The Power of Youth Leadership
What does it mean to give young people agency and power to lead? In this roundtable, Andrew, The Agency National Manager, sits down with Alex Holmes OBE and Agency Alumni Henri, and Samuel from Young Manchester to discuss the power of youth leadership. Sharing first-hand experience in youth advocacy and community work, the panel unpacks how organisations can embed youth voices at their core and build a culture that enables youth leadership.
Read and download the key insights of the roundtable here.
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Andrew
I'm Andrew and I lead up The Agency, which has been running for 13 years, connected to Battersea Arts Centre and Contact Theatre, and we run in six locations across the uk. It originates from a methodology that started in Brazil by an artist, Marcus Faustini, and it was a way of kind of activating creativity and new ideas. The conversation is really going to be around creativity, community change and that sense of leadership. We've got a number of Agents who have gone on to sit on boards. Henri, who we've got joining us today, also really thrilled to have Alex here, who's going to bring a really kind of a wider perspective and kind of zoom out from our Agency world and kind of bring in a whole lot of expertise.Andrew
We got Samuel here, who is the CEO of Young Manchester, who's gone on to do all sorts of really incredible things. So let's get started. I wanted to introduce in the first instance, Henry. So Henri was an agent.Henri
Thanks so much, Andrew. Lovely to see everyone on the call and see all the agents as well. Like Andrew said, my name's Henry, also known as Henrietta. I think it was 2013, I was an Agent. I'm 31 now. So many years ago, The Agency really shifted the power for me within certain systems. So I was under the social care system and I was sitting opposite my social worker as someone who would often need them for support. And then once I got the funding, I was like, no, no, I've got the power now and you're going to find those young people. And I have agency over my project. So that real shift of power happens really vividly on The Agency. And you see at the beginning where you see a young person sort of transformed using the methodology.Henri
So at the start, I came in as a a young person, lack of tools, lack of access, lack of confidence, lack of agency. And by the end of it, I was left feeling really powerful, going onto Parliament, creating social change, not just using change within my project but actually using activism within parliamentary backbenches, influence and policy and stakeholders. So, yeah, I think for me, leadership, I think a lot of organizations can really learn from The Agency in terms of how do we put power at the center of change for young people and how do we actually give agency. The time that I joined The Agency, I was at the, I would say, a really pinnacle time in my life where I was actually quite like going through depression due to the lack of support I received from social services.Henri
I set up my own theater company for young people in care because I realized that arts for me was a therapeutic way of getting over the pain that I received. I was moved six times within foster care. You can imagine the instability that caused for a young person, age 14. And I think for me I realized that the arts was the only thing that kept me going. I went on to The Royal Central School of Drama where I learned TIE (Theatre in Education) and I went on to do my degree there. So I think using the performance and using Battersea Arts Centre as a social space for young people to embark on arts, really to me built loads of confidence for my young people.Andrew
Thanks Henri. I'm also really thrilled to have Alex here. Alex, your CV, your like bio is like immense. The amazing kind of networks and the types of work you're connecting with from both funders to like organizations and corporates. Really lovely to just hear from you know.Alex
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Really good to be here with you all today. So I think my sort of story started many years ago. I went through some bullying at school. So I came up with this idea of anti-bullying ambassadors and it spread across the sort of southeast, and in every school has anti bullying policy which is sort of sets out about how the school addresses bullying. But pretty much most of these when I was at school were written by adults and were never reviewed or inputted by children and young people. And I sort of thought that was really wrong. And while I was going through quite difficult experience of bullying, I did, when I joined the sixth form, sort of found my voice and decided, I suppose with that age to think about how I could be a bit of a leader.Alex
It wasn't totally easy actually because I just invented a job for myself. So I called myself Student Anti-bullying Coordinator. My head teacher was a bit funny about it because he didn't actually know where that job came from and he said things like, you know, we don't have bullying in our school. Which, you know, hopefully that attitude doesn't exist as much as it used to. But it meant there was a bit of a fight and you know, I had to be a bit of like a peer researcher and I created this survey. So I just one day put all the surveys, the bullying questionnaires into the registers.Alex
