One of the many times I've heard, my role model, Leymah Gbowee speak, I remember she said "in order to empower others, you have to give up a little of your own power". In my own little analogy, you won't learn to drive the car if you stay in the passenger seat, yes you might get a pretty good idea of what the press and what to turn, but you won't be able to do it by yourself until you've had a go being in control. Most people do this is a car with an instructor so that if something gets out of hand they can offer guidance and ultimately step in to stop a catastrophe. And that's how we need to teach leadership and decision making - key skills to use in adult life - by giving young people the opportunity to do that in a safe space.
The most recent incident that has vexed me is one on the Girlguiding Facebook page. An opportunity to join a panel called 'team digital' was posted last week - this is intended as a focus group type panel to understand how young women use digital technologies and how we can build Girlguidings digital strategy to best support them. The comments feed was awash with cries along the lines of 'why is this only for 16-25 year olds?' And 'are you saying I'm of no use to girlguiding after the age of 26!'.
Firstly people, stop getting your knickers in a twist. Nobody said your opinions aren't useful and valid. That's why there's a separate digital champions programme that anybody can sign up to! Secondly, it's a programme to find out the behaviours and views of young members and, if you missed that memo, girlguiding defines a young member as any girl or woman up to their 26th birthday. There is no global accepted definition of youth (don't get me started on that one) yes in some quarters it's 30, someone told me it should be 19 and another suggested it went up to 35! The end result of the panel is to find out how young women use digital technology, so the simplest approach to me seems to be to ask the wealth of confident and articulate young women already involved in girlguiding!
The youngest age will be 16 as it's easier to organise overnight unchaperoned meetings with people over this age, but I have no doubt Girlguiding will be involving other young members and adult volunteers in other ways during the process. You may be a youth worker in your day job, but that doesn't make you a young person. Empower young women with the skills to think strategically, make decisions, and utilise digital technologies for positive ends by letting them take on this opportunity.
I know you may think my selfish or hypocritical as I am still 'young', but I know one day the programmes won't be for me any more just like I stopped taking part in the Brownie programme when I was 10. There are plenty of other working groups and volunteer roles in Girlguiding where you can be supported to develop the same skills as an adult volunteer - for one I will welcome you onto our county marketing and communications team to help me manage our website and social media if you would like - I'm happy to have more help!
This reminds me of the situation I have seen time and again in discussions about youth at the UN. Politicians and policy makers speak on behalf of young people, but when young people do finally get the floor, they often have the clearest, most honest, and most powerful things to say. This is why I am particularly looking forward to the World Conference on Youth that I'll be heading off to in 2 weeks, as for one of the first times every, youth from every country in the world will be working with governments to create an outcome document that truly reflects the future young people want. I am excited to be facilitating these discussions and I hope I will be able to enable a few young people to get their voices and experiences heard along the way.
It can and should happen at every scale so, from today, let's make a concerted effort to let the youth speak for themselves!
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