Our commitment to leadership has extended into the youth sector, with four programmes for young people.
- The first of these projects is a leadership project for young people with lived experience of disability or health conditions from the BME community in London. This is for young people in the age bracket 16 – 25. In this project we deliver two leadership events a year, each for 20 young people, a total of 40 a year. These young people receive 1:1 coaching at the event, with three follow up telephone or internet coaching sessions. As with the national leadership programme, there are workshops and keynote speakers covering a multitude of leadership projects.
This is an exciting project, transforming the lives of young people all too often not given the opportunity to realise their full potential. The enthusiasm and determination of these young leaders was admirably demonstrated, when we had a full house at an event run on a day of tube strikes. - The next youth focused project is our “Youth of Today” project. In this we are taking young people with lived experience of disability or health conditions from London, the Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside, in the age bracket 13 – 19 years old, through leadership training days; helping to break down the barriers to youth involvement in local disabled people’s organisations. These young people will showcase the tools for youth involvement at events for 50 local disabled people’s organisations in each region, 150 in total. This is trailblazing work and will lead to greater involvement of young people in organisations within their regions and to services that more accurately reflect their needs. Radar is partnered in this project by CSV, who have worked closely with Radar to deliver some fabulous training to the young leaders. There are some brilliant young people in this project, whose talent we are helping unlock, so that their full potential can be achieved.
One of our young leadership graduates from last year’s national leadership programme, Abdi Gas, is managing these two youth projects. A real testament to the effectiveness of the leadership programmes.
- Finally, our latest two leadership projects are for young people in the Yorkshire and Humberside region. These are both “Young Ambassadors” programmes. The first is for people with lived experience of mental health issues. It is a two day residential course for 16 – 25 year olds. In this we are developing young leaders, to become young ambassadors and act as peer educators to train other young people with mental health issues to be leaders themselves. The residential days will include coaching, workshops on self esteem, self confidence, public speaking, networking, self promotion, local involvement and social networking. Brent Mind will be assisting us on this programme, helping develop the young leaders as peer educators and Young Ambassadors. There will be ongoing support after the event and an online forum for the leaders to network in.
- The other Young Ambassadors programme is for young people with lived experience of disability or health conditions. Although this too includes people with mental health issues, it has a broader target audience. In this we will be developing the young people, 15-18 years old, to be leaders and peer educators for other young people like themselves.
David Stocks – Head of Leadership and Empowerment
If you need any more information about any of these programmes, please contact David Stocks the Head of Leadership and Empowerment for Radar, on: david.stocks@radar.org.uk
