Suffrage youth Project - Session 3
In this week’s session the volunteers and the youth group completed a ‘create your own country’ activity led by myself and Emma. The activity involved imagining a country and designing everything from the weather to the town map and the local delicacies. The creation of a country also called for the creation of leadership and governance. When I was in secondary school, I did a very similar activity to this in Citizenship and really enjoyed designing town maps and thinking about what would make a good leader. I decided to share this activity with the youth group as a way to get them thinking more about good leadership qualities both within themselves and in other settings. It was great to see the young people getting creative and engaging with the activity. I was really impressed with the creativity of the youth and array of different countries that they had designed, from ‘’Snowland’’ a country the size of Barbados, to ‘’Pizza Party Island’’ where the currency is pizza. We had countries with weather schedules, Ice cream beaches and so many more creative touches! The youth also created governments and leaders for their countries, and this was a great chance for them think about leadership qualities, to learn about how a government works, and imagine what kind of government they would like. There was loads of different governing styles adopted by the youth, Snowland had laws to ‘have fun’ and to ‘not freeze’, Pearl Paradise country decided that there would be more than one leader for the country as it was so large, the invisible islands had no leader and everybody made laws, and voted equally, and finally ‘The Doctor’ (and the sonic screwdriver!) governed dragon Island. I asked the young people to draw a leader and on the back write down the qualities that made a good leader. The qualities that they listed were really insightful! We had leaders that were brave, intelligent, caring, positive, confident, laid back and fun. I was really impressed with how the youth came up with these fantastic leadership qualities. Overall, we had loads of fun with the young people this week. I hope that the young people will be inspired take on the qualities that they were thinking about in our session, as well as realise the freedom and possibilities that they have. I’m looking forward to next session where the young people will create a campaign for something that they believe in, and learn more about the ways that they can make a difference. Erin Trenchard - Team member Suffrage Youth project - Session 2
I first studied the topic when I was in Year 9 and instantly fell in love with it. I think it was the fact it shocked me that women (and men) hadn’t always had the vote. It was probably my first time I really became aware about the inequality women often face. I wouldn’t at all class myself as a feminist, but I think all women want equality, and a lot of men too. This project means a lot to me as it is important to keep reminding and teaching generations of the struggle for the vote and democracy as a whole. We are lucky to live in a country where we have a democratic Government and a say in what happens. Okay, we’re not perfect, but it needs to be appreciated that the UK has come a long way in the past 100 years and this project is a great way to do this. The ultimate aim is to inspire these young people to get their voice heard and encourage them to engage. They get the opportunity to create a mosaic along the way to commemorate 100 years since the Representation of the People Act gave all men over 21 and women over 30 (who met a property qualification) the vote. My main aim from this whole project is for the young people and the volunteers to have fun. Politics doesn’t have to be boring and it can teach you a lot and give you the confidence to know that you can be heard. We had our first session last week, and although we didn’t have that many young people attend, those that did had a really great time, and we will be seeing more young people in the future. We made Suffragette Sashes, which was messy…but fun! These will be worn on our Suffragette Walk where we will be exploring the history of Founders and showing the movie ‘Suffragette’. A fun fact about the Sashes is the colours actually represent three core ideas of the movement. Purple represents Royalty, which symbolised the royal blood that ran through every suffragette, due to the dignity and reason which they held. White for purity, both inside the house and out. Finally, green for spring and hope, as the vote would mean a new start for women. Emma Ward - Project Leader |
AuthorThe authors of this blog are student Volunteers at Royal Holloway University. Archives
March 2018
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