 Documented here: https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/childrens_participation.pdf accessed 14/10/2017 3 Documented here: http://www.academia.edu/2304903/Pathways_to_participation_openings_opportunities_and_obligations accessed 14/10/2017

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“internalised the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines” (p.21). If we understand young people

who have experienced disadvantage to be the oppressed in this equation and adult professionals, systems

and structures to be the oppressor, we can further understand the role of Exemplary Unicorns in

perpetuating the ‘guidelines’ for how young people should be in order to ‘succeed’.

In Freire’s opinion change can only come when it is driven by the oppressed:

“Although the situation of oppression is a dehumanized and dehumanizing totality affecting both the

oppressors and those whom they oppress, it is the latter who must, from their stifled humanity, wage for

both the struggle for a fuller humanity: the oppressor, who is himself dehumanized because he dehumanizes

others, is unable to lead this struggle.”

(Freire 2017, p.21)

This sits at odds, to some extent, with my discomfort around placing the onus on young people to

demonstrate worthiness. However, Freire is not talking about the oppressed showing they can be good

citizens according to the guidelines laid down by the oppressor. He is talking about the pursuit of freedom

on their terms. Significantly, Freire’s notion only calls for young people/the oppressed to “lead this struggle”,

which doesn’t let the oppressors off the hook.

So much of what I heard from individuals and groups with whom I met whilst undertaking my Churchill

Fellowship combined to create a cacophonic alarm. I came to understand that through our collective actions

we are effectively blaming young people for a lack of improvement, at least in the youth participation space,

if not in the broader social welfare sector. It is their capacity that needs building, they need to demonstrate

their ability and their worthiness in order to sit at a decision-making table, they need to step up to the plate.

In part we do this through the celebrating of what one person I met with called “Exemplary Unicorns” (thank

you Meredith Hamilton at Peace First, Boston USA) – the young people who have overcome terrible life

circumstances to become ‘success stories’, generally according to adult-defined perceptions of success. This

oppressive approach is so pervasive that in every case when I asked young people themselves for examples

of change they felt they had been able to affect through their participation they all talked about personal

development outcomes first and foremost as if they themselves had been the barrier in the first place. They

expressed pride in having changed their behaviour, or saw their biggest achievement as having enabled more

young people to get involved and develop themselves.

We have youth participation and engagement outlined in policy, charters, practice directives, even in

legislation to some extent. We have the in-principle will and the desire to engage with young people. What

is missing is the action. This presents Australia with a window of opportunity to disrupt current practice and

radically shift our perceptions of young people and the way we engage with their expertise.

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INTRODUCTION

Young people who have experienced disadvantage are arguably one of Australia’s greatest untapped skill

and knowledge resources.

While there can be no denying the deleterious effects of a childhood marked by trauma and neglect, there is

chronically underestimated value in what some young people draw from those experiences. For example:

Communication skills developed as a result of having to tell their story and communicate their needs

to key workers, case managers, psychologists, doctors, teachers, social workers, lawyers, friends,

family;

Negotiation skills honed through years of trying to make sure they get what they need in a complex

service system;

Problem solving abilities formed by having to navigate through barriers, crises, danger, relationships,

unfamiliar environments;

The ability to read people having had to do so for their own protection;

Creative resourcefulness in response to the absence of food, money, clothing, opportunity;

A deep understanding of the way a policy or piece of legislation looks and feels when it is lived.

These are increasingly sought-after skills in a job market that is looking to a future in which ‘soft skills’, or

enterprise skills are they key to a sustainable career (FYA 2015).

Among our young people who are or have been in care, in prison, homeless, addicted, there are skilled

strategists, creative problem solvers, organisers, thinkers, researchers, philosophers. There are leaders,

advocates, changemakers, and experts. However, for the most part, they are going unnoticed and being

undervalued.

The existence of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has not been enough to combat

what was described to me in Spanish as the ‘thing-a-fication’ (cosaficacion) of children and young people.

That is to say that while words abound telling them they have rights and agency, the actions of adults,

institutions, culture and authorities demonstrate to them that they are still not collectively considered

capable of rational, informed thought, action or leadership. They are more ‘thing’ than person. This is

particularly true for young people experiencing disadvantage.

Young people who are experiencing or have experienced disadvantage find themselves wearing an extra layer

(several in fact) of restrictions, because as a global society we equate disadvantage with limitation. In fact we

expend a great deal of energy and time in researching and building our understanding of exactly how limiting

experiences of disadvantage are, drawing correlations between homelessness, substance abuse, experience

of the care system, disability and low education attainment, poor mental health, interactions with criminal

justice systems, mortality rates, etc. The word disadvantage itself implies starting from a lower base, or

worse: a disintegration of advantage, an impairment.

The discrepancy between what is articulated in words, documents, charters, policies and conventions and

the lived reality of young people’s access to opportunities to lead, inform and participate is referred to in the

context of the Victorian Child Protection system as a gap between “espoused theory” and “theory in action”

(Bessant & Broadley 2014). My frustration was borne out of this chasm: If we can say it and we can document

it and we can express a commitment to it, why are we not doing it?

What I found during my Churchill Fellowship is that some people are doing it. And there are a great deal

more enabling factors available to us to make it happen than there are barriers. This presents Australia with

an exciting opportunity for a radical shift away from the stasis that is the hallmark of current youth work and

youth engagement practice.

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I was originally interested in trying to understand how we can better nurture the participation, knowledge

and potential of young people who have experienced disadvantage. However, even before I left for my

Churchill Fellowship trip I had become aware that this was an inadequate goal. It wouldn’t go any way

towards addressing the barriers imposed by societal or systemic perceptions. To focus solely on developing

the capacity of young people is in actual fact both woefully misguided and potentially damaging, because

what it fails to acknowledge is that young people themselves are not the greatest barrier to progress. The

greater barriers are institutional, systemic, attitudinal, cultural and economic.

Instead I became interested in:

1. finding examples of young people using their experiences of disadvantage to teach, to inform, to lead

and to drive social and systemic change;

2. understanding what factors contribute to shifts in perception of young people’s capacity and what

make it possible for young people to step into a position of shared, or wholly held power in change

processes; and

3. finding out what we need to do in Australia to break down the barriers so that young people’s

experiences of disadvantage are recognised not only for the trauma and adversity that have resulted,

but for the immense learning, expertise and personal development they give rise to.

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TRIP OVERVIEW

My original itinerary included the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Nicaragua, South Africa and

India. Unfortunately due to a change in family circumstances I had to cut the trip short by two weeks, which

resulted in the loss of the South Africa and India components. Nevertheless, I met with almost 100 people

from 24 different organisations and networks, gathering almost 40 hours of recorded interviews over the

four weeks.

As I travelled and met with different people the importance of having some understanding of the socio-

political context in which young people and youth work are situated became increasingly apparent. In some

cases the context gave a clearer justification for the very existence of an organisation, in others it explained

prioritisation of particular issues. One of the key ways in which it influenced my thinking was by providing

me with a macro context that I could compare to a micro element of our own experience. For example, the

Nicaraguan context helped me understand strategies for social change in the absence of dialogue with

government authorities and decision-makers. While we may not live under the same political structures, we

do face situations in which the issues that are important to young people are not reaching or connecting with

those in a position to enable change.

The United Kingdom Population: 65.65 million4

Of which young people: Approx. 19%5

Currently operating under a Conservative government funding for youth-based initiatives that are outside

the government’s prescribed agenda is harder to come by. The UK youth sector is HUGE and contains a

multitude of large national as well as small local players and everything in between. One contact described

government funding structures that have become much tighter and more outcomes focused in response to

the ‘loose’ approach of the Labour government. There were several references made by people I met with

to the impact of a ‘Gag Clause’ in government funding agreements. This is a clause that obliges fund recipients

to abstain from any lobbying against “parliament, government or political activity” (Cleeveley, N. 2016).

While the feeling was that it was not intended to be applied so tightly, there are reports of young people

being prevented by youth workers from writing to their local MPs or councils for fear that this will be seen

as ‘lobbying’.

The government youth agenda has a strong focus on what it terms ‘social action’. Traditionally social action

has been synonymous with collective, often radical action towards socio-economic reform and/or

institutional and systemic change (the Arab Spring, Occupy movements and others are examples). The

current UK government interpretation is concerned largely with volunteering and increasing the civic

participation of young people. The implication is that increased civic participation will lead to positive social

change. To this end they are ploughing funding into initiatives that have this focus. This is a point of

frustration for some who are working to empower young activists and change makers, in part because of the

fact funding is being directed elsewhere, but more significantly because they feel a generation is being misled

by a watered down version of what social action is.

One individual I met with expressed frustration with the standard of training for youth workers and the

broadly damaging approach to youth work that they perceive in the UK. In terms of youth work as a

profession they believe the qualifications are too easy to obtain and do not train youth workers to embrace

4 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/timeseries/ukpop/pop accessed 5/10/2017 5 Combined data for age ranges 10-14, 15-19, and 20-24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_Kingdom accessed 5/10/2017

Page | 12

young people as powerful social actors, as a source of learning (for the youth workers) or even as

fundamentally valuable in their own right.

The young people I spoke to in the UK said that being a young person in that country today is “quite difficult”

and “kind of confusing” as well as being “exciting”. They noted a jarring between the expectations of older

generations and the realities of living as a young person in an era of increased technology and social media.

They also spoke about the challenges of feeling things you don’t understand and being scared of growing up,

but excited by increasing autonomy and the ability to experience new things.

The United States of America Population: 326 million6

Of which children and young people: 22.8%7

The USA is in a state of immense change. It would be fair to say that some of the people I met with were still

in shock at the 2016 election of Donald Trump and how that is now playing out for the country. To some

extent it is still unclear how it will affect people in the long run, however, for two of the organisations I met

with it was already having an impact.

The anti-immigration stance has frightening implications for a lot of people, but particularly for

undocumented young people who came to the country with their parents as small children and babies. They

have grown up in the country, but without any form of visa they are prevented from accessing everything

from higher education to healthcare. In recent years they have been able to organise and start to take action,

but the Trump government throws all that work into question. In fact since my return the devastating

decision to repeal DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) means that the few benefits young people

were able to access (albeit temporarily) will be withdrawn and their status in the country becomes even more

fragile. Deportation is a constant fear.

The broadly aggressive approach of Trump and his administration has also caused the team at Peace First to

strengthen their efforts. They see an amplified need for their efforts to educate young people in peace-

making as the rhetoric of intolerance and hate gains support.

Young people in New York and Baltimore reflected quite different feelings of what it means to be young

today. In New York they talked about the pressure to move fast, do lots, achieve, and have the right ‘stuff’.

They talked about confusion and trying to work out who you should be and what you should do when there

are so many options. They explained that the multitude of options is counteracted by the level of competition

and a sense of struggle to find where you ‘fit’.

