B19 Youth Leadership Development Programme

The programme is a neighbourhood project in participatory democracy, where 3 cohorts of young people from across Lozells & Newtown are being equipped with community organising skills and experiences by Citizens UK - ensuring their collective voices are heard & acted on by those in decision making power.

They will decide on their neighbourhood development priorities and make-up of their Youth Manifesto, as well as take charge to present & lead in Public Assemblies.

This programme is delivered in partnership with 6 local schools alongside Aston Villa Foundation & is funded by the Youth Endowment Fund. It is the first of its kind – a cross-neighbourhood youth leadership development programme - in the city.

The 6 partner local schools are:

1. Heathfield Primary School
2. St Francis Catholic Primary School
3. St Chads Catholic Primary School
4. St George's Church of England Academy, Newtown
5. Holte School
6. Aston Manor Academy

About Birmingham Citizens, our purpose and our track record

At Birmingham Citizens, we build positive working relationships between communities, elected power-holders and businesses, making sure everyone is heard and no one is left out. We share community organising tools, techniques and hard-won experience to shift the balance of power, bringing people together across their differences, to find common ground and win change.

Here’s a short film on how we’ve been doing the above in Birmingham since 2013:

The leadership development of young people to affect change and not merely raise awareness about a problem, has been a key feature of our work since 2013.

Our B19 youth leadership development programme, commenced last Autumn, to put children & young people at the centre of securing tangible change in their neighbourhood.

The programme looks like this:

1. Young people separated into three tracks: 1 for primary schools, 1 for secondary schools, and 1 for community groups to reach a combined age range of 9 years to 25 years.
2. Each track will complete 6 joint leadership workshops taking them through the cycle of community organising.
3. The school staff will be invited to take part in our in-person local training and/or join our online training for schools to develop their own skills & competencies.
4. Together all of the tracks will build a Youth Manifesto for the upcoming local elections, launching it at the Birmingham Citizens' Delegates Assembly held in Newtown in February.
5. Young people from every track will take part in the city-wide Accountability Assembly by Birmingham Citizens in April ’26 sharing their stories ensuring the next leader of Birmingham City Council includes their neighbourhoods in the pledges s/he commits to.
6. Here, they will learn about how to put on an Accountability Assembly, as they will be running their own local youth-led neigbourhood Assembly months later in the Autumn, holding local Councillors and officials accountable for progress on their manifesto priorities.

The aims of the programme are:

1. Develop the community leadership skills of a strong cohort of young people growing up across both Lozells and Newtown wards.
2. Demonstrate they are able to affect actual change beyond merely raising awareness about problems.
3. Strengthen participating schools and community groups experience of community leadership development as part of their core objectives in their extra-curricular/ youth work.

The difference the project will make to the lives of the young people participating are:

1. Build their self-esteem and confidence to relate to other young people across B19 wards and the city they may not meet/or because of other perceived rivalries stay away from.
2. Equip them with a set of tools that strengthens their emotional intelligence allowing them to be more comfortable with in-person 1-2-1 or group interactions – countering any isolating effects of their online lives.
3. Instill a more positive sense of place, allowing them to talk articulately about the hopes and challenges of growing up in Lozells and Newtown.
4. Make their teachers, community members, family and friends proud of them! These defining moments will have a lasting effect on their self-worth and self-recognition into adulthood.
5. For those in year 11 and beyond, the project will enhance their first CV/current CV and increase their prospects of securing paid work experience/further study or training.

For more information about the programme please email Saeed at birmingham@citizensuk.org