Young Advisors
The backbone to our development and success - our Young Advisors are inspirationsl, hard working and from the home borough of the Damilola Taylor Trust. Involved at every step and the future of The Spirit of London Awards - please meet the team and be inspired by their individuality and stories
Emanuel Matias Candengue
My name is Emanuel Matias Candengue and I am a young advisor. I been a young advisor for four years and as a Young Advisors I worked alongside community leaders and decision makers to show them how to engage young people in community life, regeneration and renewal.
I became a young advisor because Kids are sometimes heading towards the wrong places, but Young Advisors are here to make sure they go to the right places. Young people are excluded from communities, Young Advisors are here to make sure their opinions are heard, Young Advisors mean young people can feel like they have a say in what goes on around them.
As a young advisor I have Sit on advisory panels, Youth Proof' key documents, Helped organisations that work with young people make decisions about young people, use our voice I have also Promote the voice young people have, and Participate in the decision making process.
As a young advisor I was able to take parts in different events and activities such as the 4-Squares event (100+ people - Bringing generations together); spirit of London awards, the mix event, Youth Proofed the Youth Participation Strategy; Visit to Department of Communities & Local Government; QE2 Youth Conference (supported & presented); Youth Proofed the Trading Standards Identity Card for Young People; Stop and Search evaluation (proposal to train +900 police in stop and search techniques The main point of the training was breaking down stereotypes "whether it's stereotypes the police have about "hoodies" or stereotypes young people have about the police. Supported the Damilola Taylor Trust Knife Crime event & the enough is enough conference. Street based team, work with count me in a knife and gun crime campaign to raise awareness on gun and knife crime.
I also interviewed both Deputy London Mayor Ray Lewis and Sir Ian Blair, London's senior police officer as part of my work in getting young people's voices heard on the topic of gun and knife crime.
I'm an ambassadors and a role model for young people all around the UK.
Amara Blake Augustine
For all of you lovely people out there who don't know who I am, my name is Amara!
You can say I'm like the baby of the group! I am the ONE of the youngest, if not the youngest. However I'm not going to revel my age - that will spoil it!
I go college, studying A Levels - English Lang & Lit, Media, Business & (the wonderful) Sociology!
You may look at these courses and feel "What hard combination of subjects?", "How does she do it?" - WORK, COLLEGE & MAINTAINING MY SOCIAL LIFE!! LOL
In the near future I wish to go become a JOURNALIST! Writing for magazines or newspapers, doesn't matter which. However, if all ends fail, then I want to work in EVENTS MANAGEMENT.
Wish me luck!
But honestly, I LOVE being a young advisor! It's FUN!! I love EVERYONE, even my brilliant boss Chloe! (Because rumour has it, you not actually suppose to like your boss! Lol - but I do!)
So far together we have achieved LOADS! - Here are three!
'Four Squares Utd Youth Club', this is our new and fun filled youth club for ages 8 to 18, every tuesday. The real aim of this youth club is to encourage residents of the 'Fours Squares@ estate in Bermondsey to work together with the youths of the estate and for the young people of four squares estate to be seen in a positive light rather than always negative.
"Streetbase", this involves going out to a specify area to engage with youths, whether it be a boy or girl, encouraging and informing them about projects, youth clubs and events taking place in their local area. My team and I do this every week, even when it's COLD!
"THE SPRIT OF LONDON AWARDS 2009", yes, I played my part in organising the event. For those of you who don't know about "SOLA", it is a YOUTH OSCARS, celebrating the achievement of young people across London for their inspiring hard work whether it be "Arts", "Music" or "Sports".
The night was a blast! JLS, Alexander Burke and a few other celebrities attended and performed. You never know, you could win an award next year!
Watch Out for "THE SPRIT OF LONDON AWARDS 2010" - Hope to see you there!
For me helping youth, getting involved in different projects, helping adults understand the youth of today, brings a smile to my face.
What makes me brilliant for my role? - I represent youth today!
I AM YOUTH TODAY!
Melika Morrison Mills
Hi may name is Melika!