“People want you to live the life they think is appropriate… I want to do what I want to do”

Young participant in Peer Leadership Support & Development group, New York, USA

In Baltimore “it’s kind of like being crays in a pot; only a few will actually escape” (Diamond Sampson, Youth

Leader, Inner Harbour Project, Baltimore, USA). As young black people they spoke about being a statistic:

“Most of us, most young black males, either dead or in jail… Most of the ones who not either they be drug

dealers or junkies”

Damon Martin, Youth Leader, Inner Harbour Project, Baltimore, USA

They made it clear that for young people in Baltimore the future is either to stay in the area and get dragged

down, or get out and move up in the world. But to get out you have to rely on your own motivation, because

you won’t get encouragement from the community around you.

6 https://www.census.gov/ accessed 5/10/2017 7 Data for all children under 18yrs https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045216 accessed 5/10/2017

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Nicaragua Population: 6.15 million8

Of which young people: Approx. 33%9

A vastly different context to Australia in almost every way, Nicaragua retains a strong sense of its identity as

a nation of revolutionaries. This is an identity that is encouraged and emboldened by the current government

headed up by Daniel Ortega (known to the people just as ‘Daniel’).

Daniel has done a very good job of co-opting the language of both the revolution and the church, which

appears to have enabled him to position himself as the ongoing leader of the revolution and a conduit for

decisions blessed by God. The areas of the country I saw were sprinkled liberally with self-congratulatory

government billboards and signs either reminding people that Nicaragua is “Blessed, Beautiful and Always

Free”, or congratulating Daniel for his success as a President and reiterating one of the party’s many tag lines

“Christianity, Socialism and Solidarity!”

It’s not difficult to find a range of damning articles and reports10 about the Ortega government. They paint a

picture of an autocracy dressed up in democratic clothing with a leader concerned only with his own

interests, but capable of such skilful manipulation that majority of the people continue to blindly support

him.

Over the last ten years the Ortega government has gradually reduced funding to NGOs like those I met with,

particularly those working in the field of human rights and democratic rights. They have been able to justify

this with the assertion that they don’t need the intermediaries, because of their direct democracy approach

through which the government is engaging directly with the community. This model sees the Municipalities

acting as the conduits for community needs to be directly communicated to government. Via their Citizen

Power Councils the government also delivers all social services. While this could sound egalitarian and

participatory on paper, in practice it is highly vulnerable to manipulation and corruption. Those who can

organise and mobilise fastest, or who have money, the connections or the loudest voice get heard first and

can have their needs bumped up the priorities list.

In addition to all this Nicaragua is a Latin American nation with all that implies for its culture. There is a very

macho expectation of men to be in charge, unemotional, aggressive, sexually charged, heterosexual, working,

strong and seen. Women are traditionally the home makers, less visible, sexual objects, wives and mothers,

gentle, caring, sacrificing. It is also a culture where the Church is a very powerful influence both at a

government level and at an individual and community level. Christianity, specifically Catholicism is dominant

and Evangelism is a close second.

Although I heard several times from different people that Nicaragua is the safest country in the region (a fact

the government has promoted, despite the data being unclear11), I also heard that it has astonishingly high

rates of sexual violence12 and young people I met with named family violence as one of the issues that

concerns them most in their communities.

I spoke to several young people in the coffee-growing region of Nicaragua. Being young for them means being

conflicted, because their awareness of their rights means they come into conflict with family and community

sometimes. The fact they don’t believe in the gender divide the way their parents do means they have a

broader view of what’s possible. Nevertheless they find themselves often still bound by expectations of what

8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Nicaragua accessed 5/10/2027 9 Ibid. Figures from 2009 and combined data for age ranges 10-14, 15-19, and 20-24 10 https://confidencial.com.ni/the-nicaragua-miracle/ accessed 15/10/2017, https://nacla.org/news/2016/09/16/nicaragua%E2%80%99s-authoritarian-turn-not-product-leftist-politics accessed 12/10/2017, and https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2017/nicaragua accessed 15/10/2017 11 http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/revision-nicaraguas-safety-numbers/ accessed 15/10/2017 12 https://plan-international.org/because-I-am-a-girl/stopping-sexual-violence-nicaragua# accessed 15/10/2017

Page | 14

they will do with their lives. They see themselves as being key to change in their communities and being

responsible for taking on that challenge for the sake of their younger siblings or other young people in the

community. That responsibility weighs quite heavily for some. It is a role that requires you to care and be

concerned about your community and others, but also requires you to promote human rights and stand up

for what you believe in.

Itinerary

United Kingdom

Organisation/Individual Who Description

Step up to Serve Charlotte Hill (CEO)

Fiona Ellison (#iwill Fund

Development Manager)

Gillian Smith (Campaign

Director)

Dom Cotton (Comms and

Public Affairs Director)

Lucy Goodwill (Health and

Social Care Manager)

Rania Marandos (Deputy

CEO)

Rebecca Wyton (Director of

Strategy and Evidence)

Sam Newell (Comms and

Public Affairs Manager)

Sophie Drechsler (EA to CEO

and Operations Manager)

Step up to Serve drives the #iwill

campaign across the UK.

The #iwill campaign is focused on

encouraging greater social action

among young people in the UK, which

includes campaigning, volunteering and

fundraising.

www.stepuptoserve.org.uk

Professor Fernando M.

Reimers

Professor Reimers is the Faculty Director for International Education at

Harvard University. He gave a presentation on ‘Empowering Global

Citizens: Curriculum & Pedagogy’.

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/fernando-reimers

Rys Farthing Rys is a youth practitioner, a policy ‘wonk’ (her words), an agitator and

an academic. Australian born, she now lives in the UK where she

focuses on marginalised young people’s participation.

https://rysfarthing.com/ and https://radicalyouthpractice.org/

Ashoka Anna Hamilton, Education

Entrepreneur in Residence

Ashoka is an international organisation

promoting and nurturing social

innovation.

https://www.ashoka.org/node/2323

British Youth Council Brendan McGowan, Youth

Voice Manager

The BYC is a national youth council with

over 200 member organisations. They

Page | 15

promote youth leadership and act as a

megaphone for youth voice on specific

issues.

http://www.byc.org.uk/

Fixers (Northern) Miriam Ahmed (Young

People’s Coordinator,

Granada), Adam Young

(Creative Producer), Neil,

Thirza & Millie (Fixers)

Fixers is an organisation dedicated to

helping young people amplify their

message on issues that are important

to them. They do it through the

development of campaign resources

with young people and by supporting

groups of young people to use their

collective power to lobby and influence

government policy.

http://www.fixers.org.uk/home.php

Centre for Children & young

People's Participation,

University of Central

Lancashire

Prof. Nigel Thomas & Dr.

Cath Larkins

Nigel and Cath are highly respected

academics in the youth participation

space.

The Centre for Children & young

People's Participation is effectively a

knowledge building and sharing centre.

They focus on participation, inclusion

and empowerment, undertaking

research, holding seminars and events,

and promoting like activities by others.

http://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/explo

re/groups/centre_young_people_partic

ipation.php

Co-op Ella Smyth (Programmes &

Partnership Advisor, Co-op

Foundation) & Nicolle

Hargadon (Digital

Coordinator & Young

Members Board member)

Ella works in the Co-op Foundation and

Nicolle sits on the Young Members

Board (YMB). The YMB marks a

commitment to sharing decision-

making with young people in an

organisation that was traditionally less

youth focused.

https://www.co-operative.coop/get-

involved/co-op-young-members-board

Shared Future CIC Jez Hall, Director Shared Future is a Community Interest

Company that focuses on community

empowerment, social enterprise and

democratic participation. They

undertake projects to strengthen

individuals’ communities’ work.

Page | 16

Jez is an expert in participatory

budgeting, which was the focus of our

discussion.

https://sharedfuturecic.org.uk/ and

https://pbnetwork.org.uk/

Youth Focus Northwest Liz Harding, Director Youth Focus Northwest has a range of

programs and initiatives to improve the

lives of young people in the region.

They have a staged process to

leadership and influence within their

own organisation that involves young

people taking on increasing

responsibility over a 2yr period before

they are eligible for Board membership.

http://youthfocusnw.org.uk/ and

http://www.youthforia.org.uk/

Prof. Barry Percy-Smith Barry is another renowned UK academic in the youth participation

space. He teaches at University of Huddersfield in the Centre for

Applied Childhood, Youth & Family Research. Specialising in

participatory research, Barry has been involved in international

research projects with Nigel Thomas, Cath Larkin, Harry Shier and

others.

https://research.hud.ac.uk/ourstaff/profile/index.php?staffid=1270

Barnardos LINX Group Debbie Nolan-Plunkett

(Children’s Services

Manager), Sam (student),

Naomi (staff), Becca (staff),

LIKS members: Lisa, Sam,

Iqra, Chantelle, Bradley.

The LINX group is a youth advocacy

group with members who are all either

in care or care leavers. Their role is to

advocate internally and externally for

the rights and needs of young people in

care.

They did a Fixers project a few years

ago and the best online presence they

have is here

http://www.fixers.org.uk/news/11300-

11208/young-care-fix-on-itv.php

The Fixers (HQ) Maggie Morgan (Director of

Communications &

Stakeholder Engagement) &

Wayne Kerr (Specialist

Young People’s Coordinator)

Maggie Morgan is the Director of

Communications & Stakeholder

Engagement – she oversees the work of

the YPCs (like Mariam and Wayne).

Wayne is a YPC with a specialist role –

he is the Safeguarding Officer which

means he has to ensure all projects

lead by young people at risk are

managed in a way that ensures their

Page | 17

safety.

http://www.fixers.org.uk/home.php

Coram Carol Homden, CEO Coram is the oldest children’s charity in

England (225yrs old). It started as a

foundling hospital. Today the Thomas

Coram Foundation for Children is the

parent body for several subsidiary

charities, including Coram Voice, a

national charity working to ensure

young people in care have access to

independent advocacy and

opportunities to be heard.

http://www.coram.org.uk/ and

http://www.coramvoice.org.uk/

Comic Relief Bhakti Mistry, UK Grants

Coordinator

Comic Relief was founded in the 1980s

as a fundraising body that used comedy

to galvanise the nation into action.

