Given that young people get such a bad press it was particularly inspiring to attend the Citizen Youth event at the O2 Arena in Greenwich. It used to be the Millennium Dome and remains an iconic venue despite its history. The event was organised by London Citizens which is an organisation set up to empower local citizens to make their voices heard on issues that concern them and to bring about change. Examples include putting pressure on big international banks to pay not just the minimum wage but ‘a living wage’ to even their lowest-paid staff. Another example is the ‘citizens for sanctuary’ campaign which led to a major UK citizens even before the general election at which all three of the main party leaders made a commitment to the ‘sanctuary pledge’ - to end the imprisonment of children when a family is waiting to be deported.
This week’s event was intended to empower young people by showing how groups from a number of community organisations and schools had taken up the cudgels on a range of local issues ranging from anti-social behaviour and graffiti to international issues of fairness and fair play. It was an amazing event with a mixture of entertainment for children, entertainment by children and serious exposition of the way in which local engagement with the community had both made a difference and inspired social awareness and confidence amongst young people themselves.
The most important message for me was the extent to which young people have felt able to take action not just in the traditional format of protesting against something but in the liberating experience of campaigning for positive changes. As is the case when I visit local schools I left the event with my belief in the positive characteristics of young people restored and enhanced. As London’s citizens expand their role I hope that Citizens UK will soon reach Cardiff and Penarth – and be welcomed with open arms. Actually it will have some resonance here as the person who invited me to attend the event was Jonathan Cox from Penarth who spent the last year working on the ‘sanctuary pledge’.