Liverpool YouthBank are no strangers to having their voices heard and taking on leadership roles. All you need to do is follow them on their Instagram and tik tok to see what they have been up to. There are at a very exciting point in their YouthBank and are now doing a call out to the Liverpool city region for applications on their theme of safety. Recently asked to create a blog to let the world know about their progress, here is what they had to say.....
Hello, we are Liverpool YouthBank. We are a youth led group from the area who want to make a change in our local community to make it a safer place for everyone. We have been given a budget of £5,000 from the NSPCC to share amongst community projects in the Liverpool City Region. We have a voice for other young people across the region who may otherwise not be represented, this is important to us because it gives us the opportunity to make a change in the communities we live in and allows us to have responsibility to know that we can do lots of different things.
As a group we have seen ourselves develop and change which has allowed us to make the changes we want to see in the world. The biggest changes we have seen in ourselves is confidence and self-esteem boost along with some of us being able to develop the skill of empathy across our community. Some young people feel as though they have developed a belief in themselves along with the group which has continued to allow us the opportunity to make the changes we want to see in our community. Another skill we feel we have developed as young people is team working effectively as we all have our personal struggles and it is sometimes difficult for some of us to leave the house unless we have a reason to.
One of the main challenges we have experienced as a group is when we have a differences of opinions amongst the group where we have had to have lengthy discussions to get to a unanimous decision where the majority of the group can come to an agreement.
However, we have also had so many funny and positive experiences as part of youth bank some including making social media posts including Tik Toks were we have been dancing to share relevant information all about youth bank. We also enjoy the way that we can give all young people in the region a voice by contributing our individual ideas through different ways of communication so that we can ensure that everyone has a voice and their opinions are valued.
One of our members also said that they found it funny when we used an unconventional way of voting for our safety topic as we put pasta in a cup to cast our vote. Along with this, we have participated in a range of icebreakers where different young people in the group were given the power to run a session or section of a session.
As a group we have had so many favourite moments as part of YouthBank, some including the recruitment and open events we held before we officially began the project, some of us also didn’t know what youth bank was before we started this project so it has enabled us to learn about the different opportunities involved. Being involved in YouthBank has also allowed us to open our employability pathways allowing us to be more prepared for the future with friends and new people.
Now we are looking forward to continuing to make a change in our community when completing the application and interview process involved in the project to give the community groups the funding. Other young people in the group are even more excited about visiting the groups and evaluating the changes made once they have given out the funding.
If you want to find out more about Liverpool YouthBank contact: Alex.Jones@alderhey.nhs.uk