On My Bike And Cycling Uphill

Despite the title I’m not, in fact, talking about my sporting pursuits of late. I do have a bee in my bonnet about trying to find a job though.

My current employment contract (last renewed 4 months ago) comes to an end tomorrow and I have been submitting applications at a rate of over one per day for the last two weeks in an attempt to have a job lined up for when I return to the UK at the start of March. Up to that point it’d been a slighter slower, but not insignificant, rate of 1 or 2 a month since I started working on my MA dissertation in the late spring of 2012. I managed to pick up a temporary contract that helped to make ends meet while I finished studying and that has been renewed and continued since. But tomorrow it ends.

I know it could be said that I am in a more fortunate position that many other 22 year old job seekers – my level of education means I’m looking at jobs that do command a salary significantly above a living wage when I finally do get employment. I know that the minimum wage jobs many are desperately seeking just to be earning don’t actually pay enough to live on when you find one – or if they do supposedly ‘per hour’, they don’t come with any guarantees of those hours from one week to the next. I don’t want to bore you with the countless statistics that tell you how many 16-25 year olds are unemployed. What I’m concerned about is how this problem is making people feel.

Every rejection message digs away at your confidence, every unsuccessful interview makes you questions your own abilities, and every time I hear someone say ‘there was another candidate with more professional experience, would you consider doing an unpaid internship with us?’ I actually just want to cry. I’ve been working in office environments since I was temping at 16, I’ve volunteered since I was 12. I’m now 22. I’d like to turn around and ask how I’m meant to have more professional experience than somebody who’s been legally allowed to work for 4 times as long as me – but that would probably do nothing to help me get a job.

I even got turned down for a 3 month paid internship with that organisation I have volunteered for since I was 12 – apparently I didn’t have enough workplace experience… Now, sorry one moment, but I thought that was what an internship was designed for? What you actually wanted was a 3 month temp.

I know that when I fill out application forms, or answer questions in interviews, I sometimes sound a little desperate for a job. And I know that usually costs me the job. But for somebody who desperately wants to work and has been turned down so many times, it’s difficult to want to play this like it’s a game.

Lately I’ve found some employers have this little clause that gives me false expectations. There’s now a little check box that I see more and more: we guarantee an interview to any person with a disability who meets the minimum requirements of the role.  I am a person with disabilities – not significant enough to stop me working, but significant enough that I am affected by them. I have asthma, I have IBS (currently preventing me from eating dairy, egg, gluten, and red meat), I have dyspraxia, but it is dyslexia that I think disadvantages me in this process. Basically, I find filling out forms really difficult – the words and boxes swim across the page and it takes me as much effort to remember my first name as the date and awarding body of my Latin GCSE when it comes to write it in the right place.

So yes I’m grateful of any opportunity to hop to the front of the queue and try to show how I’m the best candidate during an interview. But then I wonder if this gives me false expectations. As I got a bye in the first round am I automatically seeded last before the interview begins? Would I have even been close to the short-list if there wasn’t this positive discrimination box to tick? I still have my doubts.

The disability doesn’t have to be specifically related to form filling, so there’s a big flaw in the concept. For example maybe I’ll find a form that lets you score points for every under-represented characteristic. Maybe something in the STEM industries: I’m female, check, multiple disabilities, check, LGBTQI+, check, went to an inner city primary school, check. Just got to keep my fingers crossed there’s no BME candidate to pip me at the post. Though then I’d in all likelihood end up in a misogynistic and xenophobic environment where actually I’d rather be unemployed than work for them. Let’s change the culture, not the application process. I remain on the fence about positive discrimination.

Time to get back on my bike. A way to make blogging into my own little business is just around the corner, maybe…

A Long Flight But A Good Week

I didn't have time to blog in 2 places whilst I was at the Global Youth Forum, so all my entries from the event itself can be found on the WAGGGS website at http://www.wagggs.org/en/globalyouthforum/blog.

There were some very great things about the event. The thirst for progress and better lives for the members of their communities was evident from all the yougn people who attended.
However I feel one thing was lacking. There was no space to talk about the specific measures that young people are already employing to improve their world. The Bali Declaration - the document coming out of the forum - has lots of broad statements about what governments should do and what the UN should do. And maybe they'll get round to doing that in 10 years time.

So as my follow up action, I want to put these demands in the hands of young people today, to open a platform to discuss what we're already doing, how that can be expanded and built upon, and how we can start seeing the change today.

Join the discussion for 5 days in January on Facebook. You can join the event at https://www.facebook.com/events/534602049885251/ and tell the world about the change you are making, or be inspired by somebody on the other side of the world.
I look forward to seeing you there.

