#StillWeRise: In Community – The role of youth social action in creating positive change in places

Hannah is a young person who is deeply involved with many initiatives here at Youth Leads UK, such as the Youth Advisory Board and the Civic Leadership Programme. We asked her to share her thoughts and experiences on youth social action, and how she has managed to make an impact in the community. 

“My social action journey started in high school when I noticed that the Deaf students in my school were marginalised and isolated. After learning more about their situation, I realised that they face many barriers in a mainstream school as most people don’t know how to communicate with them, and it’s tough for them to access extracurricular opportunities. 

To raise Deaf awareness and remove this barrier, we started the British Sign Language Club together: I sorted out the logistics while the Deaf students designed and facilitated the sessions to teach others sign language. This allowed them to develop organisation and leadership skills and gave them a sense of involvement in our school community. 

I also worked with the Deaf students to deliver a speech in assembly to raise Deaf awareness, where they signed it, and I translated it into English for the audience. This increased the school’s awareness of the challenges Deaf people face every day and how we can be more Deaf-friendly as a community. This initiative showed me that it is possible to make a substantial difference in other’s lives as long as we notice the problem and do something about it.

After this, I’ve been involved with other initiatives around equality, diversity, inclusion and youth voice, such as the Civic Youth Leadership Programme, where I worked with a diverse group of young people to create a resource which encourages underrepresented youths to go into decision making roles in our society. I also became the co-chair of the Greater Manchester Youth Combined Authority, where I can influence decisions made around young people to ensure policies are youth-friendly.

My most recent project is an initiative called WeConnect, a small but diverse team of young immigrants who collectively created an Immigrant-friendly Guide to the UK Education System, which is inspired by our experience as immigrants/students and aims to help newly arrived immigrants navigate and strive in the UK education system.

I think that young people can contribute by noticing the problems and injustices that happen around us, taking the time to talk to and understand other people’s points of view, and using our privileges, like our skills or our time, to help others. It is also important to recognise that no matter how small our actions are, it still makes a difference. 

From posting information on an Instagram story to raise awareness, to starting an initiative, these actions show people that this issue is important and needs to be addressed. It’s also important to believe in your power, even as a young person, you can make a bigger difference than you think.”

Giving young people a platform is vital – we are thrilled that Hannah has committed herself to so much and made a positive difference. Support for young people should go beyond #iwillweek, and we cannot wait to see what else our young people will achieve.