We are London Youth
06 June 2017
Over the past few days we’ve seen the people of London come together. Despite recent events, ordinary citizens are focusing on the positive ways our communities are coming together to make London a great place for all.
At London Youth we believe young people have the ability, given the opportunity, to effect real change. That’s why we support them, through our Youth Action programmes, to take an active role in decision making at all levels and design and deliver their own projects which tackle the issues in their community most important to them.
At our recent event to celebrate our 130th anniversary at Buckingham Palace we wanted to showcase some of the positive ways young people in particular are making a contribution and highlight some of the things they value most in our capital.
Working with our youth board, Dare London, we commissioned a live art piece to be created during the event which would ask guests to share what they love about London, their community and how young people are making a positive impact.
We asked a simple question:
How does London inspire you?
One of the things young people value most strongly in their communities is diversity and how this contributes to the city’s cultural identity. Be it the food, music or the community spirit it encourages with one young person commenting that in London you can ‘taste the globe in one city’ and another that their community was like ‘a big family’. The art board is something that perfectly captures the spirit and passion of the city. In the aftermath of a tragic event, we can remind ourselves of what an incredible city we live in.
Huge thanks to Cara and Juli from Graphic Change – we love the finished piece!
We also asked guests to make a pledge about how they could help London to be a great place for young people to grow up in. Through our network of nearly 300 community youth organisation and our work with partners, local authorities and funders we are committed to working together to ensure London is a city that really works for young people – you can read more about how we hope to achieve this in our recent report: Young People’s Capital of the World.
If you want to get involved in making a pledge too tweet us using @LondonYouth and #YouthCapital
