Vision for Young Londoners – February 2017
24 February 2017
Young people make up 25% of London’s population, and 100% of its future.
On Thursday 16th February we worked with our partners to refresh the Vision for Young Londoners at the incredible Mercers’ Hall in the City. This was a great opportunity to revisit the original vision and develop key priorities for future collective action.
The Vision was originally launched in 2015 and this year, in light of the election of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the EU referendum vote of 2016 resulting in Brexit, it was a prime opportunity to refresh the core principles of the Vision and look at positive collaboration for making the most of this incredible capital city.
The event brought together 100 young people and professionals from across the city with one key aim: to ensure young people are front and centre of the future of London. Throughout the day participants worked in groups to understand the opportunities, difficulties and experiences faced by young people in the capital, before developing several key calls to action.
The afternoon saw the attendance of Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Matthew Ryder, alongside Director of the City Bridge Trust, David Farnsworth, who were then presented with the day’s key calls to action. Rather than offering them a list of problems, all 100 participants worked together to offer a list of practical solutions. It’s easy to dwell on the issues facing young Londoners today, but if we are going to solve these we must have a clear strategy that can be made a reality. Such an approach clearly worked for the Deputy Mayor, who commented on the event’s practical solutions to very real issues facing London today.
The priorities developed included: lowering the voting age to 16 and encouraging alternative forms of education in order to close the skills gap. It is now our job, both individually and as an organisation, to maintain the momentum and ensure that such ideas become a reality.
The real action starts now.
You can find out more information regarding Vision for Young Londoners here including how to sign up and pledge your support! And don’t forget to check out the conversations on Twitter using the hashtag #Vision4YL.
Vision For Young Londoners is a collaborative project and this refresh event was collectively developed by London Funders, London Youth, The Hyde Group, Young Harrow Foundation, Healthy London Partnership, and Partnership for Young London. Collective action across a range of organisations who worked so hard to draw this together. Thank you to everyone involved in the planning and on the day!