I've just finished taking my A-Levels and am planning to go to Uni to study Economics. I love my role as a Young Advisor and love the concept of being a bridge between the local community and young people. I enjoy supporting all positive young people and would love to become a teacher or careers advisor for them in the future.
Alika Jeffs
My name is Alika Agidi-Jeffs but you can just call me AJ. I am a Young Advisor here in Southwark and I also work with a whole heap of other positive companies/organisations such as ours which provides a platform to represent Young People in a positive light.
As a Southwark Young Advisor I do a whole range of things which will include: carrying out surveys, working in partnership and teaching Police officers to conduct stop and searches in the the right way, giving our insight/input into another company that is meant to cater for youth, youth proof reading of magazine's or newsletters or even manifestos which are aimed at our age group, and the list goes on.
One thing I enjoy the most is when we do StreetBase work because it allows us to meet new people plus practise what out name says which is to be an advisor so whilst we're on street base work we tend to meet those that are in need of this simple service.
I personally do a lot of things like: music making acting or script writing modelling and directing etc. But I love working with the team of YA's that I am at and after my apprenticeship in Electrical Engineering is done in 2011 I am looking forward to the future projects we have in store for 2012.
Michael Olatunji
My name is Michael and I have been a Southwark Young Advisor for just over a year now. I am currently at college studying Maths, English and Economics and planning towards studying Economics at University. My hobbies are reading, football (watching and playing), going to the gym (you look good, you feel good) and basically undertaking adventurous activities, things I wouldn't normally such as rock climbing etc. The big dream for me is to be ... I don't know, honestly the older I get the more confused I get but all I know is that I want to do something I'm going to love, its just about finding out what that is.
My experience as a young advisor has broadened my knowledge of my local area and issues that affect young people within London. From brief involvements within the Street Based project I have come to see that negative media coverage of young people is not representative of a majority, but that the "dangerous" youths are the complete opposite but are merely just idle young people who have a lack of knowledge on what goes on within their local area. I believe as young advisors we have helped to tackle this issue just by engaging with young people on informing them on their area. I am also involved within the Junior wardens team, which is basically a scheme that encourages children as young as 8 to be active members of their community. I must admit working with these kids is rather tiresome but it is a small price to pay to ensure that young children are directed on the right path from a young age, as the say "prevention is better than a cure".
Stephanie Steadman
Usually a profile is all the best bits of your life slightly dramatised and accentuated to make you seem flawless, like the front cover of vogue, however I would prefer to keep it real.
My name is Stephanie Steadman; I am 21 years old and am a Southwark Young Advisor. Due to various set backs and wrong choices I have made, I managed to miss out on loads of really good opportunities.
Having left home at 15 and not being equipped, skilled or experienced enough to look after myself I went from one bad place to the next. This is where family, one or two good friends and service providers who went beyond the call of duty came in, through there support and patience I have been able to realise my potential and utilise it. Being a young advisor I can draw from my experience of youth services and decide what works, I can realistically look at situations in my area that are not working and come up with ideas to change them. Being involved in various community events I have been able to try and bridge the ever growing gap between generations. I think when we look at our society it is quite easy to point out what is wrong however doing the work I do I have come to realise that there is not one answer or culprit. We have to unite, communicate and work together in order to be effective in change our surroundings.
Although I seemed to start quite negatively, I understand that everything that I have been through not only made me stronger, wiser and more resilient but gave invaluable lessons in life that no class room could teach. As well as being a Southwark Young Advisor, I am starting university to study Interior Design and have plans to run my own business.
Richard Kusi
My name is Richard Kusi; I am 19 years of age and a Southwark young Advisor. At the moment I am a full time student studying a degree in Business Management at Middlesex University.
Having the role as a Young Advisor is great because I get the opportunity to work with both young people and adults and there has been times where I must say the young people has come up with better ways to resolve conflict. I applied for my role because I just couldn't see myself sitting in front of a computer or being a sales assistant which can be quite boring. Unlike other jobs, my opinions are wanted and my views are never overlooked.
