A week in the life of… a communities apprentice

After lunch we jumped on the tube and headed to Spotlight Youth Centre in Tower Hamlets, which was established in 2014 following consultation with young residents about what they want and need from a youth centre – a fantastic blueprint.

With everything from a boxing gym and a music studio, to a cafe and even an on-site GP, Spotlight is a perfect example of how young people can influence their communities and what’s around them.

Wednesday

After a busy Tuesday, we regrouped at Clarion’s offices near London Bridge for coffee and croissants before a session with the fantastic Liminal Labs, which facilitated a session to help the young people think creatively about ways to share their ideas and develop a youth charter to be presented at the International Social Housing Festival in Helsinki.

The idea is that the youth charter will provide a set of commitments for the international housing sector on how young people should be listened to when developing the services and programmes that affect them, linked to the key issues young people are facing in modern global society.

During the session, it was great to see the friendships between the young people starting to flourish, and after all the hard work and creative thinking, it was time to unwind and relax, so we jumped on an Uber boat and headed to Honest Burger in Greenwich – the best burger place in London, in my humble opinion.

Thursday

Today was the last day of the summit, but before heading home, there was time for some final planning before the young people presented the youth charter, which focuses on health and well-being, housing for young people, youth unemployment and climate change.

Staff also came together to discuss ways to support youth voice across the housing sector, making a commitment to embed the charter in practice.

After the young people presented the charter, it was time for final goodbyes. It was great to see the connections that had been made between the young people, and even though English wasn’t everyone’s first language, it wasn’t a barrier and we were able to achieve a huge amount during the three days we spent together. Hopefully it’s something we’ll do again, perhaps even on a bigger scale.

Friday

After a fruitful but tiring few days in London, it was time for me to hop on the train back to Birmingham to pack my case and get ready to fly out to Nicosia for the return leg of the Youth Exchange. I arrived home with some excitement as I was expecting a package to be have been delivered – the final and most important document for the trip: my passport.

Despite being in parliament earlier in the week and hearing how the passport fiasco was being handled, this hadn’t dampened my hopes of my passport arriving. But how wrong I was. I checked the post – no passport.

Then it sunk in. It’s not going to arrive on time. So I spoke to my manager to explain the situation, disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to see things through, but looking forward to manning Youth Exchange HQ from a slightly less sunny Birmingham to make sure the trip ran smoothly.

But before that, it was the weekend and time to relax after a hectic but fantastic few days.