From Listening to Action: TELCO Young Leaders Take Centre Stage At Youth Assembly
From Listening to Action: TELCO Young Leaders Take Centre Stage at Youth Assembly
Over 300 young people across TELCO gathered together 4 July- the first anniversary of the general elections- to celebrate, take action, and learn. The day-long Assembly took place at the London Design & Engineering UTC resulted from a six-month listening around issues that affected the youth of East London most. This Assembly was part of other assemblies in the Chapter attended by nearly 1000 leaders.
The Youth Assembly was designed to be fully youth-led- co-chairs were young female leaders representing Sarah Bonnell and St Bonaventure’s School, the St Antony’s Primary School choir engaged the attendees in musical performances, training on leadership and artificial intelligence was led by young people from Leaders in Community and LDE UTC, the main panel facilitator was a young person from St George-in-the-East Church youth group, and the Communications and Journalists team was led by the Newham Catholic Deanery youth journalists, who then prepared an 8-page newspaper spread covering the Assembly.
The day began with an energetic and colourful banner procession with each banner handcrafted by the young people themselves.
Since one of the key issues emerging from listening was the lack of upskilling and job opportunities for young people, the first panel of the day had representatives from Lendlease, and Thames Water, along with a young person from Shpresa Programme share two sides of the coin of employment. The discussion also leaned into Right to Work for young people seeking asylum and how employers can help.
Sir Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham and a long-standing supporter of TELCO, spoke to and engaged with the young attendees, sharing his dedication to the young people of East Ham and beyond, as well as his vision for the job opportunities Stratford International Station would bring, once opened for international travel.
During lunchtime, students from universities in TELCO Membership, and the NHS had a mini careers fair session the attendees could drop in and visit.
The second half of the day began with young borough representatives presenting their listening campaigns to a panel comprising of the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London and Newham Council, following which the panel discussed with each other and took questions from the floor on how to work together to resolve these issues. Perhaps the most poignant moment of the day cam when a young man shared his story of being profiled for stop-and-search, with the police officers pledging to working with young leaders in the community to firstly build trust, before all else.
The Call to Action at the end of the Assembly was for young leaders to sign up to the “TELCO Young Leaders Action Team” that will work together on common issues and engage civil society to win the change they want to see.
This Assembly was a fantastic opportunity for young people to be empowered to claim back their futures and their safety.