As a Young Advisor I've been involved with the following:
- Mediabox
- Junior Wardens
- Four Squares United (youth club)
- Spirit of London
- The Mix
- Stop and Search training
- Street Based Team
- Writing a Case Study
For my course, I will have to organise an event which will be graded and part of the young advisor role is bringing ideas to the table as well as organising events for Southwark. So I don't take the Young Advisor position as a job but more like the council helping to get me through university. Young advisor work for me is very challenging for the reason that you meet new people each week and you don't always know who or what you are going to be up against. Being a Young Advisor for me means becoming part of a family who wants to make positive changes in Southwark.
I've been blessed with the talent to play all kinds of sports so in my spare time I take part in a wide range of sports including tennis, football and swimming.
Khoa Le
My name is Khoa Le; I am 22 years old and have currently finished studying my first year of BA Finance on a four-year sandwich course at University of Hertfordshire. I enjoy spending time with my friends and family, in my spare time I love to keep fit which involves me playing football in Burgess Park weekly and practice Muay Thai a type of martial arts from Thailand.
When I was 15 up to the age of 19, I used to teach Maths at Bellenden School every week for young people aged between 6 to 15; key stages 1, 2 & 3. This helped me to start to engage with young people and understand their way of thinking. As a young advisor, this role involves engaging with adults and young people to try and close the bridge between them.
The activities I am involved in at the moment are:
1) Helping designing a youth club from scratch in Bermondsey, this youth club is called Four Squares Youth Club. We helped to gain funding for this youth club to keep young people around this area to be occupied so no nuisance would be made. The youth club contained just chairs and tables; by the end of September it would become a competitive youth club containing a pool table, table tennis table, lounge area and a football table. It is run for five hours from 16.00-21.00. The ages range from 6-19.
2) Street-based, this involves meeting up with young people in the area of south London and helping them stay off the streets. Their details would be taken down and they would be contacted for anything they were interested in like apprenticeships, joining youth clubs, helping them find jobs etc.
3) Spirit Of London Awards, this is work at a voluntary basis, helping designing the website putting in the right information for different boroughs, promoting the capability of the young advisors.
By working as a young advisor, I have learnt to be patient with young people and understanding with adults, there is still a bridge between them however this can be changed the longer the young advisor organisation continues.
Donna Marie Roach
Having lived in Southwark for 19 yrs I've come to understand the importance of community togetherness, hence why I became a Young Advisor. Not only do great networking opportunities arise, but we also have a huge sense of "power" to build bridges between community members as well as organisations.
DTT are a perfect example of community togetherness for they have managed to take a negative, Damilola's death, and turn it right around into a positive, the Spirit of London Awards, a time not only to highlight the positive things young people are doing but to also bring people from all different walks of life and communities together! Thanks to DTT I myself have meet some very wonderful and gifted people, Ebonie Reid- Barlow, Marlon Mellish and last but not least Kolor Skeme who have all had the same impact on my life.
During the run up to last years awards I was working along side Gary Trowsdale on the PR side of things. Now anyone that knows Gary, apart from me at the time, knows how hectic he's schedule can be. Due to this fact myself and another YA not only write the press release but also had to find ALL newspapers from each nominies borough and distribute it to them making adjustments with each one. Despite how bad I try and make it sound it was a really good experience and was just as great working with Gary, so I'll be doing the same again this year.
Before SOLA 2009 I took a gap year out of education as I felt I had lost my sense of direction due to the fact I had not achieved all that I set out to. However, after sitting in on Ebonie, Marlon and Kolor Skeme's interviews I've come to realise that success has more than one route. If one fails you there's all ways the option of trying another. "you can rush it and get it wrong or take time and get it right" (Kolor Skeme). After hearing such wise words I will be returning to education in September to study social work, and this time in gonna get it right!