They provided relief for African nations

suffering famine. It now raises in excess

of 75 million UK pounds every two

years, providing funds to UK and

international charities. They have

recently started to explore the role of

beneficiaries (including young people)

in developing and driving their grant

making processes.

http://www.comicrelief.com/

Advocacy Academy Amelia Viney, Founder &

Director

The Advocacy Academy calls itself a

“transformational Social Justice

Fellowship”. It engages some of the

most marginalised young people from

Southwest London in an eight month

intensive program including four

residential components. They are

trained in activism and social justice

with the aim of making them, to quote

Amelia: “powerful enough to craft a

more fair, just and equal world”. Amelia

is a Clore Fellow, a grassroots activist

and a profoundly passionate founder

and leader of the organisation.

http://www.theadvocacyacademy.com

/

Page | 18

Reclaim Emily Vickers, Strategic

Development Manager

Reclaim is based in the North of

England and is highly respected for

their work in youth leadership and

social change. They aim to amplify the

voices of working class young people

through leadership programs, projects

and campaigns.

https://www.reclaim.org.uk/

Dartington Service Design

Lab (previously Dartington

Social Research Centre)

Tim Hobbs, Director DSDL is a system reform and service

design organisation using the rigour of

a scientific approach with the

grounding of human centred design to

tackle social issues and develop new

solutions. They are focused on children,

young people and families.

https://dartington.org.uk/

United States of America

Organisation/Individual Who Description

New York State Youth

Leadership Council

Angy Rivera, Co-Director The NYSYLC is the organisation led by

and for young people who are

undocumented in the US having arrived

as child migrants with and without their

families. They have been involved in

high-level advocacy and action for

immigration reform.

https://www.nysylc.org/

Peace First Meredith Hamilton, COO Peace First focuses on enabling young

people internationally to become

peace-makers. They have an online

platform that they are currently

expanding. They also have a program

that supports young people to develop

peace-making initiatives and access

funding to make them happen.

https://www.peacefirst.org/

Inner Harbour Project Annie Eddy (Office

Manager), Corey Murphy

(Dir. Research &

Development)

The IHP closed its doors in August this

year, about a month after I met with

them. They had been a project

dedicated to making the Inner Harbour

area of Baltimore a safe and inclusive

Page | 19

Youth Leaders: Damon

Martin, Mikequeal Clowney,

Markell Robinson, Jazmean

McFadden, Antonio Coates,

Diamond Sampson,

Dayjanae Jones, Jessica

Pope, Miranda Jones

space. It was run by adult staff, but

youth-led in terms of what they do and

how they do it. I met with the Youth

Leadership team.

https://www.theinnerharborproject.org

/

Peer Leader Support &

Development + Youth

Power!

Destini Henry (NYC Face

Coordinator), Peterson

Rodriguez, Antonio Turner,

Bryan Lombrowski, plus

approximately 20 Peer

Leaders and Advocates from

across NYC

These four are the key young people I

spoke with from a group that actually

numbered about 25. They are all peer

advocates and leaders from across New

York City. This is a space they can come

for support and further development

and to share their experiences of being

a peer advocate/leader. It’s a part of

Youth Power! New York and hosted by

Youth Communications.

http://www.youthpowerny.org/ and

http://www.youthpowerny.org/plsd/

and http://youthcomm.org/

Nicaragua

Organisation/Individual Who Description

CODENI Marvin Garcia,

Observatorio

CODENI is a network of organisations

across Nicaragua who work in the area

of children’s rights. They’re a peak body

that coordinates collective objectives

and operates a watchdog to monitor

rights abuses in the country.

http://www.codeni.org.ni/

CESESMA In San Ramon:

Guillermo Medrano

(Coordinator), Nohemi

Molina Torres (Educator)

In Casas Blancas:

Young People: Liz

Meyling Lanzas Lopez,

Horvin Arturo Orozco

Castro, Emilia Mayuri

Martinez Paiz,

Educators: Cesar

Augusto Moreno, Jaymi

CESESMA works across the coffee

plantation region of Nicaragua, near

Matagapla, building the capacity of

young people to understand

contemporary social issues and to

undertake action research projects in

their community. The ultimate aim is

that young people can then drive social

change projects on the basis of their

knowledge, skills and research.

http://www.cesesma.org/index.htm

Page | 20

Johanna Gonzalez, Angel

Oriel Martinez Blandon,

Martha.

In Yucul:

Educator: Aleyda

Aleman

Young People: Yubelka

Junieth Lopez, Yemni

Montoya Diaz, Rebeca

Julissa Gonzalez, Izdania

Suyen Diaz, Alvaro

Antonio Diaz Velasquez,

Eveling Yosari Arauz

Cruz, Ruth Paola Arauz

Castro

Grupo Venancia Geni Gomez Lopez,

Coordinator

Grupo Venancia is a feminist

organisation working out of Matagapla

in the North of Nicaragua. They provide

a safe space for women and for

LGBTQI+ young people. Their work

promotes an equality agenda for

women and LGBTQI+ young people

through capacity building workshops,

demonstration marches and events and

through their performance space.

http://grupovenancia.org/

Page | 21

THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Successes In each meeting I asked people for examples of successful social action driven by young people or, at the very

least, informed by their expertise. When I met with young people I also asked them what work or action they

were most proud of and why. Some striking themes emerged.

1. Change is happening… but not everywhere!

The team at Step up to Serve who run the #iwill campaign in the UK talked to me about the successes

and challenges facing the youth social action agenda. A lot of their work is in trying to get corporate,

philanthropic and government agencies to recognise the value of working alongside young people.

They see some exciting shifts among funders and recruiters in particular. While they can point to

several examples of culture change in these sectors they ultimately recognise that, for the most part,

they are working with those who tend to already be converts and are seeking out opportunities

anyway, often due to motivated leadership taking them in that direction.

They noted that trying to bring ‘non-believers’ on board is a challenge they have yet to tackle.

2. Successes = improvements in young people

“We’ve really learned a lot of stuff here, like stuff that school don’t teach us”

Inner Harbour Project Youth Leader, Baltimore USA

There were numerous examples from both adult professionals and from young people that outlined

the hugely positive impact of social change projects on the personal and professional development

of young people. The Peer Leaders and Advocates at the Peer Leaders Support & Development (PLSD)

meeting in New York talked about how their roles had inspired other young people to sign up, step

up or consider their leadership potential.

The Inner Harbour Project Youth Leaders in Baltimore talked about their personal achievements like

finishing high school, or learning new skills. They also talked about reduced youth crime rates and

the improved conduct of young people in public spaces. CESESMA’s Promotoras and Promotores in

Nicaragua talked about the positive impact of self-reflection, increased self-confidence, the ability to

share with other young people, an increased prioritisation of self-care, and a shift in their own sense

of what is possible for their future.

While personal growth is a largely positive outcome, in the Nicaraguan context further education is

an expensive option few can afford and employment opportunities are scarce. Once skilled up, young

people have few opportunities to exercise the rights they have learned about, or use the skills and

knowledge they have developed beyond local community advocacy and the limited career options

available to them locally.

3. Limitations

A couple of examples given to me to demonstrate systemic change also demonstrated interesting

limitations in terms of sustainability and impact:

1. The Advocacy Academy supported a young Muslim woman to undertake a powerful

campaign targeting the editors of specific UK tabloid newspapers with reputations for

the use of inflammatory language, particularly in relation to news items about Muslims

in the UK. The campaign resulted in a direct dialogue with the editor of The Sun

newspaper and the establishment of a panel of elders from across the Muslim

community who could be consulted on language use. The editor agreed to work with the

Page | 22

panel to improve his paper’s use of language. Unfortunately he has since moved on,

creating a sense of uncertainty about whether the new editor will see the value in a

process that, arguably, has implications for their bottom line.13

2. The Inner Harbour Project Youth Leaders developed and subsequently delivered training

to all new Baltimore Police Officers coming into the Inner Harbour Police Department.

The training aimed to improve Officers’ ability to tackle youth-related incidents.

Specifically it taught them how to better diffuse incidents and how to approach groups

of young people. It addressed stereotypes and racism and has been a key tool in the

broader approach to improving the area. I asked if they were aware of their work

impacting police culture outside the Inner Harbour area. One of the Young Leaders spoke

about an incident she had experienced in another area of Baltimore. She and some

friends were gathered outside a mall. She happened to be wearing her Inner Harbour

Peace Ambassador T-Shirt, which is a very bright and recognisable piece of clothing. The

group of friends were aggressively approached by two police officers who questioned

their reasons for gathering. One of the officers noticed the young woman’s T-shirt and

his approach changed immediately. He acknowledged her and said he had been through

the training at the Inner Harbour Department. He and his partner became less aggressive

and the situation was diffused. The young woman reflected with disappointment that his

behaviour indicated that the training may have formed a better relationship between

officers and the Inner Harbour Youth Leaders, but this officer (and therefore possibly

others) clearly still held his fundamental prejudices about young black people and had

not adjusted his approach across the board.

4. A scarcity of clear examples

Very few people I met with could clearly articulate definitive examples of where social action

involving young people had resulted in systemic change. That’s not to say that there were no

examples – those that I did hear about were significant. However, people were not bubbling over

with stories of changing the world. This could be due to any number of the other points named below,

but it might also be an indication of how slowly change happens, particularly in any bureaucratic

context. When a campaign or project extends over years and there are small successes along the way

which collectively equate to a big success, it can be challenging to ultimately identify what the change

has been, or even what it was intended to be.

Other explanations I surmised include:

a. Differing or personalised interpretations of success

The process of pursuing social or systemic change necessarily yields other incidental changes

and progressions. For example: personal and/or professional development of participants;

new networks; resources gathered etc. When I asked people to talk about successes or points

of pride they focused largely on personal and professional development rather than

articulating how the original goals of a project or initiative had been achieved. Incidental

changes, particularly those that affect us personally and directly, perhaps sit more front of

mind than those that have a more ‘greater good’ focus.

When asked for examples of successful work and things they have felt proud of, the young

people from the Barnardos’ LINX group, made up of young people in care and care leavers,

13 The Sun newspaper has a reputation for dramatic and often inflammatory headlines. A brief internet image search reveals front page headlines that include: “Lawless Britain”, “Danger Paedos in Class”, “1 in 5 Brit Muslims Sympathy for Jihadis”. Arguably their sales rely on increasingly dramatic and improbable headlines, thus a restriction to these could pose a risk to their bottom line.

Page | 23

struggled to come up with answers. This despite a significant example of a campaign that

resulted in substantial, tangible systemic change (exemption from a specific tax payment for

young people leaving care) and for which they have recently won an award. In a later

conversation about times they have felt most powerful, young people gave examples from

school or everyday life, not from their work with Barnardos. When I reframed the question

to focus on their work with LINX another difference in interpretation occurred. A staff

member began to describe a piece of work that she saw as having been powerful. When I

explained that I was interested in what made them feel powerful the young people were far

more focused on the detail of how a project played out than whether it was ultimately

successful.