I didn't ask permission and of course the tutors thought it was official so they gave out all these surveys and then I had a big task of sort of thousand surveys in my mum's living room to kind of go through and analyze and had to get the support of the office. But that gave me a really good sort of indication actually of what, you know, this is youth voice. This is what young people are saying is going on in the classrooms. And then my head teacher made a bit of mistake. He invited me to the governor's meeting, which you know, is kind of our board, our school board. And he didn't asked me what I wanted to talk about and of course I wanted to present the results of the survey.Alex
So it was a real shock to all of these governors, but actually eventually it really opened their eyes to what was going on. And, and that was when I think youth voice, student voice started to become quite embedded in the school. And I came up with this team of ambassadors.Andrew
I think we've learned a lot from The Agency over the years. Young people are overlooked from these opportunities or naturally not self selecting themselves as leaders or thinking of themselves as leaders. And absolutely no they are. So I'm going to throw to you now Samuel, who I would say is a leader.Samuel
I am Samuel Remi-Akinwale. My journey with The Agency actually began in 2015. I remember them telling me I got the funding falling off the chair and how that I guess moment transformed the rest of my life. It takes a community to bring that transformation. For us at Young Manchester, partnership is the cornerstone of what we do. What we have is a city of champions, an army of youth workers across Manchester who are rationally optimistic about them, and young people themselves who want a better city, who wants to shape their communities, who want to be a part of it. And creating spaces, opportunities, conditions for organic relationships to emerge and collaborations to emerge is probably the most important thing that we do.Samuel
That opportunity for collaboration, that first week or first two weeks at The Agency, where you're making new friends and realizing that your desire aligns and you form is the same because your territory like has shaped you in this particular way. It's beautiful. And young people then come together and young man still wants youth organizations to collaborate. Like this change that we're seeking, it's kind of existing silos. We need larger collective movements really to make these things happen in a sustained way so that the work that Alex has done, the work that Henri has done, lasts for generations. And we're building systems. It's important to create the culture and the environment to allow action and agency to take place. Partnership is needed. Like you can't do it by yourself, but it's just, it's also more fun.Andrew
Zaka, I just wanted to bring you in as a Peer Mentor. So Peer Mentors are a role in every location. Zaka is one of the Peer Mentors in Southampton.Zarka
So I joined The Agency in 2023. I was quite like scared to join because I thought it'd be something like more for like official work. It's not going to be fun, it's like school days, whatever. But then joining The Agency was something I really enjoyed. And my project is Sports with Support, where it's giving young girls from different backgrounds, different ethnicities and cultures the opportunity to participate in sports while also having like mental health support. Because as someone from a Muslim and Asian background, I found it really hard to participate in sports because of my religion and my culture. So I wanted to give that back to the community as there was nothing available for women or girls. And so, yeah, so I did The Agency, I got my funding, which I was really happy about.Zarka
And then I started my sessions up and I got 50 sign ups from SO14 and a few out of postcodes. And from that the sessions went really well. And touching on networks, it was really important for me to like get out of my little bubble and speak to more people. I got the opportunity to talk to people that I never thought I'd speak to. So Will, he's the owner of ActiveMe360, we hired their female coaches for my sessions. And then from there, Will, the owner, he saw what I was doing and he saw it as an opportunity to ask if I wanted to be funded. So I basically did a second panel for Will and his company, ActiveMe360.Zarka
But once I panelled and I showed them what I had come out with and what I had produced, he was more than happy to give me permanent funding. It was a really amazing opportunity because the age of 16, like that is something very big I've achieved and I can't think of anyone else that has done that in Southampton. So I'm really proud of myself. And then in September we, this September, we started our projects again. As a Peer Mentor, I'm always supporting the new agents and giving them 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.Zarka
