BLOG 51 The Tommorow People

“The answer is to catch the energy and enthusiasm of youth and to channel it purposefully.” Sir William Alexander Smith founder of the Boys Brigade on its launch in 1884.

You aren’t going to shift many newspapers with this headline… but it is truer than anything else you will read today:

Britain’s Teenagers contribute £300 million each year to the economy through voluntary work and fundraising. (Figures from the EA Report June 2009.)

The report showed on average 45% of young people aged between 13-19 in the UK give 3.57 hrs a month of voluntary work. If the work they do was paid for 33,000 full time workers would be needed to achieve the same levels in England alone.

Raising funds for charity is a huge activity for this age group – raising £110 million annually.

I read with interest a quotation from a 17 year old boy from Manchester:

“I think that people often ignore all the great things that young people are doing. We are very different to the generations before us, I mean yeah we party a lot, we get married much later, we don't like commitment, we change direction a lot... BUT we travel, we explore, we question things, we don't believe in taking a stereotypical role, we challenge opinions. Without all those things changes would not be made. Look at all the rock concerts for causes, all the parties raising money for poverty: we are showing our leaders right now is the time change CAN happen and we are showing them how”

And yet, I heard a woman on the bus complaining that the Youth of Today are awful and they should bring back the birch. It made we wonder exactly how many of the youth of today this woman had any contact with… or did she just read the papers and think she knew a representative portion of the 11 million 13-19 year old on this sceptred isle. Did this judgement colour her view as she looked out the window of the bus and saw a couple of youths sitting on all wall talking to each other. (I saw 2 young guys chatting – she probably saw 2 thugs plotting)

It seems to me odd that in a society obsessed with looking young – we spread such poison about those who actually are. Our newspapers are full of hoodies and wasters and evil youffs who torture pets and beat up our elderly. And our media present them to us as the majority and say we have a lost generation.

This is simply untrue.

I find it telling that real hard facts don’t seem to support the image the media have created of the 13-19 age group. When given a list of over 800 words which the recipients were asked to find the top four things they would like to see in this world, the four most common words teenagers ticked were; Tolerance, Respect, Acceptance and Diversity. Compare that to the 25- 45 age group who ticked Stability, Unity, Prosperity and Achievement. Seems like maybe it is not the youth of today who have their values slightly out of whack.

If you check the facts, the majority of teenagers are constantly seeking opportunities and ways to better themselves. Shame on each and every one of us that we allow the media to tarnish the majority with the actions of a miniscule percentage. I would challenge a newspaper to show the truth for once; for every bad story there are another ten good ones.

In Scotland 2009 deprived teenagers came together in “Mission 2009” to raise a relatively small sum each - £50. Each £50 was to go in a pot to raise money to build age appropriate cancer units in NHS hospitals. £100450 was raised by these teenagers from East and West of the country, so they are looking at more fundraising projects.

Or how about 15 year old Rhiannon Jenkins? She has become a team leader for The Eco Schools Project. The team plant trees locally, and encourage the school to recycle all waste including recently installing paper cycling bins in all classrooms and making compost from food waste. Rhiannon is doing all this while working hard for her GCSE’s and a bronze for the Duke of Edinburgh award.

Lack of funding from local councils to run youth clubs resulted in many being closed in the late 1980’s. The stringent police checks on anyone who wishes to work with children also made it difficult for adults who wished to open a youth scheme to get on off the ground. This has not stopped the formation of a nation wide group called Horizon’s. Young people with no where to go in the evenings have formed their own network. Where possible they meet on school premises after hours, but they have also an on-line version. Both schemes offer workshops and interactive games – this project is by the kids for the kids.

At the age of just 16, Herefordshire Teenager Zoe Jackson set up a drama club for teenagers. Now in its 4^th year it has a membership of 60 kids who work together to produce, direct, choreograph and perform a variety of showcases… WITHOUT any input or supervision from Adults. Again these kids do this whilst studying for their GSCES. The teenagers have also learnt savvy business skills and managed to convince local business to sponsor their club.

Just because the council run youth clubs of gone, does not mean all kids are hanging on street corners or in front of your local Mc D’s! Organisations for young people have never been more popular, with the guides, scouts, ventures, cadets and girls brigade showing record membership. The countries oldest youth organisation (The Boys' Brigade) has over 1500 groups in the UK & Republic of Ireland with over 60,000 members between them. Activities including kayaking, climbing, football, camping and survival skills. Raising money for charity again is a popular activity to all these youth organisations with The Giant Sleep over (the world’s biggest simultaneous sleepover) being a beloved event.

Manchester’s Youth Opportunity Fund gives that city’s young people a chance to engage in positive actions locally – but the kids have to volunteer as there is no payment for the work they do around the city. Believe it or not there is a waiting list! Although some motive were not entirely selfless (4% wished to gain work experience) the most common reasons for volunteering were wanting to help people (53 %) and wanting to contribute something to society (43 %).The Alliance’s General Director, Steve Clifford, said: “These results demonstrate what I have seen and known for years: that young people, contrary to the stereotypes, make a massive positive difference in our communities. Far too often they are branded as hoodies or gang members when the real statistics tell a very different story.”

Talking of hoodies, Endz 2 Endz was born from a group of kids who could fill that description. A group of London based teenage males over heard each other talking about music and realised they had the same taste. What shocked them was that they were all from different estates who had ‘territorial issues’. So to over come this they started an on-line magazine which has gone on to inspire kids growing up in rough areas to talk to each other and find out what they have in common. The magazine has evolved to showcase London kid’s talents, skills, and visions and because of the founders unique position as teenagers in the heart of these deprived areas they are reaching the kids who were previously unreachable.

The vast majority of youths out there learnt respect, courteousy and honesty from a young age. The vast majority of youths out there have a parent who enforces that learning… but even the ones who don’t even have that…. The vast majority of the 13-19 age group have enough self discipline to hold onto those values. They want a world that has tolerance, respect, acceptance and diversity in it.

But I ask you the question I should have asked that lady on the bus.

WHEN was the last time you had any tolerance for youth. (Gonna moan about the noise they make on public transport… STOP. Remember how you felt when you were 14 and excited?... well that is how a 14 year still sounds.)

WHEN was the last time you had any respect for youth. (Gonna say they do nothing for this world but graffiti on it…STOP. Remember 45% of them give up their own time to do stuff for free in your neighbourhood)

WHEN was the last time you showed any acceptance for youth. (Gonna say they way they dress scares you… STOP. Unless you were born before 1914, your generation too had a youth culture your elders found confusing at best and offence more likely)

WHEN was the last time you showed and ability to deal with the diversity of youth. (Gonna say they are all the same and waive a newspaper article written in emotive language about alcohol fuelled, promiscuous, violent youffs… STOP. Go talk to a teenager a REAL one, and prepare to be humbled by the depths of your own ignorance)

There are many stereotypes derived from the portrayal of youth as ‘yobs’ in the media and unfortunately, this view is applied to all youth of today. This however, is only true for the minority and the majority suffer. So try some tolerance, respect, acceptance and appreciate our teenagers’ diversity.

And I promise – you will reap what you sow.