Temitope Ojo
My name is Temitope Ojo. I have currently finished my A-levels and I am looking forward to studying law at the university. I enjoy being around people of all ages, background and ethnicity, I especially enjoy working with youths and younger people because I believe that young people are the future and are to be supported in every way possible, to achieve their aims and aspirations; in order to have a blissful society. For this reason, I joined Southwark Young Advisors about over a year ago. Young advisor is like an open pathway to unique, lifetime opportunities, which has helped me not only to achieve some of my goals but also to help other young people achieve theirs. For example, being involved in one of our numerous projects called the Street Base Team is enlightening and enjoyable. I get to meet with different types of young people from different backgrounds, listen to their dreams and motivations as well as offer them the information required to achieve what they want.
As Young Advisors we attend various trainings to improve our professional and personal development skills as well as upgrade our professional techniques. For instance we were trained and informed about the nature and expectations of being a young advisor at the Young Advisors Training scheme, we had child protection training so that we can work effectively with young people and younger children, stop and search training (on how to help our local police deliver better stop and search services) and domestic violence training. All of these has being very educational and revealing to me as I have learnt how to communicate effectively with people and I've also gained a deeper understanding of why certain conducts are put in place- mostly for safeguarding. In addition, as young advisors, we work with official members of the public such as the police, youth workers, Southwark council and the Community Wardens. This has increased my level of maturity in problem solving and broadened my perception of life, people and our community as a whole. Participating in last year's Spirit of London Awards was remarkable and a privilege. I met people I have never in my world dreamt of meeting. For example, I worked with one of the top event organisers in London; I met celebrities such as Lemar, JLS, Alexander Burke and Speech.
The most exciting part was being part of the start of something that will continue after my own generation. It was a night to remember and an opportunity to never miss.
Emmanuel Amaefulas
Being a young advisor is more than a job role or a title, it sort of becomes a responsibility even outside of work and this has helped me see things differently. I started working here respectively at the young side of 18 and as I slowly progressed into adulthood I fully felt the difference between my generation and the generation after.
Children need to know that being involved in violence or misdemeanours is not a rite of passage they need to go through to become a respected person amongst their peers, no... making positive steps and adopting what the youths call a "Big man ting" mentality is the right way forward.
We as young advisors spread that message towards the youths and help them build that confidence in them and help release their potential. We also have a youth club every week where kids interact with the police and again they talk and listen to the kids in the local area and this has helped bring the relationship between the local police and the kids closer.
Jacqueline Macaulay
Hiya my name is Jacqueline Macaulay, I am 21 years old and have been a Young Advisor for four years and I am very proud to say was quite recently promoted Senior Lead Young Advisor. In my spare time I am also a student studying law at City University and should fingers crossed be graduating June 2011 so wish me luck. After I finish my degree I intend to continue studying so I can actually practice law by doing my LPC.
In November 2006 when I became a Young Advisor if someone had told me how much being a Young Advisor would change my life I would never have believed it. Being a Young Advisor has changed my perspective on how I look and value my community and made me more proactive in making a difference that hopefully means something. Sadly as human beings we tend to be a little selfish in our nature and not look far beyond our own small worlds. Sometimes we forget that it is not the just the responsibility of the Government to create communities where we feel happy and safe to live, work and play but also our responsibility. Therefore a "broken" community is not necessarily indicative of the failings of the Government but more so the failings of us as a society. Thats why I consider groups like the Damilola Taylor Trust, Families Utd and of course the Young Advisors to be so inspiring because of all amazing work they are doing to better and empower our community. Projects such as the Streetbased Team, Sanctuary Project, the Count Me campaign, the Stop and Search Training program are just a few of the many things these groups are doing to make a real change in our society
The SPIRIT OF LONDON AWARDS 2010 will be AMAZING!!! Its is something different and new and for once it is something that not only acknowledges but celebrates on a grand scale the achievements of young people across London. We're gonna have amazing performances and it will definitely be a night to remember. So get involved, nominate a young person who you feels deserves some positive recognition or do something that makes a difference to where live, work or play, leave an imprint worth remembering.
Young Advisors are "voices of tomorrow making changes for today". Personally I think we can all make a difference.
