Warren Centre: Youth Led Social Action
The Warren Centre is a specialist centre in youth action, providing a space for young leaders, activists and volunteers to develop skills. Young people have a space to support one another, plan and lead their own projects, events and campaigns. In this centre, young leaders share best practice with peers and youth-led social action organisations.
The Warren Centre Youth Action Teams are groups of young people working together to create positive change in their communities, through a 12-week programme and an action they plan and deliver. Young people are able to apply for up to £500 in funding to support their project and are not limited to any particular topic – the only aim is to create some positive change!
The Warren Centre Management Team, formed in December 2018, have been working tirelessly to create this social action space and design the Youth Action team programe and other action such as Youth Action socials. To read more about the history of the space, please click here. The team have now currently disbanded having completed the final phase of design for the space at this time – working with DMA Architects to decide final furnishings and decoration of the space. Many of the team have now gone onto University or travelling abroad with the skills they developed as part of the team. A new steering group may be formed in the future to manage regular social action from the centre.
Before they finished, they held one final event – a gaming event – to bring young people together for a social, encouraging young people to meet other likeminded people and maybe breed new peer support and projects – putting the SOCIAL in social action!
If this is something you are interested in, and are aged between 14-25, get in touch with Aleffa via aleffa.islam@fya.org.uk
We have had some brilliant projects so far!
We are currently working with two groups of media students at Westminster Kingsway College to create social action using their media skills and interests! Watch this space!
True Colours
Summer 2021 – A group of local young people decided to tackle the topic of colourism, as it was something they realised they have all experienced. They hosted an event at Old Diorama Theatre which was in three parts; an interactive art work together with artist Felix Stochaj with snacks, performance area including short sketches and performances from Gloria, Emma Ilunga and Aya Elgool and ‘Talk Time,’ an open and honest conversation about people’s experiences and calling for accountability. It truly was a brilliant event and guests were able to take home affirmations and books. Over 35 people joined throughout the event.
Charity BBQ
Summer 2021 – A group of local young people decided that they wanted to do something to support Islamic Aid’s Palestine Appeal and held a summer BBQ to raise money. They applied for an additionla small pot of money from the Regents Park Estate Make it Happen Fund to cover the licence and HPOD hire too. They had a BBQ, sports challenges and pass the parcel for children as well as henna and other stalls you could buy sweets from. They were able to raise over £3000! The event had its challenges such as one of the BBQs not being hot enough causing large queues, but they coped well and the community were incredibly supportive due to their important cause.
Just Be Yourself Campaign and Healthy Households
Young people studying health and social care at Westminster Kingsway wanted to do instagram campaigns to support young people during lockdown, One group focused on encouraging young women’s self esteem, acceptance and self love where everyone was so reliant on social media and the negative impacts they as a group were feeling. The second group wanted to focus on support for young people living in toxic or difficult households during the pandemic. Both teams created supportive spaces for themselves and peer support during the making of the campaigns working online together and discussing topics which some of them were experiencing. Despite working hard to create content, the groups lost momentum when lockdown ended so the campaigns only had a small reach and they did not post up all content created. However, the teams learned project management skills, how to use canva and vital social media and content creation skills and despite the challenges, were able to reflect what went wrong and why for future projects. The groups went on to become peer mentors and supported two of our outdoor events in person! https://www.instagram.com/jbycampaign/ and https://www.instagram.com/healthy.households/
Media students – Coping with Lockdown and Online bullying films
Two groups of media students worked on social action projects within their curriculum projects, using their media skills and interests to create two films – they identified the topics they wanted to cover and then filmed the content – some was filmed at home during lockdown and one group filmed together when lockdown finished. The students compelted the storyboard, scripting, filming and editing all themselves and were able to utilise the project towards their course too. The group who focused on coping during lockdown design documentary style interviews, where the other group created a narrative related to online bullying and how it has increased when our lives are all online.
Art ‘n’ Soul