Home is where I hang my Hat

At of the start of November I began a 3 month adventure living in the USA. 2.5 weeks in, I’ve visited 3 states (Maine and New Hampshire, from my base in Massachusetts)…

And now when I come to write the rest of the post we’ve got up to 3 weeks already. Life moves fast when you’re not looking. In the meantime I’ve been working at my new job, figuring out life in a new house/new town/new country, and coming to terms with how life is different when you share your house with a) a dog, and b) a baby niece-in-law.

I have to say that life has probably sped past because the going is good.

Later this week I’ll be swapping the rapidly dropping temperatures of the North Atlantic coast for sunnier conditions over the other side of the Pacific. I’m off to Bali to facilitate and participate in the Global Youth Forum – an event organised by the United Nations Population Fund as part of the 20 years review of the Programme for Action from the International Conference on Population and Development (it took place in Cairo in 1994).

You can find more info about the event at http://icpdyouth.org/ and can take part in this event too – from the comfort of your own home (no jet lag to contend with).

This review process is going to (hopefully) link together with the Millennium Development Goals review process in the lead up to their expiry in 2015. In my mind the best outcome would be a single set of goals for development that thoroughly encompass a human rights based approach and can be applied to address the inequalities in Western Europe as easily as for ensuring basic needs are met in Eastern Africa.

I’ll have more updates (I plan) in the next two weeks.

If I may interrupt you for a moment, Mr Chair…

This was the recurrent theme of the opening for the Youth Session where High Level Panel members asked what we would like to see in the Post-2015 agenda – the framework that will replace the Millennium Development Goals in 3 years’ time. Nick Hartley, Chief Executive of Restless Development (a youth led development organisation), was five times interrupted by young people – myself included – in his attempt to set out a conventional view of what youth need from development. My point of order? ‘Young People need to learn about sex…’

Oh no, Mr Chair, I think you underestimate the situation. My reply started as follows:

“Whilst we do need greater knowledge; more importantly everybody, young and old, need to recognise, understand, and have assured, their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Attitudes to sexuality, sexual orientation and reproductive health are changing and these need to be recognised in the development agenda in order to halt abuses such as early marriage and relationship violence…”

I went on to highlight the issues of sex trafficking and the role of abuse by older men (including teachers) in causing teenage pregnancy, before finishing:

“It’s not just the clinic as a building standing there, but the provision of a confidential, safe space, where visitors, regardless of gender, won’t be judged.”

Michelle Alvarez, another WAGGGS representative in the group, went on to highlight some of these safe spaces provided within Guiding and Girl Scouting. She talked about a Peer Educating project in the Philippines funded by the UNFPA and in which she had taken part. Something similar is gaining momentum in the UK, with the Ministry of Health supporting a project run by our Peer Educators to tackle risky teenage behaviours around sex, alcohol and drugs.

I felt the room was receptive to what I, and all the other young people present, had to say. And the reference of some of our issues, particularly relating to formal and non-formal education, in the plenary meeting with all civil society that followed is a sure sign that notes were taken and a lasting impression made.

On my way out of the building that evening I spoke to one of the staff members who had facilitated this panel meeting in London, and they were brimming with enthusiasm for the issues that we raised earlier in the day. They were also very optimistic that we had set a standard for youth engagement that should be carried on throughout the Post-2015 consultations and panel meetings that will culminate in a report to the Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon, in May 2013.

So please seize this opportunity for youth to shape the development agenda through applying to attend panel meetings, taking part in country consultations, and online at www.theworldwewant2015.org .

After all it is us youth who shall implement and be responsible for the outcomes of these goals.

Speaking Out in Belfast

This weekend I attend the Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland Federation conference in Belfast this weekend, and spoke to an audience of over 1000 women keen to improve the world. I spoke about the WAGGGS 'Stop the Violence' campaign, the Girlguiding UK 'Girls in Action' project and how together we can achieve real change.

I think this may have been the biggest audience I've spoken to so far - but a very kind one as it was almost certain what I had to say would be well received. The proceedings were livestreamed and the video is available to view here.

Later this week I'll be attending the UN High Level Panel for the Post-2015 Agenda meeting in London as a youth participant, I hope to bring you an update from the event!

Redefining Violence

This week has seen the start of the Gender Based Violence Online Discussion, part of the civil society consultation for the framework that will emerge to take over from the Millennium Development Goals after 2015. It’s also only a few weeks since the announcement that the definition of domestic violence will be widened in the UK to include psychological abuse and violence against 16 and 17 year olds from next March. Both of these are good signs of the greater recognition being given to the serious issue of gender based violence.

This is particularly poignant for me this week after an incident where a previously abusive ex-partner of mine attempted to gain access to my Facebook profile information by posing as long lost relative. This fake profile attempted to friend my account, as well as sending requests to dozens of my Facebook friends. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and she’s previously used the information she could access through this connection to stalk me online and in person. Back then I was a naïve 19 year old who used all the courage I could gather to get out of that abusive relationship. I endured nearly a year of harassment after the relationship ended, not sure whether what I was subject to was a crime or how I could prove anything. Because that’s the thing about psychological abuse – it’s not even just blaming yourself, it gets to the point that you start questioning what’s happening to you at all. After almost 12 months of things escalating, I felt I had definite evidence - I told her if she didn’t stop I’d take this all to the police. And I didn’t hear from her again…well until this week.

