Participation in Action: Creative camps help to give vulnerable young people new leadership skills
Derren Hayes
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Charity offering personal development opportunities for vulnerable 14- to 18-year-olds has developed a programme aimed at building young people's confidence and developing leadership skills.
- Provider: LIFEbeat
- Name: Encouraging Youth Leadership programme
Young people aged 14 to 18 are taking part in a residential programme run by charity LIFEbeat that uses creative processes such as music, art, personal story telling and games to boost self-esteem and develop leadership skills.
Throughout the eight-day residential trip funded by the charity, the young people have the opportunity to choose between a variety of different workshops and activities, from drumming and dance to lyric writing and nature walks.
Four themes are built into the programmes: self-esteem, emotional intelligence, resilience and social skills. Within a diverse group of young people, they begin to build a greater and more positive and empathetic understanding of themselves and others.
On the final day, the tables turn and the camp becomes "youth-led", allowing the young people to take on guided leadership as well as offering their own workshop sessions to fellow participants and members of staff.
"For many staff, it's their favourite day on camp," says LIFEbeat founder Lucy Sicks. "Most importantly, it gives the young people a chance to step up into leadership roles and gets them thinking about the ways they can bring some of these new skills into their own communities and schools."
The camps, held in Devon and Leicestershire, have a ratio of two adult staff and volunteers to one child, which enables the participants to receive an intensive level of care, attention and challenge. This is vital as 95 per cent of those attending are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The experience supports young people to develop the tools they need to understand the world they live in, says Sicks.
"Many of the young people who attend our programmes recognise their own strengths and resources for the first time," she explains. "They reveal and exchange their personal life stories and are encouraged to see themselves as strong, self-determining and capable; able to direct their own stories in positive and dynamic ways."
Recently, 14 of those who had participated went on to graduate as peer mentors. Through the initiative, the peer mentors acted as a bridge between staff and young people taking on leadership responsibilities including co-leading sessions alongside staff and mentoring young people who needed additional support.
After camps, the peer mentors enrolled in a further 12 months of training to learn skills such as practical facilitation techniques, programme and workshop planning, using self-development tools and experience of setting up and delivering a community project in their local area. They were also offered professional development opportunities including experience of working as a team. In 2016, participants spent their first year working on camps as full staff members.
LIFEbeat has recently developed an active youth council. The group meets four times a year and gives young people an opportunity to talk about their lives and the issues that are important to them.
Run on a voluntary basis, the youth council is open to any young person who is part of the programme. Adult staff and trustees from the charity are also encouraged to attend and listen to the young people's views, as well as contributing their own thoughts and ideas.
As an organisation, LIFEbeat takes the feedback from these sessions seriously, using it to inform decisions across the trustee meetings and throughout the organisation.
In the first quarter of 2017, the youth council spoke about wellbeing and mental health, discussing the widespread problems they have seen among their friends and peers.
LIFEbeat has heard about the need for stronger role models and support systems in this area and will be looking at adding more facilitated discussions and workshops about wellbeing this summer.
My View: Olly
"I remember my first camp in 2013 clearly - I was an awkward teenager with a difficult home life and a tendency to bottle up my feelings. LIFEbeat was instrumental in getting me to talk about my issues and deal with them in healthier ways. It was the first time I felt I could speak about some of my problems.
My problems didn't suddenly disappear after the first camp, but it did mark the start of my journey towards self-care and healing.
I joined the peer mentor programme in 2015 because I wanted to help young people who are just like I was, and I'm now part of the staff team.
Being at camps, I never realised how much work goes into allowing me to be myself, feel comfortable, be heard, loved and validated. I've gained so much confidence in leading groups. It's made me a lot more comfortable being in a position of responsibility."