“When you say something and you actually see something happen… You could see people

actually noting down what you said and it turned into action”

Iqra, LINX member

This could point to a difference in their interpretation of what equates to success. If some

see success as acknowledgement of the value of their input (in this case in the form of people

taking notes and actions happening as a result), perhaps the ultimate systemic change

outcome is of less significance. It is, after all, somewhat less concrete or immediate for them.

b. Hard to measure

Geni from Grupo Venancia in Matagalpa, Nicaragua reminded me that success can be hard

to point to for several reasons. If the intention of a campaign has been to provoke discussion

or draw attention to an issue it can be hard to measure whether that has been a success.

Further, it is possible to be so immersed in a campaign or action that you struggle to see the

changes, or they can be so small as to be individually imperceptible.

c. Collective attribution

Geni also discussed the fact that when you work collectively on an issue it is hard to ‘claim’

success, because so many people and so much effort went into it that it can rarely be

attributed to one person, one organisation or one effort.

A young woman at PLSD meeting in New York noted that in her example of student uprising

in the face of controversial decisions made by the administration at her university, she

couldn’t confidently say that the student efforts were what changed the Director’s mind.

While there was a sense that they must have made a difference with their sustained, well-

articulated, well-coordinated work, it could just as easily have been the result of time,

reputational damage or someone in a higher position of authority telling the Director to back

down.

The Youth Leaders at the Inner Harbour Project pointed to a drastically reduced youth crime

rate in the Inner Harbour area of Baltimore as evidence of their success. They acknowledge,

however, that they can’t justifiably claim full responsibility for this as an outcome of their

work alone. There have been significant efforts made by many to combat the negative

reputation of the area.

In many ways I am disappointed I didn’t come across more clear examples of tangible change driven by young

people with lived experience of disadvantage. I anticipated that people’s thinking on the idea of young people

as lived experience experts in social change dialogue and action would be significantly advanced in

comparison to my own. In fact they appear to be tackling a lot of the same issues as we are. What I take from

this is that a) there is plenty of success still out there to be achieved, and b) change is messy, sometimes long,

hard-won, often painful, and regularly unclear, but necessary and important, nonetheless.

Page | 24

Barriers I asked those I met with what barriers or resistance they had encountered in their pursuit of social change

with, or as young people. The list below is drawn both from their answers to that question and from moments

in the general discussion when they spoke about challenges or problems they perceive or are facing. For the

most part these seem to boil down to fear and ignorance (both wilful and naïve), although they manifest in

a variety of ways.

1. Over-simplification of solutions

As a barrier this relates closely to the point above about systemic changes and their limitations. It is

a practice I recognise I have been guilty of in my own work.

It is entirely understandable that we seek out simple solutions to problems, however it has become

clear to me that in doing so we assume a simple cause/effect relationship that doesn’t allow for the

complexities of reality.

Taking the Inner Harbour Project’s police training program as an example, the premise is simple and

convincing: if we teach them a better way, they will work a better way. In reality, the experience of

the young woman who was confronted by an officer she had trained demonstrates that

comprehensive behaviour change is not so straightforward. Likewise the Advocacy Academy’s

example uses a strong and simple ‘change the leader, change the culture’ strategy. Unfortunately

the editor’s departure threatens the sustainability of that change when it has not yet had time to

permeate organisational culture.

Over-simplification poses a risk to the sustainability and efficacy of our social change efforts, but it

also risks failing to address the causal factors of the social justice issue at all. One of the ways we

consistently over-simplify is by situating the fault for injustice at the feet of young people. This was

an issue Rys farthing and I discussed at length. Rys (UK) suggested that some youth empowerment

programs are constructed in ways that imply the problems lie in a young person’s incapacity, or lack

of knowledge14. The true barriers to engagement are far more challenging and complex to address

than a simple lack of capacity among young people. It doesn’t matter, for example, how ‘work ready’

you train a young person to be if there are no jobs for them to go to. And it doesn’t matter how many

governance skills you might provide a young person with if adult board members are not prepared

to engage, or are not capable of engaging with young people as colleagues and equal members.

2. Resistance, Apathy & Self-Interest

“[Most people] have a basic ‘I’ level: ‘I have my basic needs provided to me for absolutely nothing

[by welfare], so I’m comfortable where I’m at”

Diamond Sampson, Inner Harbour Project, Baltimore USA

Diamond’s words have relevance beyond the individual. To some, maintaining the status quo is either

perceived as an ‘easier’ option or as actively beneficial and their resistance can be a powerful force,

politically and/or culturally.

The notion of disinterest, both passive and active, borne of self-interest came into the discussion

with Angy Rivera at New York State Youth Leadership Council (NYSYLC). Angy noted that a lot of

resistance to immigration reform in the USA comes from the agricultural sector, which benefits

enormously from access to the cheap labour that results from having a large population of

undocumented (and therefore unprotected and prohibited from unionisation) people who need to

work to survive. Immigration reform is not in their interests.

14 Rys discusses this and other relevant issues on her blog, Radical Youth Practice at https://radicalyouthpractice.org

Page | 25

The Inner Harbour Youth Leaders talked about the impact of the apathy described by Diamond

above. They described a culture that is suspicious of anyone trying to make it out of poverty. They

told me that, broadly speaking, to succeed you have to leave the area. If you succeed, but stick

around the assumption will always be that your success is linked to “the street” (AKA drugs and

crime). It takes motivation to get out and strength and energy to stay out.

3. Assumptions

Assumptions cause us to stop seeking information and answers on the basis that we believe we

already have them. They are often built on top of further assumptions, making them a metaphorical

house built on sand.

Some of the assumptions I came across include:

a. That we know who young people are and what they need

Wayne from Fixers UK noted that one of his challenges has always been in getting decision-

makers to suspend their assumptions in order to truly listen to the young people’s

perspectives. He has found this a particular issue when working with Police. He also indicated

that he sees the media as playing a role in perpetuating assumptions about who young

people are and therefore what they need, or how they ought to be treated.

I once spoke with someone from Victoria Police about how youth engagement occurs in the

context of police work. They theorised that, because officers find themselves involved with

young people at times of great vulnerability and in intimate circumstances (in their family

homes during a family violence incident, when they are unconscious due to substance abuse,

and in high-emotion contexts, for example), there is an assumption that they know and

understand young people and therefore know what they need. They assume their

interpretation of a situation is the ‘right’ interpretation. The same could be suggested of

people working with young people experiencing disadvantage in any context. We walk

alongside their vulnerability, which gives the illusion of knowing someone intimately.

b. That we share a common understanding

This is in part outlined above in the section discussing people’s different interpretations of

success, but it warrants further consideration with a cultural and linguistic conceptual lens.

Peace First is seeking to significantly expand their operations globally, using an online

platform to make peace-making tools accessible to more young people. In doing this they

have started to look at how concepts and words that they currently use may be differently

understood in a foreign context. Concepts like kindness and compassion are culturally

constructed to varying degrees – how they are expressed, to whom one is expected to show

kindness or compassion, how they interact with other cultural norms such as duty or religion.

These considerations are also relevant on a local level when it comes to the definition of

perceived social problems that require action and change – for whom are they a problem?

What would positive change look like? What is the best way of achieving that?

c. That all young people want to lead or be involved

“We assume young people are queuing up to claim their rights… well most of them just

aren’t. Some of them couldn’t give a monkey’s and just want to get on with their lives,

actually”

Prof. Barry Percy-Smith, Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth & Family Research, University of

Huddersfield

In the engagement and empowerment space it is easy to get caught up in the idea that all

young people should be being heard and taking the lead. The reality, as Professor Percy-

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Smith states above, is that for many young people this is not the case and in fact it is of little

interest at all. It is also fair to assume that leadership and ‘taking action’ will look different

from one young person to the next. For one it may be developing the confidence and learning

the language to be able to advocate for themselves in a case management relationship. For

another it might be calling their local MP to ask them to take action on an issue of importance

to them. For others it might be building a movement to fight inaction on climate change. And

for a swathe of others it might all look too hard, too confronting, too boring.

The key is in creating the opportunities, even if not everyone wants to take them up, because

regardless (as Rys Farthing noted) all young people have a right to access the opportunities.

4. Fear for young people

The young Promotoras and Promotores engaged with CESESMA in Nicaragua demonstrated great

insight into the particular barriers presented by their and their peers’ parents. They explained to me

that some parents prevent their children from engaging in CESESMA’s work out of fear for their safety

or for what the program might lead them into. With the

highest teenage pregnancy rate in Central and South America

(Loaiza, E. & Liang, M. 2013) and astonishing levels of sexual

violence against young girls15, parents have good reason to

fear that their daughters in particular might be put in danger

if they let them out of their sight.

5. Fear of young people

Also most clearly articulated in the Nicaraguan context was

the recognition that parents fear that greater knowledge will

embolden their children to rebel against them. Deference to

parental authority is highly valued in Latin American culture

and in communities where parents are often uneducated

(several young people told me their parents are illiterate) and

have little experience of life outside their community

boundaries16 fear of the unknown and of your children being

empowered to know more and to want more is clearly

confronting.

In the Australian context this fear plays out more in the

trichotomy of victim/threat/delinquent noted in the

introduction. It is played upon by the media, but how this

impacts the Australian family dynamic is not something I have explored in any detail.

6. Lack of clarity

a. In purpose

This relates in some part to the interpretation issues addressed previously, however in

conversation with Rys Farthing in the UK we also discussed the role of ‘outcomes-based’

approaches in fogging the waters of purpose (described with far greater eloquence and in

more detail in her blog17). Rys feels that we often scrabble for descriptions of vague

outcomes relating to young people (keeping them in school, or out of trouble with police, for

example) in an attempt to justify existence, when it should be enough in some cases to exist

15 https://plan-international.org/nicaragua/tackling-teen-pregnancy-nicaragua# accessed 11/10/2017 16 One young woman from CESESMA’s Casas Blancas program told me her mother had grown up never leaving the block radius around her home. She was fully cognisant of the challenge this had then posed for her mother when she was invited to represent CESESMA at an international gathering in Canada. The generational knowledge leap is huge in some cases. 17 See https://radicalyouthpractice.org

L-R: Alvaro Diaz Vasquez, Aleyda Aleman, Yemni Montoya Diaz, CESESMA, Nicaragua

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because young people have a right to access a service, or a space to develop, or a safe space.

A purpose should lend itself to the collection of empirical evidence of success or failure. If

we can’t demonstrate ‘outcomes’ in the traditional sense, perhaps the program or service in

question is not yet clear on its purpose.

b. Injustice vs. Inconvenience

Social action should be about challenging injustice. Meredith at Peace First in Boston drew

my attention to a common confusion between injustice and inconvenience that creates a

lack of clarity. She used an example: a school dress code is inconvenient, but it only becomes

an injustice requiring social action if that dress code is applied more strictly to girls than to

boys. This difference is particularly interesting when considering the social action as

volunteering question posed by the current UK context. Volunteering is not, at its core, about

challenging injustice, but in framing it as social action we run the risk of making people

believe they’re doing something about injustice while in fact they are not.

