Participation in Practice: Woodcraft Folk members promote art of leadership
Janaki Mahadevan
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Young members of the Woodcraft Folk have been integral to the design of a resource that aims to help young people understand and explore the idea of leadership.
The youth organisation commissioned Practical Participation to create the tool, which in turn looked to young people to inform the content.
The Leading for the Future resource aims to support local Woodcraft Folk groups and community organisations across the country to encourage young people to learn new skills and grow in confidence as young leaders.
Sixteen-year-old Ruth O’Sullivan was one of the young people who sat on the reference group, which steered how the resource was created. She leads a group of 10- to 12-year-old Woodcraft Folk members every week.
"My only other experience of leadership is through school and youth councils, which I find are very adult-led because all the governors and teachers are adults," she says. "They are trying to get young people involved, but when you go along to a meeting, you don’t know what happens to all of the ideas that are raised. But because the Woodcraft Folk is led by young people, it is more of a focus and young people’s opinions are valued."
The Leading for the Future resource pack contains a series of activities, organised into a number of sessions for young people that can be used by any organisation.
"These leadership skills aren’t just beneficial to the youth-group aspect of your life, they are really transferable," Ruth says. "Youth leadership is all about inspiring others and being able to voice your opinions. Young people have lots of dynamism and energy, but developing these leadership skills was about making sure that young people know how they can get those ideas across."
Bill Badham, co-director of Practical Participation, believes the resource is important because it differentiates between what adults and young people see as leadership.
"We felt that leadership had become the discourse of adults where some young people should take part on adults’ terms and in their organisations," he says. "Young people seen as leaders were the ones who attended the boardroom meetings.
"We wanted to convert leadership to children and young people, on their terms – being good community activists and champions, and being supported intelligently to do that."
To do this, the team had to draw on the experience of the young people and engaged in discussions with young members of the Woodcraft Folk and tested the resource on residentials.
Badham is keen to stress that while the resource was created in partnership with the Woodcraft Folk, it is something he wants all organisations to access. "It is important for all community organisations that are positive about supporting all children and young people, not just for those chosen few.
"This is not about young people as mini adults, but looking at how we can support them on their own terms to be leaders."
