Young campaigners take part in Westminster summer school
16 August 2022
Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing Southall, invited young active campaigners to Parliament on July 22nd 2022. This was the first day of his July Summer School for his young Ealing constituents. The aim was to inspire and empower students to start campaigns on issues they care about.
We were pleased to have one of our Young Advisors, Amina, in attendance. She was joined by Lily from the Young Ealing Foundation Youth Board.
Lily and Amina outlined their experience of running a campaign to a captive audience consisting of half a dozen students from the Ealing Southall constituency. For Lily, this was a campaign to save her local youth club in Ealing. For Amina, it was around mental health and the Mental Health Alphabet campaign which we profiled during World Mental Health day in October 2021.
The questions that the campaigners were asked to explore with the young participants were:
- What inspired you to make change?
- What change did you make or try to make?
- Did you find older people were helpful/supportive?
- Where there any groups that were helpful allies in making change?
- What is one thing you wish you knew before you started on your campaign?
- Is there anything you would have done differently?
Amina spoke of the need to spotlight how mental health is perceived in minority communities. She explained the need for a different approach to promote awareness and acceptance of different perspectives. Amina shared how she created this project with other members of the Youth Board and with London Youth’s support. She also described how she engaged with a range of opinion formers to build the campaign and platform. Lily and Amina were extremely articulate in their responses to engaged and meaningful questions from the students, sharing insights into two very different but equally important projects. They informed the students on how to get directly involved with the Young Ealing Foundation and the Mental Health Alphabet.
Speaking of the experience in the House of Commons, Amina said “It was a pleasure to be invited to meet Virendra Sharma MP and the summer school students. They were a really curious and engaged group and I enjoyed talking to them about my project, as well as listening to Lily’s perspective. I love being part of London Youth because of opportunities like this.”
Our Youth Board
We’re recruiting to our Youth Board! Are you 16-25 and passionate about making a change for young Londoners? Join our Youth Board! Our youth board is an incredible group of young people that helps London Youth demand change to improve the lives of all young Londoners! Find out more.