7. ‘Exemplary Unicorns’

A fabulous term for a common issue, given to me by Meredith Hamilton at Peace First, Boston USA,

Exemplary Unicorns are created when we focus on the achievements of one young person to

represent a standard for all young people.

In the context of immigration reform and undocumented child migrants, Angy Rivera of NYSYLC

explained to me, these are tied in with the notion of the ‘worthy immigrant’ and they raise the

unspoken implication that “if he/she/they can do it, you all ought to be able to… What’s wrong with

you?”

This is a ‘fine line’ issue. Celebration is important (see p.34 below) insofar as it establishes role

models, fosters aspiration, provides a healthy sense of competition, and acknowledges the particular

efforts of those being awarded or celebrated. However in over-simplifying notions of success we run

the significant risk of establishing an unspoken standard by which we measure the worth and value

of others. There is also a risk of denying the diversity among young people and the challenges they

face.

“Once you’ve met one young carer, you’ve only ever met one young carer”

Thirza, Young Carer, Barnardos, UK

It is, oddly, both significant and exciting that many of the barriers I heard about during my Fellowship are as

much constructed by the youth sector and those seeking to drive change as they are by those we seek to

change. Significant because it establishes a call to action to get our house in order before we go calling on

others to change their actions. Excitingly this places a substantial proportion of the responsibility for change

at our own feet. We can’t in good faith ask the government to work alongside young experts when our own

practice is sorely lacking.

Enablers As with the barriers, I asked several people during my Fellowship what factors they thought had made change

possible. Although they were not all able to refer to clear examples of change, many of them referred to

factors they felt had made things easier or enabled some movement, albeit limited. The following list is drawn

from specific responses to the question as well as the broader discussions we had.

1. Motivation

We have to try!

By the time I had reached Nicaragua I felt tired on behalf of all the young people I had met who work

so hard just to be heard on their own terms. I wondered out loud with one group of Promotoras and

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Promotores, why do they continue to do the work in the face of constant push back, refusal to listen

and disrespect for their knowledge and opinions.

One young woman from the Casas Blancas CESESMA group told me that she has younger siblings and

she doesn’t want to see them grow up in violence and abuse, or without understanding their rights.

“We don’t know if we’ll succeed, but at least we try”

Liz Meyling Lanzas Lopez, Promotora, CESESMA Nicaragua

This tenacity and persistence is both admirable and absolutely integral to any efforts to fuse youth

engagement and social change. While not all young people will want to play a role (as Professor

Percy-Smith reminded us above), those that do will continue to face resistance to their capacity and

their expertise.

Readiness

The Step up to Serve team noted that in many cases successful change processes could in part be

attributed to the fact that those they worked with were either seeking out an opportunity to change

or were already underway with a change process. This idea of being ‘ready’ to engage in change is

really the sweet spot of social action – the harmonious coming together of opportunity, will and

capacity.

When I asked the Inner Harbour Project Youth Leaders what they thought made it possible to effect

change their first response was that some people are just ready to change. In their experience some

of the success of their initiatives could be put down to good timing.

Crisis

The idea of crisis as a motivating factor was suggested by Ella and Nicolle from Co-op, and Carol

Homden from Coram, both in the UK.

In Co-op’s case the company faced what Ella and Nicolle referred to as “a near death experience”

when the Global Financial Crisis had a devastating effect on the banking arm of the business. In the

aftermath the company has navigated through what they refer to as their Recovery and Rebuilding

phases. Next year they will enter their Renew phase.

This state of near collapse caused the organisation to scrutinise their identity, their purpose and their

way of working. One of the outcomes was an increased focus on young people, both as members (as

the name suggests, the Co-op is a co-operative, collectively owned by its employees) and in terms of

its reputation and social impact.

Carol Homden, CEO of Coram, raised the idea of crisis as a motivating factor in reference to what

makes some local authorities responsive to change and others not. Among other factors she

indicated that those in crisis (generally following a negative quality audit) tend to be more open to

external input and intervention than those doing fine. In some cases this has presented a window for

Coram Voice to work more closely with children in care in those regions than they might otherwise

have been able.

2. Navigators

The vital role of intermediaries and facilitators was both mentioned and implied time and time again.

I came to see this role as that of navigator and holder of the space. They are called upon to interpret

dialogue between young people and adult professionals, to facilitate and guide all stakeholders

through a process, and to protect and hold the space for young people to develop.

It is important that this role has direct access to both the young people and the decision-makers to

reduce a “Chinese-whispers” effect as young people’s messages get passed along.

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Mariam Ahmed from Fixers in the UK talked about the importance of her being able to communicate

directly with the young people engaging in the work. Mariam is a Young Person’s Coordinator for

Fixers. She liaises with youth organisations and programs in her region (Northern England) to engage

young people to develop campaign materials on issues that are important to them. Once she has

secured a group, however, she communicates exclusively with a young person nominated to lead the

project (unless due to extreme vulnerability this is deemed inappropriate). This direct communication

means she can ensure that the voice of the young people is prioritised above all else and that the

products that are subsequently developed reflect their requirements. It also means she can provide

the young people with feedback and information from the creative and communications teams in a

way that makes sense and is sensitive to their needs.

In the context of Nicaragua the role of the navigator as a conduit for the most marginalised to find a

voice was emphasised. While the model of direct democracy provides opportunities for the

community to advocate its needs straight to government there will always be those for whom being

heard holds specific challenges. Remote locations, illiteracy, disability, youth, even gender and

poverty can make it harder to participate in this process. And in reality, the government only has so

much money and can only address so many issues. Inevitably the ability to communicate clearly,

more quickly and to the right people will see your issue placed higher up the list of priorities than

others. A navigator has a role to ensure that the voiceless have the best chance of being heard,

whether that means teaching audiences how to listen and act, or building the capacity of young

people to communicate.

3. Leadership

The Co-op, Comic Relief, Step up to Serve, Advocacy Academy, Inner Harbour Project, Fixers, NYSYLC

and PLSD all made reference either directly or indirectly to the role of leadership in driving social

change in collaboration with young people.

Angy Rivera at the NYSYLC told me about the leadership of Senator Dick Durbin in introducing

the Dream Act in the US Senate in 200118. Although ultimately the Act was unsuccessful (and

has continued to be several times since), his leadership was key to bringing the issues faced

by undocumented child migrants to light and thus emboldening many to step up and add

their voices to the call for change.

Bhakti Mistry at Comic Relief in the UK credits her manager, Venetia Boon with showing

leadership in the stakeholder engagement space. That leadership has opened up a new

collaborative process working with young people from England’s North to deliver a grant

making program.

The Advocacy Academy is the brainchild of Amelia Viney, an astute and principled leader for

the organisation. She introduces young people to a wealth of grass roots activism and a life-

long commitment to social justice. She backs their ideas and uses her considerable

knowledge, networks and skills to give the young people access to decision makers and

opportunities to take effective action.

Maggie Morgan at Fixers described the impressive trajectory of one Fixer, Sam. He made a

film about his own experiences of eating disorders several years ago. He subsequently

established an organisation to continue to raise awareness of young men’s experiences of

eating disorders and he has become a leading national voice on the issue.

18 The Dream Act is legislation that would provide undocumented minors with a pathway to permanent residency and therefore citizenship. For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act

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The list goes on, but the message is clear: effective and sustainable change requires strong

leadership.

Strength of leadership, according to my observations, is sometimes dependent on a combination of

authority and trust. Coram in the UK, for example, holds formal, or ‘given’ authority via the powers

bestowed upon them by certain government contracts (especially those that come with Ofsted19

reporting powers). It also has informal, or assumed authority drawn from over 200 years of operation

and a reputation for reliability and rigour.

Establishing a reputation that confers authority requires consistent conduct that inspires admiration,

trust and respect, and a clear and justifiable approach. This is relevant to young people and to

organisations.

While leadership can (and should) come from young people as much as it should from adult-

professionals and community members, it is important to acknowledge that not all young people

want to lead, or even to be heard in any authoritative sense.

4. Insight

The role of insight came up in several discussions. For example, Peace First asks that young people’s

proposals show insight into the issue they seek to address. The intention is that they go beyond

assumptions and stereotypes to understand the issue on a deeper level.

Insight turned out to be key in other ways as well:

a. Self-reflection

Self-reflection (self-insight) is a core strategy in the work of CESESMA. I heard it from the

young people and from the educators: you need to know yourself and get your own house

in order before you can ask others to change. This goes both ways, in the opinion of

Guillermo Medrano, CESESMA’s Coordinator. He suggested that in order to open decision-

makers up to the role of young people in decision-making they first have to be able to see

themselves as social beings with rights. Once they can do that, they can see young people in

that light too.

Nohemi Molina Torres, an Educator with CESESMA used her

own experience to explain. In order to understand the key role

of young people as drivers of change she learned she had to

open her mind, to know how to listen and allow her

assumptions to be challenged; “it didn’t happen overnight!” she

told me.

b. Crossing Lines of Difference

Alongside self-reflection effective social change efforts benefit

from reflecting on and understanding the origins of resistance

to the cause. This means crossing lines of difference.

I have taken this notion directly from Peace First, but I saw it

happen in other settings and came to understand the very

important role it plays. The notion addresses the idea that in

order to drive effective and sustainable change you must

engage with the people/organisations/structures that are resisting or opposing change

and/or perpetuating the status quo.

19 Ofsted is a government regulatory body charged with monitoring schools and children’s services.

L-R Nohemi Molina Torres, Liz Meyling Lanzas Lopez, CESESMA, Nicaragua

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The young people at CESESMA are particularly adept at this. They regularly confront

resistance in their communities from parents, teachers, and church groups. They show

immense compassion in their understanding of what drives the resistance and this in turn

means that they approach opposition with respect and tackle arguments with logic.

“Who doesn’t want to see young Nicaraguans prospering, professional, working, and with

aspirations for a new future?”

Liz Meyling Lanzas Lopez, Promotora, CESESMA Nicaragua

They often approach parents directly to understand their concerns and help them

understand the opportunities offered by CESESMA. They also use opportunities in school and

at church to raise the issues they’re concerned about and engage the broader community in

their discussions.

The Young Leaders at Baltimore’s Inner Harbour Project have engaged directly with police

and local business owners in the area to understand their concerns and to discuss how

mutually beneficial solutions could be sought. The results have seen the development of the

police training program mentioned previously, and the creation of the Harbour Card. The

Harbour Card is a loyalty and discount card for the local mall that is only issued to young

people when they take a pledge to conduct themselves positively in the mall and Inner

Harbour area. The card has created a sense of trust on the part of business owners, which in

turn makes young people feel more comfortable in the area.

c. Dig Deep

The Advocacy Academy asks applicants a series of quite personal and confronting questions

including what their greatest challenge is at the moment. Given the demographic they target

(low socio-economic background, struggling at school, normally unlikely to apply for

opportunities) there is a considerable possibility that answers to that question could include

family violence, substance abuse, chronic mental health issues and/or a range of other very

difficult personal situations. They ask the questions so that they can ensure they recruit

people who can manage the considerable commitment and who stand to gain the most from

the experience.

