Teens and social change
Wednesday 7 January 2009
Teens sometimes get a bad rep but in fact, young people are becoming the face of change more than ever. Read about just some of the young people making a difference in their community.
Why make changes?
Life can often seem full of injustices but there are always ways things can be improved. For example, you may want to change how your community is run or you may want to help others get more opportunities, like anti-bullying campaigner Alex Holmes.
Changes start in small ways – in the home, at school or a small community and after time, these small changes can influence the way the public think about certain issues.
Action is key, whether it’s through community projects, group meetings, peaceful campaigning or by contacting local councils or the government. The more people that actively work for positive social change, the more likely it is that change can be achieved.
Social changing teens
It’s not just adults changing the world. These teenagers are thinking big!
Lives Not Knives
Eliza Rebeiro campaigns for Lives Not Knives. She organises events and meetings to discuss what can be done about knife crime.
Eliza has contacted MPs and is a member of Youth Parliament. She started the campaign by designing t-shirts in 2007 and then word quickly spread. Then she started speaking in city halls, conferences and workshops.
Making films
Young people from Sunderland and County Durham, where smoking is the most common cause of preventable death, created their own video called ‘Hear Our Voice’ which tackles tobacco and how it attracts teenagers to smoke.
It was then sent to the Department of Health to help support the changes in cigarette advertising in 2008.
The government is now looking at whether removing cigarettes from behind the counter in shops (so they’re not on show) and removing vending machines from pubs and restaurants will help people to stop smoking or taking it up in the first place.
Stay updated with their tobacco campaign here.
Reclaim
In 2008 the Reclaim group, made up of young people and their mentors, were awarded a Philip Lawrence Award for their achievements in tackling negative perceptions of young people and knife crime.
Reclaim host its own conferences and support days, and even their own graduation ceremony. Its achievements include recording a music video, setting up business and interview practices and training with the fire service.
Testing the power
Ever wanted to change the perception of teenagers in the media?
The Your Turn campaign, ran by Common Purpose, gave 300 teenagers aged between 13 and 15 the chance to explore how organisations across London work.
30 teens got to develop their leadership, teamwork and campaigning skills at publishing company Thomson Reuters and The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. They were trained by journalists, taught how to debate and how to create campaigning projects with the aim to allow them to bring positive changes in society.
Youth in media
A UK Youth survey of 588 young people showed that if teenagers took action to contact the media about any positive activities they were involved in, it could lead to 44 per cent more positive new stories.
Why not contact your local media? They might be interested in your campaign. Or contact Headliners to write about the issues you care about.
Begin social change
There’s so many ways you can attract the attention of others - through flyers, online bulletins, mass emails and even word of mouth.
If you notice any websites or leaflets covering a cause that you care about, then search for contact details so that you can find out how to get involved.
You could also contact your council to see if they can give you details of a local authority figure to talk to.
