Fair-trade and Amnesty Campaigning

Arthur and Harry, aged 14-15, from Dover Grammar School for Boys are both active and dedicated campaigners. Harry has been campaigning for Fair-trade awareness since 2008 and Arthur has been involved with Amnesty and campaigning for human rights since 2006. Arthur’s years of campaigning for Amnesty have helped to raise more than £1,500 for the cause, he regularly plans and delivers workshops on human rights for his peers and primary school students and he is a member of the national Amnesty Youth Advisory Group. Harry is a certified fair-trade supplier and runs stalls in his teachers lounge and in the Dover magistrates court and he is a member of the Dover fair-trade steering committee. Everything he sells he purchases with his own money and he distributes leaflets for people to purchase items throughout Ashford and Dover. Like Arthur, he has also planned and delivered workshops on what fair-trade means to raise awareness. Both of the boys are passionate about their causes and are keen to continue to raise awareness and make a difference, even after they leave school to attend university.

Getting my voice heard

Sam*, age 17, is a young campaigner who is HIV positive and working to support and mentor younger individuals who are also ‘positive’. He has taken part in the Teen Spirit programme at Body & Soul, a charity that provides support services for individuals and families, for the last 6 years. Without even trying, has become an inspiration to his peers and the volunteers and support workers he’s met because even at the age of 12, he would go out of his way to comfort younger kids in the programme. Sam has planned and delivered workshops for his peers and health care workers on difficult subjects like deciding whether to disclose their positive status to friends. Because Sam knows what it’s like, he can provide support and comfort to his peers in a way no volunteer can. And though he has chosen to keep his own status a secret to protect his privacy and lead a normal life, Sam has found a way to speak out in the hopes that in the future, young people like himself won’t have to deal with the stigma of HIV. Read Sam’s story

Happy Hands

Braden, Ellen, Eleanor, Jocelyn, Joseph, Clare, Cameron, Paul and Eddie, age 13-17, from Morpeth are Happy Hands. Last year during ‘Learn to Sign Week’ Braden offered a free lunchtime lesson for people to learn the small bit of British Sign Language (BSL) he knew. The group of students enjoyed it so much they wanted to continue, and with the support of Mr. Benson, a teacher who has a deaf son and knows some BSL, they were able to continue. The group now meets every week at lunchtime to practice what they know and learn new words. Everything they’re learning will lead to an eventual level 1 qualification in sign language. The group continues to grow and members have found they’ve been able to use their skills to speak to deaf relatives, have started working with primary school children to teach them basic signs and one member even volunteered at a school for the deaf in Uganda and is working to create a link between the two schools so they can explore the differences in sign language throughout the world.  The group plans to continue and hopes the club will become a permanent option for students in years to come.

Kidz 4 Kidz

Jilly, age 15, from Wigan has been fundraising for youth charities since the age of 2. At the age of 10, after numerous fundraising projects, she decided to start Kidz 4 Kidz so young people could fundraise and have something worthwhile to do at the same time. Over the last 5 years Jilly has written and directed concerts and pantomimes from Snow White to her own version of Cinderella called ‘A little bit of magic’. Every production has starred young people from wigan and they’ve raised more than £5,000 for charities like Children in Need and the NSPCC. Jilly has even set up Kidz 4 Kidz as a youth group that meets every Sunday afternoon so the 20+ members who range in age from 5 – 16 have something fun to do, can learn something new, and during performance season, rehearse for their upcoming charity performances. Jilly plans to attend university to get a degree in community and youth work and keep Kidz 4 Kidz running for many years to come.

Anti-Homophobic Peer Mentoring

Danny, age 17, from Birmingham has spent the last year training peer mentors in issues specific to young people who may be lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB). Following a two-day training he attended with Stonewall, Danny began running workshops for peer-mentors in local schools to equip them with the information and awareness to support LGB students and individuals who have experienced homophobic bullying, despite their orientation. The workshops were so popular, he was asked to give a presentation for the Mentoring and Befriending foundation where he discovered that there were lots of schools who wanted to be able to offer this kind of support, but didn’t know where to start. Danny has since planned 8 weeks of PSHE lessons to run in his old school in the hopes that by raising awareness, the school will be a more supportive place for younger LGB students. Danny is passionate about the cause and knows he will continue to raise awareness throughout his life, whether it’s part of his job, or something he does on the side. In the meantime, he plans to continue to offer the training so more students; teachers and youth workers are aware and able to support LGB youth.

Milly-Jane

Milly-Jane, age 13, from Kent is a young campaigner with many causes. From a young age, Milly-Jane became involved in a variety of community activities including charity sporting events, fundraising projects and taking part in the local youth forum.  On the Youth Forum she has taken a lead on a number of projects, including securing £4,450 in funding for a promotional DVD and the purchase of a mipod that young people can use at events to collect information about what the young people in Kent want or need. Milly is on committees to organise a summer youth event in 2010, work on environmental projects in the local area and is on an initiative led by the DCSF to raise awareness of the harmful effects of alcohol. In addition to her organising abilities, Milly also excels in creative areas. She won £3,300 in a Sculpture4Kids competition which benefitted her primary school and won an award for a photograph and poem she wrote for the Tonbridge Coal Mine Competition. Despite having to deal with the death of her mother at a very young age, and being diagnosed with a benign tumour which required surgery, Milly-Jane remains a very bubbly and dedicated young girl who uses her athletic, academic and creative talents to support the young people in her local community.

St Paul’s Environment Campaign

Students aged 13-17 at St. Paul’s High School in Glasgow, have started an active campaign to ban trans fats in foods in Scotland. After reading an article about Trans Fats in the newspaper and hearing from Dr. Simpson, MSP who is working on proposing a bill to the government about banning trans fats, the group decided they wanted to have a say as well, so they set up SPEC.  The group began with only a few members and set up a constitution which states that while advisors and teachers can be present at meetings, they have no say in the group at all, it is entirely student led. They were shocked to learn that Trans fats are even used in baby foods and wanted to ensure people were aware of how to recognise trans fats on ingredient lists so that at least people have the choice to not eat them.  Since then the group has undertaken awareness raising assemblies, collected petition signatures to present to the Scottish Parliament, run primary school workshops to teach younger kids about what trans fats are and how they affect your health and are currently writing to every MSP in Scotland in the hopes that they will support Dr. Simpson’s bill that is being presented in mid April 2010. Their ultimate aim is to petition the government to ban trans fats and require labelling of foods so at least people have a choice about whether to eat them or not. Visit the SPEC website at http://spec.edublogs.org

Teens & Toddlers

Nick, Tina, Yemi, Safari, Tia, Yazmin, Jasmine, Charlotte, Shanice, Doris, Aisha, Kamesha and Carmel, aged 15-18, from London run a Teens & Toddlers magazine. A few years ago they each took part in the Children Our Ultimate Investment (COUI UK) Teens & Toddlers programme at their secondary schools.  Though they all attend different schools, each individually wanted to get further involved in the project and started a group to see what they could do. They decided to put together a magazine that would appeal to young people who would be taking part in the upcoming Teens & Toddlers programmes. Their aim was to make sure the magazine had as much fun and teen friendly content as informational resource so it was something that was both fun and informative for young people to read. To date they’ve completed two magazine issues and are working on their third.  As the group has grown, so has the magazine with new sections like Teen talk, fashion sections, real life stories and many more. Their work on the magazine is completely voluntary, they meet every Thursday afternoon and they do all the work from writing to the actual layout. Each member says it’s helped to build their confidence by having to write and interview their peers, their knowledge of teen issues has improved and they’ve gained key skills that will support them in university and their future careers.