Fixers undertakes Feel Happy Fixes which take a deep dive approach to a topic that has been

addressed by multiple Fixers over time. They bring them together, to participate in a

workshop that tries to define the extent of the impact of an issue. The young people define

the impact as it is felt by them in different areas of their lives (e.g. social, family, school etc.).

They try to dig beyond assumptions.

Digging deep is the antidote to tokenism. In the case of youth engagement the process is

about stripping right back to what makes a young person tick before you work with them to

understand what issues matter to them and what can be done about them. In the case of

driving systemic change, digging deep can be about developing a greater understanding of

why things are the way they are – who is benefiting? What is the benefit they derive? What

is it they need?

When you form a deeper understanding it becomes very hard to be tokenistic.

The ability to cross lines of difference, show compassion and empathy and to convince people with

indisputable logic is one of the key skill sets in social change and peace making.

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5. Evidence

There is currently a global obsession with evidence-based practice, specifically evidence of ‘what

works’. My Churchill Fellowship leads me to believe that in social change endeavours we need a

different kind of evidence and we need to use evidence in a different way.

I met with Tim Hobbs, the Director of the new Dartington Service Design Lab which has recently

emerged out of the work of Dartington Social Research Unit. Several years ago I met with a colleague

of Tim’s, Nick Axford, who at the time had the title of Head of What Works. At that time the Social

Research Unit’s work was heavily focused on replicating evidence-based programs and practices.

Tim explained that the Dartington Service Design Lab (DSDL) has emerged out of the recognition that

simple replication of evidence-based practice does not work. Many of the projects they undertook

under that model of evidence-based replication have had little to no impact, which has,

understandably, caused Dartington to take stock.

One of the major issues with the practice of using evidence-based approaches is that they rarely take

into account any cultural, social, political or economic differences in the contexts between which

they are being translated. Tim provided an example of the Family Nurse Partnership program that

supports young, economically disadvantaged mothers which was introduced in England following

evidence of its efficacy in the US. Despite significant uptake the trial did not have an impact across

the study’s main outcome areas. What they had failed to take into account were some key

differences between the USA and the UK, not least of which was the fact that the UK has a national

health service that is freely and readily accessible to everyone.

The DSDL is changing tack. They are continuing to use some evidence-based and scientific

methodologies, but they are endeavouring to mesh that with a human-centred design approach to

bring flexibility and responsiveness back to their work.

This ‘humanising’ of evidence-based programs and practices is a positive step, but I heard some

interesting reflections on a different kind of evidence that I think is missing from broader practice.

The team at Step up to Serve, when asked what they thought had made it possible for people to

engage with change, stated that one of the key strategies is providing people with evidence of what

they are missing out on by not changing. In business development this is akin to the idea of

uncovering people’s pain points, but I think it also speaks strongly to a need to shift from evidence

of what works to evidence for why: going beyond known pain points to enable people to see the gaps

they don’t yet know about. Evidence of what could be.

Angy Rivera at NYSYLC suggested that providing evidence of the economic and skill losses being

perpetuated in the country because of the failure to embrace undocumented child migrants was key

in getting elected officials behind the cause.

CODENI’s Observatorio (essentially a human rights watchdog) gathers evidence of the country’s

failure to protect children. They use it to try to hold the government to account and to build a case

for the work that they do. Evidence of failure was also something I discussed extensively with Rys

Farthing. In that case, however, it wasn’t about holding people to account so much as breaking down

some of the silos and competitive barriers. To some extent sharing failure is an antidote to an over-

emphasis on evidence-based programs and practices. It recognises that theory doesn’t always

account for reality.

6. Tools

At the PLSD group in New York one young woman gave the example of a coordinated and sustained

campaign that she was part of at her university. In response to a decision by the University Director

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to prevent teachers from coming in to the school over a contract dispute, the students organised and

ran a campaign to reinstate their teachers. The campaign used: storytelling (see below); flyer drops;

mass student walk-outs and time-specific boycotts where they joined teachers on picket lines; and

social media channels with hash tagging to build a collective voice. They repeated the process every

day – scheduled walk-outs and boycotts, sustained social media commentary, flyer distribution.

Walk-outs saw young people gathering to listen to their peers speaking, and it was following one

particularly large gathering at which a young man gave a very powerful speech that the tide turned

and the Director backed down. It is unclear whether the student campaign was the influencing factor,

but it is likely that it played a significant role.

This sustained, multi-channel, multi-strategy approach is very powerful. It is a way of ensuring

accessibility for more people to engage in the process and get behind the cause. It is also a way to

create a wave of persuasion that, provided the channels are relevant to your target audience, can be

very convincing.

The Advocacy Academy-supported campaign, to change the language of tabloid newspapers in

relation to Muslims and Islam, used a different variation in strategies. Their core campaign tool was

a video they made that directly spoke to the editors of two of the worst offending papers. They used

that tool in a few different ways: they sent it directly to the editors of those two papers, they

uploaded it to YouTube and promoted it online, and they also sent it to the Press Complaints

Commission who had recently reprimanded one of the papers for their reporting conduct. This is a

fantastic example of multiple strategies with a single piece of campaign material. It was highly

effective.

Some specific tools I noted and which I think warrant further focus are:

a. Visibility

The idea of increasing the visibility of young people, specifically positive role models and

‘good kids’, is a strategy adopted by many of the groups I met with. I find the notion

problematic for a few reasons (including the leaning towards Exemplary Unicorns), but in

particular I am uncomfortable with the fact that it very squarely places the onus on young

people to prove that they are worthy and well behaved enough to be allowed into adult-

controlled spaces.

Nevertheless, it appears to be one of several effective strategies for opening people up to

the idea that young people are not only victims, threats or delinquents. I have to confess it

has also been an incidental strategy in my own work in Australia, which frustrates me,

however every time we bring young people into an adult-controlled space we are reminded

of how effective it can be.

The Inner Harbour Project Youth Leaders employ visibility as a very intentional strategy to

break down local stereotypes of young people, particularly young black people. Their Peace

Ambassadors project involves the team wearing bright blue T-shirts with ‘Ask me about the

Inner Harbour Project’ printed across their backs. They go out into the community on a street

beat to greet people, talk to police officers, engage with business owners and essentially

present a positive youth face. They talk to people about the work they’re doing and they also

connect with other young people to talk with them about positive conduct in the public space

around the Inner Harbour area. Their aim is to both role model positive conduct to young

people and to tackle adult perceptions of young people in the area.

The use of visibility by the CESESMA Promotoras and Promotores is less of a direct strategy

and more a by-product of how they do their work. They do consider themselves to be

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community role models for other young people, but they also see themselves as having a

responsibility to behave respectfully when they address parents, teachers and Church groups

essentially in order to ‘grease the wheels’ – if parents see them as positive examples of youth

they are less likely to resist allowing their own child to participate in CESESMA workshops.

Likewise if Church groups and teachers recognise them as responsible and respectful they

are more likely to engage in dialogue with them when they are seeking to drive a change in

the community.

The Peer Support Leadership & Development group in New York talked about their visibility

as peer leaders and advocates as having an impact on the culture of the places in which they

were working as well as increasing the engagement of other young people in the programs

they were leading. They felt like they were raising the bar of what young people could expect

of themselves.

There is a natural increase in visibility that occurs when young people become key

stakeholders, partners and equal experts in work and workplaces that previously excluded

them and this appears to result in increased openness to young people’s engagement. The

pro-active approach used by Inner Harbour Project has been effective in addressing what

was entrenched negative stereotypes and confrontational approaches to dealing with young

people in the area. As part of a combination of pieces of work it has clearly been important

in shifting local culture.

b. Celebration

The power of celebration came through in conversations about awards and about

empowering ambassadors to speak about their successes.

Although they are now moving away from it to avoid creating Exemplary Unicorns, Peace

First has given awards to young people for their peace-making work. Rys Farthing talked

about creating an award for organisations demonstrating exemplary youth engagement

work as a way of establishing a sectoral culture with greater commitment to the work. The

Barnardo’s LINX young leaders received an award for their campaign work to make young

care leavers exempt from council tax.

Awards offer a chance to acknowledge commitment and hard work, to signal expectations

and standards, and to publicise success stories that might inspire or motivate others.

The other form of celebration I heard about was more focused on viral publicity angles, but

had the same intention of creating a sense that ‘this is what’s expected in the world today’.

Step up to Serve encourage people who have had a positive experience of working alongside

young people to speak about their experience in formal and informal ways. They use it as an

amplified form of word of mouth.

c. Storytelling

One of the most frequently mentioned factors for success was storytelling. Angy at NYSYLC

felt it had played a key role in motivating Senator Dick Durbin to introduce the Dream Act in

2001 and to continue pushing for it today. The Youth Leaders at Inner Harbour Project felt

like their stories were one of the most convincing tools they had to bring people over the

line. They see them as vital to fostering understanding and demonstrating why change is

needed.

In my experience storytelling can be problematic. Lived experience does not automatically

make someone able or willing to articulate their experiences. Young people who have

experienced disadvantage and have been supported by organisations have often had to tell

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their story so many times that they no longer feel like they own it or that they have any

control over it. Nevertheless, there is no denying that meeting a person directly and hearing

their story can be an assumption-challenging experience and can be a powerful step in

someone coming around to the idea of change.

In my conversation with Maggie Morgan at Fixers in the UK we talked about the word-of-

mouth power that comes from people hearing from a young person first hand. They then go

away and talk to others, which one hopes has a knock on impact. However, we discussed the

fact that the further out of the originator’s hands a story moves, the less power it has, so

considering how and why a story is told is important both for message impact and to avoid

exposing young people emotionally.

7. Courage

“Change is not easy. It doesn’t happen easily and that’s a reality”

Prof. Barry Percy-Smith, Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth & Family Research, University of Huddersfield

Meredith Hamilton at Peace First in Boston, USA backed up Professor Percy-Smith’s comment by

suggesting that all culture change involves “pain, violence and failure”. While the violence may not

be physical, there is the potential for serious emotional pain and violence when young people engage

in social justice issues, particularly those that hold significant personal relevance for them. Courage

is one of the attributes Peace First requires young people to demonstrate in their peace-making

projects.

Interestingly very few people spoke directly about courage or bravery, but their work implied it.