And I think it's really beneficial to see someone else's ideas or see someone else's path so you can inspire them, basically.Andrew
Thanks for sharing, Zarka. So I want to open this up to the whole panel. What conditions allow young people to lead? And I think we're talking about leadership in A really broad way actually, because it can look different for different people in terms of what that is, whether it be kind of in the background or whether that be stepping into a role like CEO or leading a project. So I'd be interested if somebody wants to kick us off.Henri
I was really fortunate to be asked to sit on Battersea Arts Centre's trustee board. There was a massive sort of jump between being on The Agency and then actually being on a leadership board. So I would say creating opportunities, not just putting people on boards just to, you know, fill in the diversity gap. No, but actually on that board I felt listened to, I felt heard.Alex
You have to pay young people. So I think, you know, pizza is not enough. You actually have to pay young people for the work that they're doing that an adult would absolutely be paid for. So we've sort of got that principle of making sure that we pay living wage or higher. I think sometimes, you know, people kind of overestimate that. Just because you're giving young people proximity to a brand or, you know, opportunity that's going to be really meaningful. But actually that's not going to change their life at all actually. I think paying young people actually gives them so much agency and decision making over actually on what they can use that money for to continue.Samuel
I will always praise the bravery and audacity that Young Manchester as an organization had from its board to my predecessors who brought myself and a colleague of mine, Olivia Lee, to come and co-design how Young Manchester shares power of children, young people, from young people being on grants panel as a paid opportunity to this co-designer, grants, programs, etc. In our process of developing all of that for the organization. Never had we aspired or dreamt of a young co-CEO. I was like, this is great, fantastic. But you know, you might have overshot the mark. And they did it and they carried it through and someone like Sam apply and I was like, sure. No, but after a conversation I was like, shoot your shot. And it happened. And I still like, what did I really do?Samuel
Three years on when you share power, when you give power, you give pathways and you need to impart knowledge on how to use that power. Moving an organization is like moving a Megazord. If anyone remembers any Power Rangers, it's incredibly difficult. You have to learn how to use the arms and legs and it is incredibly long and challenging. But it's worth it. I think. Listening is so important, so, so important. It doesn't take a lot. It sounds weird, it just it is really all about humility and recognizing that you may not see all the perspectives and young people's voices and perspectives is valuable. I don't live the experiences of 12, 13, 5 year olds, 18 or even 21 year olds. My life is completely different from them. I value my learned experience and a lot of my lived experience.Samuel
But we need to recognize that ideas can be elevated. Value every interaction you make.Andrew
Share one key takeaway for organizations looking to incorporate youth leadership.Alex
Learn from each other. I think in Children in Need, we're trying to learn a lot from others and we've got an evaluation coming out which looks at kind of our youth Social Action grants and shares quite a lot around the things that we didn't get right and not being afraid, I suppose to share those. So yeah, I think definitely that. And then, you know, we are trying to think actually more about how we embed more young leaders across. So we do have young people help children need, decide, you know, where some of the funding goes and sit on some of those panels. But there's a lot more room.Alex
So I think maybe my message is not being afraid to also understand that you've still got a lot of work to do and share some of those challenges and lessons and learn from each other because there's so much good practice not just in this room, but across the sector.Samuel
I would say be young, just embed yourself within community, be a permeable organization to young people and just nest yourself within their environments and everything will flow from there. You're all kind hearted and audacious people already. Thank you for the work you do and that light will continue to shine and will impact lives.Andrew
It's really interesting time for us at The Agency. We're becoming our own organization. So being really well incubated by BAC and Contact. Half our trustees are alumni. The key takeaway from all the conversations is really the importance of making your own context, the importance of creating that change - Alex's example to what Henri and Samuel's done, the doors that kind of has really opened. Zarka as well, really lovely to have her contribution about the work that she was doing. Thanks so much Samuel, Alex and Henri, thank you everybody and hope to see you in the Zoom Room and in real life soon.
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