Participation Doesn't End When the Programme Does
Written by Bianca Danielle, Communications Lead at The Agency of Change.
One of the perks of doing communications for The Agency is that I get a bit of a bird's-eye view.
Stories land in my inbox from Manchester, Belfast, Chester, Southampton, Bolton and London - new Agents, brilliant ideas, projects coming to life and Alumni popping back up in all kinds of places.
And after working with The Agency in various ways for the past few years, I've realised just how often those Alumni do pop back up. Sometimes in The Agency. Sometimes completely outside of it.
I've been to National Gatherings, sat in staff training before new cohorts begin and delivered communications, branding and marketing sessions to Agents, Alumni and Agency Correspondents online and in person. Being Manchester-based also means I've had the chance to see some journeys particularly close up.
One of my favourites has to be Ahtasham, Demereece and Aaliyah. Years ago, the three of them were Manchester Agents at Contact, creating Dawn to the Light - an ambitious project that brought a video game to life to get young people talking about mental health and subjects that can sometimes feel difficult or taboo.
Fast forward a few years and I took on a freelance Project Manager role somewhere completely separate from The Agency. And there was Demereece! No longer the young teen I'd first met through The Agency, but a youth facilitator, my colleague and now a father. Then Aaliyah popped up in another corner of my world, this time selling her artwork at one of my Melanin Markets events that I hold every year.
There's something really lovely about the fact The Agency programme finished years ago, but the people, their ideas and the relationships don’t end - they now have a chance to flourish in different spaces.
Agency Correspondents
This one is especially close to my heart because, well… comms. Over the years, I've been able to work with Alumni who haven't just featured in The Agency's content, they've started making it.
Our Agency Correspondents are Alumni based across our territories who capture what The Agency looks and feels like where they are. They're behind the camera, interviewing people, making videos and deciding which moments are worth sharing.
Máire first joined The Agency Belfast in 2023 and co-created Silent Struggles, a podcast tackling the stigma around eating disorders.
Whilst down in Southampton, Abdourahman created Space 2 Create, using art and poetry to give young people a space to express themselves following the pandemic.
Now they're both Correspondents, documenting the journeys of the Agents coming after them.
I love that. The Agency story shouldn't only come through me or somebody else on the National Team. The people who have actually experienced it should get to tell it too.
And then we have Amara and Max.
Amara went from London Agent to Steering Group member and then took the reins of our TikTok for a year, creating content for other young people, by young people.
Max is another great example of how an Agent’s role can grow and change over time.
He started as a Chester Agent and has since been a Steering Group member, Trainee Facilitator, Agency Correspondent and podcast creator, most recently delved deeper into online storytelling as our Digital Storyteller.
He’s gone from being one of the people whose journey we were documenting to sitting in National Team meetings and helping shape how we tell the stories of Agents across The Agency.
Have a listen to this series of podcasts which Max worked on as host, editor and decision maker. Click here.
From Agents to Having a Say in What Happens Next
Then there's our Steering Group. It's made up of Alumni from across the UK who come together to share ideas, challenge us and help shape where The Agency goes next.
Which, when you think about it, is exactly how it should be. If you've experienced The Agency first hand, you know things about it that somebody sitting in an office looking at a strategy document simply doesn't.
Eunice's journey is a brilliant example. She started as a Battersea Agent, became a Steering Group member, then a Peer Mentor and now works in the People Team at Battersea Arts Centre.
And Josh's story goes back even further. Josh applied to The Agency Manchester around ten years ago, he then went on to create Modify Productions and Malandra Jacks, co-creating creative projects in various communities across the North West.
He didn't actually receive Agency funding, but that's not where his story with The Agency ended. He stayed connected, built relationships, brought Modify Productions to life and eventually came back as Lead Facilitator for The Agency Manchester at Contact. I really like Josh's story because it's a reminder that it isn't about who gets the funding, it is about the networks they build and the chances they take, with all the support of The Agency behind them.
"I vividly remember sitting in the Miners Community Centre in Moston, Manchester, during winter, all of us huddled around a heater. Creativity and laughter were bouncing around the room. That’s The Agency for me—freedom, understanding, and care. I was nervous when I joined, struggling in school and not feeling like I was "succeeding." But from that first session, Kate and Reece, the facilitators, made me feel understood. They explained how we would use creativity to follow our desires and create our own projects. I finally felt like I was in the right space."
- Josh, Manchester Alumni Agent
(If you’re an Alumni Agent reading this, we’re actually recruiting right now for our Steering Group so have a look here!)
From Agent to “Trust Me, I've Been There”
Another thing I love is that every Agency territory now has a Peer Mentor - an Alumni Agent working alongside the Lead Artist Facilitator with the next cohort.
So imagine joining The Agency, not really knowing where your idea is going yet, and one of the people helping you through it can genuinely say: I've been exactly where you are.
At our National Gathering in Parliament, Eunice put it beautifully:
“One of the things I enjoy most is being able to reassure new Agents that it's okay not to have everything figured out straight away, because I'd been exactly where they were. If sharing my experience helped even one person feel a little more confident, then that means a lot to me.”
That's very different from an adult standing at the front of a room saying, “Don't worry, trust the process.” It's someone who has actually lived the process saying it, and now they're being paid to bring that experience back into the room.
Zarka who’s a Southampton Alumni Agent and Peer Mentor, attended our online Roundtable Event a few months ago and said:
"As a peer mentor, I find it really beneficial because agency is like a home for me... I love giving back to the agency because it gave me so much more out of it than I thought I would. As a peer mentor, I'm always supporting the new agents and giving them my, like, not ideas, but what I did and how they can go through the agency but with my support. So I call my role basically the older sister because I'm guiding them in a way that I wish someone would guide me, basically. And I think it's really beneficial to see someone else's ideas or see someone else's path so you can inspire them."
Some Ideas Just Refuse to End
The people keep going. But so do some of the projects, showing how essential they were for their communities.
Ade's Something to Say started as his Manchester Agency idea and has continued to grow as a platform for conversations around injustice and lived experience. This year, he brought its latest edition all the way to Parliament.
Kyle's award-winning skincare line Frank’s Remedies now funds body positivity work in schools - see the Glow Up project here.
Josa's The Life Room has gone on to work with global organisations including Nike to support men's mental health.
Dorcas is still building Kulture Fest, celebrating culture and diversity in Manchester.
And Zarka's Sports with Support is creating more opportunities for young women from ethnic minority backgrounds to get involved in sport.
Maybe Participation Isn't Something You Finish
Of course, not everybody who joins The Agency needs to become a Peer Mentor, join a Steering Group or come back five years later. Sometimes people will do The Agency, take what they need from it and go off into the world. Great. But the door remaining open matters.
Working in comms means I spend a lot of time looking backwards and forwards at these stories, looking at where somebody started, where they are now, and all the unexpected bits in between. That's probably why I've become less interested in participation as something you can neatly put on a programme plan:
Workshop
Young people consulted
Programme finished
People don't work like that. Real participation is messier, longer and much more interesting. It's an Agent becoming the person behind the camera. A teenager you met years ago suddenly becoming your colleague. Someone who didn't get funded coming back to lead the programme. A local project making its way from Manchester, Bolton, Chester, London and Southampton - to Parliament.
It's making enough room for young people to shape something now, and leaving the door open for whatever they might shape next.