Advocacy Academy participants confronting oppositional politicians; CESESMA young women

confronting issues of family violence in their communities; Inner Harbour Youth Leaders pursuing a

different life when everyone around them tries to pull them down. I think some of the reasons they

don’t talk about it are because they feel driven to do the work regardless and because the way they

approach their work enables them to overcome the fear without needing to overt it.

Amelia Viney of Advocacy Academy spoke really passionately about ensuring that the young people

who go through the Academy’s course leave it equipped with the skills and knowledge to confront

any situation that life throws at them. They teach skills to enable young people to respond to

spontaneous challenge and unexpected opportunities for voicing their messages. When you have the

tools to respond and engage it no longer becomes about bravery. It’s just about doing the work and

changing minds.

8. Resources

“If I want to make change I have to gather resources, because good intentions alone won’t get me

anywhere”

Marvin Garcia, CODENI, Nicaragua

Youth engagement, and even young people themselves, are not priority areas for dedicated public

resources. Youth issues are not vote winners. To do youth engagement well is costly and it takes

longer than it would to do the work without youth involvement.

What I saw over the course of my Churchill Fellowship was evidence that investment in this area is

both desperately needed and has the potential to have substantial impact on communities,

governments and organisations, not to mention young people themselves.

a. Investment

With decreasing investment the organisations I met with in Nicaragua have gradually had to

reduce their operations. Geographically they now cover a smaller area, which in the case of

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CESESMA equates to fewer young people gaining the knowledge and skills to challenge social

justice issues in their communities.

In the UK the balance of investment has tilted towards social action as volunteering, resulting

in a paucity of funding available for building the skills of young people to tackle social justice

using advocacy and activism.

Peace First offers young people access to investment to make their projects happen. They

can access up to $10,000 USD depending on how far through the process they progress. Jez

Hall of Shared Future in the UK spoke to me about participatory budgeting, which is a model

whereby a proportion of an organisation’s budget is handed over to stakeholders to work

with. They are given ultimate say on how that money is spent. In the USA there are examples

of local governments giving large funds from their budget over to young people to make

decisions around expenditure.

The investing of financial resources into the work should not be underestimated for the

effect it has beyond purely paying for the activity to take place. It is also about how that

money is given, the time and thought that is dedicated to the issues and how much they are

embraced and understood beyond the financial exchange. So, dedicating funds to youth

engagement and social change is one step. Working with young people to distribute funds

and examining your organisational practice to look at how young people are encouraged or

prevented from engaging in other ways; that would be an investment.

b. Skilled navigators

The navigators are the people who can walk the line between young people and adult

professionals and hold the space for young people to develop and grow their expertise. This

takes a great deal of skill and commitment.

Youth work courses that lack rigour and fail to address key navigation skills and approaches

at best do young people no favours. At worst they perpetuate damage.

In conversation with Brendan McGowan from the British Youth Council he noted that the

navigation role needs to be carried out by someone who can negotiate the elevation of young

people AND the dismantling of power structures among decision-makers. In Brendan’s

opinion, there has been a diminishing of respect for youth work as an area of expertise. He

talked about a ‘good youth worker’ as being someone who gets amongst the community,

knows what’s going on and is feisty enough to make stuff happen with and for young people.

Rys Farthing and I discussed the idea that professionalization has sucked the activism out of

youth work by structuring it and making it possible for people to choose youth work as a

career, rather than seeking it out as a calling or vocation.

Mariam Ahmed of Fixers openly talked about the strength of having lived experience herself

and now occupying that navigator role. She feels it makes her a stronger advocate for the

young people and it makes her more approachable in the young people’s eyes.

Marvin Garcia from CODENI in Nicaragua put it in stark terms, saying that the navigator’s role

is to make sure that the voiceless are able to be heard. He stated that without NGO’s “te vas

a quedar en el aire”, which literally translates to ‘you will stay in the air’. The implication is

that there are people who will be left hanging with no access to advocacy or support without

a navigator in place.

c. Teams

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The CESESMA Promotores and Promotoras spoke to the benefits of being and feeling like

they are part of a team. The same was evident in my conversations with the Inner Harbour

Project Youth Leaders. They drew a sense of collective identity, strength and solidarity from

their team mates, which is so important given the challenges they face in trying to be heard

and to address some significant community issues.

d. Networks

Many of the people I met spoke about the collective strength that is drawn from working

collaboratively and in coordination with broader networks.

CODENI in Nicaragua heads up a network of over 40 organisations working in

children’s rights. CESESMA is part of that network.

Grupo Venancia (also in Nicaragua) is part of a network of feminist organisations

across the country.

The NYSYLC is one of many groups of undocumented child migrants across the USA

that continues to be active on immigration issues.

The PLSD group is a network of young people working as peer advocates and leaders.

Peace First is anticipating that their shift to an entirely online platform will enable

the development of an international network of young people sharing ideas and

experiences.

Fixers is constantly building a bigger and bigger network of young people driving

change. Through their Feel Happy Fixes they bring young people with similar lived

experience together to build a stronger voice for change.

The ability to lean on and reach out to others working in the same space is clearly beneficial.

It lends a sense of solidarity as well as providing opportunities to collectively advocate on

issues, thus strengthening messages.

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CONCLUSION

The opportunity to lead a radical shift in the way we support, engage and exchange with young people,

particularly those experiencing disadvantage is clear.

The fact that more and more people and organisations are trying to work with young people on issues of

social justice and social action is a positive sign. The sense of motivation and readiness among young people

I spoke to also gives cause for optimism.

There are some deep-seated barriers that have to be addressed and overcome, the most pressing of which

is our cultural devaluing of young people and their lived experiences. However, the huge range of enabling

tools, approaches and elements at our disposal render those barriers very much surmountable.

The greatest tool at our disposal is the ability to go deeper: to suspend assumptions; be prepared to learn

more about ourselves; to listen to what is really important to young people; to be open to new insights and

new solutions.

A radical shift will rest on our ability to crack open this depth across culturally traditional sectors and

entrenched notions of youth, disadvantage, leadership, and possibility.

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RADICAL SHIFT: AN EARLY CONCEPT FRAMEWORK

There are dozens of additional observations, micro-lessons, thoughts and ideas that emerged across the four

weeks of my Fellowship. Over time, no doubt, these will continue to surface and be incorporated into further

development and thinking. This is not a finished product; it is a beginning. Or perhaps a mid-point.

I found the sheer quantity of information I gathered somewhat overwhelming for quite some time after

coming home. It took several weeks for it all to fall in to some kind of order.

I have argued that youth work and youth engagement in Australia are stuck. This is not to undervalue the

pockets of fantastic work being done by some, but to flag a broad culture that is struggling to move forwards.

That culture is not solely about the way in which the youth work sector operates. Instead it’s about how we

see and engage with young people across society.

This early concept is my contribution to efforts to move towards a culture of youth work and broader youth

engagement in which we, Australia:

1. Recognise young people as valuable social actors with important life experience to share;

2. Understand disadvantage as an experience, not an identity;

3. Engage with young people as teachers and mentors as well as students and clients – Exchange, more

than engage;

4. Work alongside young people to define problems, seek solutions and deliver outcomes;

5. Create and hold spaces for young people to build on their skills and knowledge and define how they

want to use those in their own lives or for ‘the greater good’;

6. Invest in youth work as a vital profession with specialised skill sets.

Radical Shift is about embracing the messiness, shifting away from formulaic approaches and the misleading

idea that there can be clear processes that cover all eventualities. Fundamentally we are humans working

with other humans to try to influence yet more humans and their human-made systems and structures. There

is fallout and there are unexpected moments. There absolutely must be failure, because without it there is

no challenge or growth.

This is not a model. It’s a recipe with a handful of core ingredients and a range of flexible extra options to

throw in. Think of the end result as more of a live culture than an inanimate meal.

Radical Shift is a work in progress. As per my Knowledge-to-Action approach below, I intend to continue

testing and working on the concept. This version includes four core principles and four domains of work. The

core principles are non-negotiable elements of the framework that should be present in all youth-driven

social change work. The four domains should be represented in every instance, but the how and by whom

will be context-specific.

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Core Principles Three of the four principles below are lifted

directly from the great work at Peace First.

Showing compassion, seeking insight and crossing

lines of difference are all criteria young people

are expected to demonstrate in their

applications. The four core principles facilitate

one another. I may develop the language over

time, however at this stage they express the

elements well.

1. Self-Knowledge

Reflect on your motivations and needs.

Understand your pain points and limitations.

Consider your human rights and how they are

exercised or denied. Expect and enable this same

self-knowledge in others. Self-knowledge enables

you to see others as humans with needs and

rights as well. It makes you more able to lead, negotiate and collaborate.

2. Compassion

Be sensitive to others’ needs and concerns. Show interest in their perspectives and take the time to

understand their experiences. Recognise that people are flawed. Show kindness. Don’t assume you

understand them.

3. Cross Lines of Difference

Speak to your resistors. Endeavour to understand their concerns. Share yours. Seek out mutually beneficial

solutions. Break down assumptions and stereotypes. Try to find common ground.

4. Seek Insight

Dig deep into the issue, into the story, into the possible solutions. Try to understand the core of the problem

and engage with the people who experience the injustice.

Core Principles

Self Knowledge

Compassion

Seek Insight

Cross Lines of Difference

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Domains The descriptions below are not fully

developed. They are thematic groupings of

some of the enablers and solutions to

barriers that came out of the corresponding

sections in the body of this report.

1. Value

Drive a radical shift in how young people

who have experienced disadvantaged are

viewed. Promote the skills and knowledge

that they have gained from their life

experiences, recognise their potential, not

their past. Value their contributions as

people who have an intimate

understanding of injustice and therefore

bring insights no one else can bring.

2. Back & Build

Invest in youth engagement. Overhaul youth work qualifications. Build networks. Build capacity (among

young people and professionals). Back the

navigators.

3. Lead

Identify leaders. Step up and lead. Young people,

adult-professionals, sector leaders, practitioners.

Ask the questions. Set the culture.

4. Demonstrate

Be visible. Develop evidence for why we’re doing

the work, including stats and facts about what

Australia is missing out on by failing to engage and/or failing to change. Share failures, overt taboos and

deepen collaboration

Domains

Value

Back & Build

Lead

Demonstrate

“These young people are very impressive – they might just pull it off. I hope they do” Message from a member of the public to the Youth Leaders of the Inner Harbour Project

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KNOWLEDGE-TO-ACTION

I am currently the Senior Advisor Youth Engagement in the Berry Street Childhood Institute (BSCI), a

knowledge-to-action centre for improving childhood that sits within Berry Street, Victoria’s largest child and

family welfare organisation. The BSCI has a national focus with a mandate to build and share knowledge to

improve childhood. In this context there is ample opportunity to disseminate the knowledge that has

emerged from my Churchill Fellowship, both incidentally and proactively.

