Suffrage Youth Project - Sessions 4 and 5
''Breaking news, the use of TV for all people under the age of 18 has now been banned! This law is in immediate effect and any unauthorised person caught watching TV will be fined. '' This week at the youth centre the young people faced a dilemma. With TV banned, they would have to fight to regain their right to watch TV. The idea of this activity was to engage the young people in a campaign that they were passionate about. All young people love to watch TV so this was great choice. The campaign also touched upon the theme of inequality, as there was no logical reason why young people in specific were banned; much like women being unable to vote before the Representation of the people act. After describing suffraget and the more peaceful suffragist campaigns to the youth, the young people were ready to get campaigning. To help the young people to 'get their voice heard' we presented them several peaceful methods of campaigning: Poster including slogans, an online petition and letter to the MP. These are all methods which can be used to change policy at the moment. We explained to the young people the impact that they could be making; by sending one letter to the local MP, the issue could be bough up in 'question time' at parliament. Similarly, a petition with over 10,000 signatures is considered by parliament, and 100,000 will be discussed. The young people came up with some really powerful campaigns to regain the right to television. There were colourful posters, attention grabbing online petitions and persuasive letters to the local MP. At the end of the session, it was decided by the 'volunteer and youth worker parliament' that they had regained their right to TV. It was brilliant to see the young people being passionate for a cause, and learning that they have a voice! The session was such a success that we carried out the same activity with another group of young people the following session. Were looking forward to the next session after the holidays where we will be watching a film on the suffrage movement. I hope this will inspire them for future sessions. The young people are learning at such pace and have so many creative ideas for the mosaic which will be created in term two. Erin Trenchard - Team Member |
AuthorThe authors of this blog are student Volunteers at Royal Holloway University. Archives
March 2018
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