Inspirational Bristol Youth Are Transforming Their Community
Bristol City’s Youth Council are a group of young people taking practical action in their community in order to create positive social change that is of benefit to the wider community as well as to the youth council themselves. They have designed and delivered some brilliant projects addressing issues that are relevant to their community. They shine as individuals and as a group. They were instrumental in City’s holiday camp success and this year they have delivered 5 ground-breaking projects. They really are the voice of their community and are constantly coming up with new community issues to overcome.
They were involved in the Bristol clean up, hosted a girls event which saw over 100 girls attended, developed and delivered an anti-poverty free football camp, a free disability holiday camp-over 50 in attendance, F3 girls session, Luke 5s League to combat Anti- Social Behaviour, developed a Mumball session, weekly youth disability session and recorded all of their achievements by writing a Social Impact report.
The programmes they have run have addressed a number of issues in society and in only a year have completely transformed perceptions, attitudes and behaviour. There was a problem within the community, people didn’t have confidence, were subject to anti-social behaviour and didn’t feel they could afford activities or be would be heard within their own community.
Now people are able to access affordable sessions, which in turn is giving people greater confidence, which is leading to more people accessing education and qualifications and less people witnessing anti-social behaviour and substance misuse. The most important result is that for the first time young people are feeling As if their voices are being heard and they are actually making their community a better place.
They have won a number of awards already and have been invited to talk in front of hundreds of people. As well as all of the above they have all had their own journeys documented. They were all chosen or referred to the organisation for their own specific reasons.
This is Lauren who helped start Bristol City’s first girls team, she was also instrumental in developing and running the F3 Girl’s mini soccer hubs, which are fun session that to give girls aged 8-11 the opportunity to play football. The sessions are structured to raise self-esteem and build confidence. Lauren is very much a role model for these girls helping to run the session she designs. 84 girls in total have come along to the F3 sessions with 18 girls going on to join a football team for the first time. Having the Youth Council help run these sessions really does make a huge difference, they are link between the coach and the girls. They are amazing positive role models for the younger girls.