Social Media

I have started to use my twitter account (@loliver1) to stimulate and engage in discussions related to my Churchill learnings. I am also using it to maintain contact with some of the overseas connections I made in order to continue (in 140 character bursts) the conversations we began this year.

Flagship Demonstration Project – Y-Change 2018

Y-Change is an 18-month social action-focused training and employment opportunity for young people who

have experienced disadvantage. In 2018 up to 20 young people will be recruited to participate in a three-day

residential orientation camp, followed by six months of training and preparation. On completion of the

training and preparation process they will be offered a twelve month casual employment contract with Berry

Street as Lived Experience Consultants (LECs). For a full description of Y-Change, please refer to Appendix 1.

The 2018 program will take the Radical Shift Core Principles and Domains as the foundation for how the team

approaches and engages with opportunities. The six month training program is being developed to include

exploration of the concept and participants will be encouraged to provide regular reflection and critical

feedback on this.

Y-Change has a budget for research and evaluation. In 2018 our focus will be on the impact achieved by

adopting the Radical Shift framework. The outcomes of this work will be made publicly available and will

form the basis of conference presentations and articles for publication.

Training development & delivery

In early 2018 I will be co-facilitating a two-day training event with a colleague who has expertise drawn from

her lived experience of disadvantage. The first day will take people through a dig-deep process to understand

their motivations and their values. The second day will explore the practical application of the Radical Shift

approach in their work settings.

This training will be evaluated using an impact evaluation model. The findings will be made public and will

also form the basis of conference presentations and articles for publication.

Event Series

In partnership with the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria I am exploring the opportunity to host a series of

events provoking dialogue and action in the youth work sector in relation to youth engagement. The Radical

Shift approach will be core to the themes and form that these events take. We have discussed the

development of webinars and the potential to host forums or panel discussions. This is expected to take place

across 2018.

Writing & Publications

I intend to use this report to develop articles for publication both as a solo author and, if they are willing, co-

authorship with academics (yet to be confirmed).

I will also use the report to develop blog posts for the BSCI Good Childhood blog and potentially for other

online opportunities.

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Conference Presentations

I have already participated in a panel at the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Front + Centre conference

(October 20th 2017). The panel addressed the concept of ‘meaningful’ youth engagement and I took the

opportunity to raise several elements of Radical Shift for discussion. I also intend to submit an abstract to the

Australian Institute of Family Studies conference for 2018.

I will be identifying a range of other opportunities to present both on my own and alongside young people

as part of Y-Change operations in 2018/2019

University lecturing

I am keen to approach RMIT and ACU to explore opportunities to deliver lectures on youth engagement to

pre-service youth and social workers. I will be exploring these opportunities later in 2018.

International Collaborations

With this report finalised I will be going back to my international contacts to explore opportunities to

collaborate, to continue to develop the Radical Shift concept and to further build my knowledge.

Radical Shift Development My approach to the development of programs and concepts is necessarily ‘organic’ and Radical Shift will be

no different. I will endeavour to raise the concept in meetings, conversations and discussions whenever I find

the opportunity. I appreciate and incorporate feedback, critique and ideas that emerge from this process. In

addition, and with more pro-activity, I will seek to further develop the concept by:

Contacting the people I had hoped to meet with in India and South Africa to add their input to the

thinking;

Presenting the concept to my current Y-Change team members for their critique, feedback and

thoughts;

Asking the people I met with in the UK, USA and Nicaragua for their feedback;

Radical Shift is not intended to be a finalised model, as such. It is more of constant call to action to push

forward and do better. In that sense the development is ongoing.

Recommendations Further to the work I have outlined above, I perceived some gaps in our knowledge and our practice in

Australia that I believe need attention:

1. Research: I have not come across any research that seeks to understand what value lived experience

has in helping us to ‘do better’ across the board. This is not to say it doesn’t exist, but in the area of

youth work I am unaware of it. Research that clearly demonstrates how lived experience benefits (or

impacts generally) community development and social change outcomes would offer fantastic

evidence to argue the importance of the work.

2. Youth Work: As a profession youth work has suffered under funding cuts and a broad lack of value

for young people themselves and thus for the sector that supports them. It is, frankly, too easy to

qualify as a youth worker via certificate courses that don’t hold students to high standards. They

certainly don’t dig deep into motivations or encourage self-insight, let alone address the role of these

things in good youth engagement. An overhaul of the qualifications is necessary as part of a broader

increase of investment and support for youth work.

3. Youth Study Tour: I have been hugely fortunate to have been able to undertake my Churchill

Fellowship, but given my subject matter I was confronted more than once by a sense of hypocrisy

that it was me and not a young person or group of young people travelling to meet with other young

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people to share experiences and learn from one another. I have ambitions to make this happen

myself, but if someone takes it up before me, I’d be very happy to support it.

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REFERENCES

ABS (2016) 4430.0 - Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings 2015 accessed 30/08/2017

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4430.0main+features202015

ACOSS (2016) Child poverty on the rise: 730,000 children in poverty accessed 30/08/2017

http://www.acoss.org.au/media_release/child-poverty-on-the-rise-730000-children-in-poverty/

AIHWa (2017) Youth Justice in Australia 2015-16 accessed 30/08/2017

http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129559053

AIHWb (2017) Child Protection Australia 2015–16. Child welfare series no. 66. Cat. no. CWS 60. Canberra:

AIHW. Accessed 30/08/2017 http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129558626&tab=2

Bessant, J. & Broadley, K. (2014) “Saying and Doing: Child Protective Service and participation in decision-

making” in The International Journal of Children’s Rights vol. 22 p.710-729 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2014

Cahill, H. Coffey, J. & Beadle, S. (2015) “Performative Pedagogy: Poststructural Theory as a Tool to Engage

in Identity Work Within a Youth-Led HIV Prevention Program” in Wyn, J. & Cahill, H. (eds) 2015, Handbook of

Children and Youth Studies p.301-314, Springer Science+Business Media, Singapore.

Flintoff, JP (2012) How to Change the World Macmillan, London.

Foucault, M. (1984) ‘Confronting Governments: Human Rights’ in Faubion, J.D. (Ed) (1994) Michel Foucault

Power: essential works of Foucault 1954-1984, p. 474-475 Penguin Books, London.

Freire, P. (2017) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Penguin Classics, UK.

FYA (2015) The New Work Order: Ensuring young Australians have skills and experience for the jobs of the

future, not the past FYA, Melbourne accessed 17/10/2017 https://www.fya.org.au/wp-

content/uploads/2015/08/fya-future-of-work-report-final-lr.pdf

Granovetter, M. (1978) Threshold Models of Collective Behaviour in The American Journal of Sociology Vol.

83, No. 6 p1420-1443 University of Chicago Press, Chicago

Homelessness Australia (2014) Homelessness in Australia Infographic accessed 30/08/2017

www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/sites/homelessnessaus/files/2017-07/Homelessness_in_Australia_-

_updated_Jan_2014.pdf

Loaiza, E. & Liang, M. (2013) Adolescent Pregnancy: A review of the evidence UNFPA, New York accessed

11/10/2017 http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/ADOLESCENT%20PREGNANCY_UNFPA.pdf

Owen, J. (2014) The Future Chasers: Stories from young Australians of courage, imagination and will, Xoum

Publishing, Sydney.

Satell, G. (2016) ‘What Successful Movements Have in Common’ in Harvard Business Review, Nov. 30, 2016

accessed 30/08/2017 https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-successful-movements-have-in-common

Wong, P (2013) ‘Markers of Change’ in Caro, J (ed) Destroying the Joint: Why Women Have to Change the

World p.257-262 UQP, St Lucia QLD.

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APPENDIX 1: Y-CHANGE

Y-Change was piloted in 2016 as a youth leadership and social change project. It was developed through a

collaboration between a small group of young people with lived experience of disadvantage and the Berry

Street Childhood Institute’s Senior Advisor Youth Engagement.

The project was intended to provide a capacity building ‘bridge’ between young people who had experienced

disadvantage and the opportunities to drive and lead social change initiatives.

In 2016 eleven young people were recruited to the orientation and training phase of the pilot from Berry

Street, Mirabel Foundation, Youth Support & Advocacy Service and the Launch Housing/Brotherhood of St

Laurence Youth Foyer in Broadmeadows. They participated in a two-night residential camp followed by a 12-

week training program covering public speaking, workshop facilitation, media, and campaigning and activism.

On completion of the training seven of the original group were offered a nine-month casual employment

contract as members of the Y-Change team, working under the Berry Street Childhood Institute. Their role

was to use their lived experience as a form of expertise, paired with their newly-honed skills, to inform,

engage in and drive projects and initiatives linked to policy and practice development.

In January 2017 their contracts were extended due to demand for their services as well as the fact that the

opportunities had shifted from being largely speaking engagements to more project-based work that

required a longer term commitment. Over the last year and a half the team has engaged in a wide range of

work, including:

Presenting to the Berry Street Senior and Executive Management and Board members on strategic

priorities for 2016-2019;

Meeting with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss concerns in

relation to the Roadmap to Reform;

Supporting the recruitment and training of the new Youth Foyer team in Shepparton;

Informing the development of research terms and techniques for a national research project into

the experiences of young people who engage with multiple support services;

Presentations at conferences;

In-class workshop sessions for Social Work Masters students and Youth Work students at two

Melbourne universities;

Consulting on the development of materials about sexual exploitation for young people in

residential care;

Consulting with young people in care about the impact of legislative changes on behalf of the

Victorian Commission for Children and Young People;

Consulting with young people who have left care on behalf of the National Commissioner for

Children and Young People;

Working with the Berry Street Take Two program on a sustainable youth engagement strategy;

Consulting with young people in residential care to support the development of a sustainable youth

participation strategy for Berry Street residential care programs; and

Identifying, assessing and assigning philanthropic funds to three youth homelessness programs

through the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation Youth in Philanthropy program.

Y-Change has been significantly redeveloped under the guidance of the current team. The outcome of regular

Reflection & Co-Creation days across the first year resulted in some clear recommendations for changes to

the program. As a result it will be relaunched in 2018 as an 18-month social action-focused training and

employment opportunity for young people who have experienced disadvantage. The opportunity will include

a six-month training and preparation phase followed by a full 12-month employment contract.

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Based in transformational identity work, a deep respect for the expertise young people develop through their

lived experience, and a firm belief that their exclusion from decision-making circles is fundamentally

negligent, Y-Change represents a radical shift in how we work alongside young experts.

A University of Melbourne evaluation report of the pilot can be found here:

https://www.childhoodinstitute.org.au/Assets/695/1/TheY-ChangeProject-

Innovationinyouthpartnershipyouthleadershipandsocialchange.pdf