Short film with two groups from the Youth Act programme who took part in some YoMo training at Hebden Bridge. One group is intending to raise awareness about crime and the other hopes to challenge the negative image of young people.

Practical Ideas for Youth Participation was an event organised by YoMo in October 2007. If you would like help to organise your own events, a quote for bespoke training or to discuss potential partnership work please contact us at info@yomo.co.uk

This group are all in year 8 at a school in Eltham. Some of the issues they raised with regards to them and others in their community were crime, not enough buses, teenage pregnancy, violence within gangs and feeling unsafe. After reviewing their likes and skills they decided that some of the opportunities they would like to do would be to raise awareness of crime through drama, dance, or film, integrate people with a culture event, or start a club. The wrong attitude, money, disagreements and lack of knowledge and understanding were barriers which may prevent the group following any of these opportunities through. Thinking realistically, the group decided Continue Reading »

This group of young adults recognised many positive and negative issues within their community in Lewisham. Some negative issues were teenage pregnancy’s, high rates of STI’s, gangs, and a lack of young role models which also contributes to a negative image of young people. Some of the possible opportunities for the group which could help them contribute positively to their community would be to research the target audience, develop skills, self esteem, approach individuals, agencies schools and celebrities to raise awareness, community events along with drama and music activities. However, some barriers which could prevent this would be targeting an audience, increasing knowledge of the issue, and lack of support for the campaign. Therefore, it Continue Reading »

Say It, Do It, decided to campaign against the way young people in care are stereotyped as its something they feel passionate about due to experience. This was provoked by the main issues they are challenged by which includes bullying, social exclusion, negative portrayals, lack of privacy and being pre determined and judged because of a file. They believed a possible opportunity to overcome these issues would be to make a film showing the journey of life to convey key messages and get a call to action. Contacting the media to try and change perceptions and attitudes along with providing information to the public was also seen as an opportunity. Time was obviously a barrier, and a huge barrier is the law which would make it very difficult to create Continue Reading »

This group are campaigning to get a new park for the children in their local area. They identified the Pod as a positive issue in there community which brings people together and has good facilities and activities, however there is just not enough funding. Some of the negative issues raised were: unsafe climbing frames which were small and in a big field, which could be used for a football yet there are no nets. They also recognised issues within transport as buses dodge the area, and lots of people are barred from the shop. The group then decided that a petition to neighbours for a park plan was a possible opportunity, contacting agencies and producing evidence of people views along with Continue Reading »

After identifying that their community was predominantly white, this group recognised racism was an issue with regards to lack of understanding between different races and origins within their community. However, some of the positive issues show that the community are working towards change with integration events such as black history projects. Some of the opportunities available to the group are to create a logo, recruit more members on board, meet new people from the area and share knowledge. Continue Reading »

This group’s initial campaign was based on transport services and the environment. After identifying their community and the people and resources in it, further discussion led to the issues they are faced with such as gun and knife crime, graffiti, and general lack of respect for the local area and parks. To raise awareness of these issues, some of the opportunities were to create drama based presentations and bring people together in a positive way. However, they felt that the main barrier would getting the people involved in these incidents together to listen and actually want to change. This would be a difficult challenge Continue Reading »