sounddelivery » London Youth

We need to be sharing more stories about young people

Mark — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:25:54 +0000

Blog post from Jude Habib, Director - sounddelivery

I don’t know whether it is the grey days or the early nights or the challenges of running my own organisation but I have to be honest, I’ve been feeling out of sorts recently and in search of inspiration.

Last week I found it in buckets at the House of Lords when I was attending the charity London Youth’s launch of Hunch: ‘A vision for youth in post austerity Britain’. This was a vision of a Britain that invested in the capabilities and character of the next generation.

There was a stellar line-up of third sector leaders including the CEO of London Youth Nick Wilkie and Lord Victor Adebowale, all championing the role of youth work and young people. As Lord Adebowale argued: “During a recession – youth services are first to go. We should be investing in young people.”

But it was London Youth trustee, 21-year-old Francis Augusto, who was the highlight of the evening. He came to the UK from Angola with his family to start a new life. But life was challenging and at the age of 13 he was going off the rails and was arrested for GBH. However, his life was turned around thanks to a special youth worker who supported him and encouraged him “to be the best he could be”.

He describes himself as “a prime example of what makes youth work such a great profession”, but says young people’s voices need to be heard. He is now a student of sociology at Roehampton University – a mentor, leader and social entrepreneur, but most importantly an example of a voice that needs to be heard.

But, if I was feeling inspired so were many others in the room…

I wanted as many other people to hear his story. So I picked up my trusty iPhone, managed to grab Frances from the crowd and recorded my own audioboo interview with him, uploaded it and tweeted it out. Simple, immediate, straightforward and free.

Francis Augusto London Youth Hunch launch (mp3)

And it was that example of sharing a story to a wider audience which reminded me why I do what I do. There is still a real need to for charities like London Youth to tell their amazing stories to the broadest possible audience. At sounddelivery, our aim is to give organisations the skills so that they can do this themselves, but on occasion they might need a helping hand and I felt privileged to be in that position last week.

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation – London Youth Intergenerational Project

Eric — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:46:51 +0000

Commissioned by the Beth Johnson Foundation, London Youth were asked to create a series of workshops to find out more about young people’s views on age, ageing, and what they thought older people could offer them. Having worked with London Youth in the past they then asked us if we could help them create some audio and multi-media reports based on what the young people said.

We organised a workshop with a group of 9 young people, ranging in ages from 16 to 24. We facilitated discussions and then got the group interviewing each other about how they felt about getting older. They also went out onto the streets asking passers-by their views on age and what it means to be old. The terrifying fact was that when asked “What is Old?” the group decided this was around 30! Certainly put us in our place.

We then interviewed the young people ourselves and were able to play back some of the recordings at the end of the day.

We then spent several days pulling the audio content together, and decided on creating a series of audio montages focusing on specific areas: What it feel likes getting older, how to bridge the generation gap, what older people can offer me, etc…

This audio montages were then put together onto a CD to accompany the report at the end of the project. We also collected head-shots of the young people involved and used them to transform some of the audio they captured into this audio slideshow.

The slideshow is to be included as part of the final report, details of which can be found on the Beth Johnson Foundation website.

Intergenerational project for London Youth

Mark — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:44:19 +0000

sounddelivery has been commissioned to produce an audio CD and short film to document an intergenerational project with London Youth. Young people are being invited to give their views on how they perceive themselves in relation to their age and how they perceive age in relation to people around them. The project is funded by the Beth Johnson Foundation – one of the leading organisations in Europe working to develop a systematic understanding of intergenerational practice. The project participants will take part in a one-day session with London Youth to explore the issues of age in relation to specific areas of their lives such as the Workplace, Education/school, The Media, Sex and Relationships, and The Community. They will then have the opportunity to record their thoughts and interview other people about how they feel.

London Youth promotional slideshow

Mark — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:56:26 +0000

sounddelivery has been working with London Youth, a member organisation with more than 400 youth clubs serving 75,000 young people across the capital. We were brought in to create a short film about London Youth’s work. The aim was to raise the organisation’s profile, highlight the role of youth worker training and the impact London Youth has had on young people’s lives.

We interviewed 8 young people who were taking part in the Youth Works programme – a project funded by the new youth volunteering charity V. It’s aim is to train a new generation of youth workers with a specialism in community activism. Young people who access the programme volunteer full time for 6 months in one of London Youth’s Quality Marked clubs. During this time they take their Level 1 Foundation in Youth Work, organise a community project and take part in a full programme of personal development.

This film uses content from the Youth Works interviews plus contributions from Youth Club leaders and London Youth project workers.