This week saw the 4th annual Room for Young People Inspiration Awards, a showcase for inspiration from young people and staff in the youth housing sector. The event is run as a collaboration between LiveWest, the Foyer Federation, Clarion Futures, the Housing Association Youth Network, and the smallest fish in the partner pool, InspireChilli. What made this year’s event the best yet was the degree to which young people were leading proceedings – from the choice of award topics, to the award judges, to the design and organisation of the event and the team of Molly, Jess, Jonas and Uche who kept us brilliantly entertained throughout. As a ‘room for young people’, it proved to be an inclusive, welcoming and supportive space, with phenomenal stories of impact.
The 18 winning nominations for the Inspiration Awards this year had 5 characteristics:
· 83% were from Foyer services
· 66% were focused on people progressing education and employment outcomes
· 61% were people using skills and experiences to benefit others in their community
· A third had overcome mental health challenges, showing tremendous resilience
· All evidenced a determination and passion to achieve.
As InspireChilli’s Team Young People judges shared with me, ‘each example lives up to … the identity of an ‘inspiresider’ – someone or something that brings inspiration to life’.
From these 18 winners, 6 ‘top champions’ were identified as those who inspired most of all.
These included the following award stories:
Duck to Water Award: Mitch Snell - Recognised for throwing himself into Foyer life at Torbay, taking part in all its activities, being a valued member of the Foyer’s work with local organisations, giving permission for the Foyer to share his song about the life of his deceased grandfather, and positively progressing career goals, all while showing his supportive nature to other residents.
Innovative Action Award: Herts School Outreach – Recognised for their tireless work to establish 4 new innovative projects over the past year: LEGACY, a free football club for children of families on benefit; PHONENIX, a programme helping children and young people to overcome experiences of trauma; OHANAMIND, an online club offering resources for families, carers and schools, to nurture young people’s mental health; and SHIELD, which supports young people at threat from criminal exploitation to lead a healthy life.
Superb Staff Award: Karola Hagenstede – Recognised for her outstanding impact on young people’s lives over 12 years at SAHA, always seeing the possibility in young people and striving for the best – a champion of Advantaged thinking who is tenacious and passionate, reflected in the achievements of former residents she has supported, those who continue to contact her for guidance or to celebrate achievements, and the many successes of Newhaven Foyer which benefit from her work as its Deputy Manager.
Community Engagement Award: Starting Point Social group – Recognised for running a social group at YMCA Crewe in partnership with Cheshire East Council care leavers team to address the isolation and challenges experienced by unaccompanied young people seeking asylum, offering a safe space for social connection and fun, alongside weekly football sessions also open to other young people in the area that helps to address any community discrimination through a common love for football while also offering opportunities to invest in valuable life skills.
Flying the Nest Young leader Award: Charlotte Staves – Recognised for the inspirational journey she has taken at On Route foyer, initially working on her mental health by attending fitness classes before using her talent for craft making to lead activities for other young people, building her confidence from this to focus on practical goals to pay off former property arrears and secure a Foyer Federation talent bond to buy materials to set up her own future craft making business, for which she is now due to complete her level 2 Maths and English so she can enrol onto a business course at college having successfully moved on from the Foyer.
Personal Achievement Award: Ciara Nash – Recognised for the inspirational journey she made from a 16 year-old entering Hendra Lodge Foyer without any support network and limited cooking skills, to progress her mental health and engage with others, showing a natural talent to support young people that led her to undertake Peer Champion Training and become a volunteer youth mentor who now runs a local youth club. All this while attending college and gaining distinctions for her course work to complete a level 3 Forensics and Criminal Investigations qualification.
From the judges’ perspective, the 5 members of InspireChill’s Team Young People all agreed how the nominations have a positive impact on them – that they learn from and are inspired by the people they read about. This connected with my own reflections with the manager from Redruth Foyer the day after the event: that there is tremendous power for young people to learn from the experiences of their peers. I certainly enjoyed being able to bring one of my team, Ranae Kaira, to enjoy the event this year, who loved seeing nomination words transformed into real people with smiles, as well as the brilliant designs she has produced for certificates and t-shirts proudly shown off by their winners. Perhaps a future for Room for Young People is to provide more opportunity space for other young people, earlier in their transition, to be part of the celebration each year, so they can take back its inspiration and accelerate their own potential to achieve. If Room for Young People is the source for positive ripples, let’s make its audience even bigger.