This time I immediately reported the account through Facebook’s built-in reporting feature and 24 hours later the account was removed from the site. I’ve tightened my security settings too (even more than they were already).

And this is why I’m happy that people are discussing and redefining gender based violence. Yes it does happen in same-sex relationships, yes it does happen all over the world, yes it does happen to young people – relationship abuse doesn’t wait for an 18^th birthday! We need to talk about it so that generations to come grow up knowing what constitutes a healthy relationship, and feel empowered to deal with it as soon as it happens.

Obsessed with Image and Missing the Point

Yesterday I attended the Girlguiding UK Big Gig at the Sheffield Arena with a bunch of girls from my old unit in Peterborough. The atmosphere was amazing with 20,000 girls and their leaders enjoying a show that included JLS, Little Mix and Scouting for Girls. Flashing headwear, tonnes of dry ice, and a combined 5 hours of teenage screaming. Some very tired girls were returned home at the end of the day (me included).

I have to say that it’s one of the most enjoyable concerts I’ve been to recently. There‘s no drunken people behind drenching you in beer by throwing their drink at the stage. There’s no smoker catching you with a lit cigarette as they dance. And there’s no idiot kicking you in the head as they try to surf the crowd, which might not end in a head injury if they’re lucky. And that is what guiding is about – giving girls and young women the chance to take part in the activities they want to in a safe, girls-only environment.

Cue the first news articles today and what does the Daily Mail publish? A story about Little Mix’s trousers. It works through the female acts commenting on how they look (nothing about their music), then mentions the boy bands that “also performed”. I think this comment summarises my feelings about the article:

Who cares what she is wearing. She is performing to a group of girls whose values include not judging people by their appearance. All of the acts made the day amazing for the girls. Where is the report about the benefits of guiding and how the Big Gig is a great way for the singers to show their support. JLS returned for another show this year. Pixie Lott was slated in the press for wearing her Brownie uniform last year, but everyone in the crowd loved it and they are who count. Check out #biggig to see the real reviews.- MC, Lincs

Then comes the Mirror, which I have to say manages a bit of gender equality merely by focusing on all of the acts appearances. With the audacity to say:

Because Little Mix were there, looking all grown-up in super sexy little outfits. What would Brown Owl's equivalent at Guides who we can't remember the name of say to this?

I have to answer that I was far too busy wishing I could sing like these beautiful, healthy women to be bothered about what they were wearing. I suppose it’s debatable, but I wouldn’t use the word ‘little’ to describe what they were wearing (contrasted to the Mail who called one garment ‘huge’). I think they were very sensibly dressed for a performance including dancing…

I have to then commend SugarScope on their honesty:
As well as fanny about on the red carpet, the shiny celebs did some singing too. But, er, we weren’t there and nobody’s put any good videos up yet, so you’ll just have to imagine what that was like for now. Ahh, the joys of serious investigative journalism... *waits to be sacked *

It’s not a new complaint that the press is image obsessed and often more so towards women than men. I just hope that the girls who attended who want to find out what their peers thought follow the comments advice and look up #biggig2012 on twitter and don’t obsess about a few pieces of clothing.

Well done Girlguiding UK on another fantastic event!

A Little Bit of Inspiration

Mark Twain is quoted as saying – “I never let my schooling get in the way of my education”. And having dropped out of school at the age of 13, I have to say a great deal of my education has come from guiding and it has certainly given me an appetite to explore the world. Apparently I was a quiet and shy Rainbow. Who’d believe that now?

I remember being a Brownie, playing games with postcards from far off places, and creating miniature uniforms of other guide associations for thinking day. As a guide I went to Bridges and county events, camping alongside girls from India, Australia and the Caribbean. Come age 14 I went with guiding groups to Switzerland and the Netherlands, before having the confidence to travel to Austria and Ghana on my own.

Fast forward to 2010, and the experience at the first Young Women’s World Forum that really did change my life. That’s when I realise just how easy it is to change the world – especially when you do it through guiding.

At university I’d studied the Millennium Development Goals and read countless dry journal articles reporting the impossibility of meeting these targets, talking about people as numbers, as percentages. They seemed like a distant fantasy of a better life for a far off land.

But that all changed.

200 young women from over 90 countries; gathered in one hotel in Oxfordshire. And the stories I heard about genital cutting is Sierra Leone to pay inequalities in New Zealand made the connection that the goals aren’t about numbers, they’re about people. Even if a project makes a difference to just 1 person, 1 girl or young woman, then we have to do it. Guiding meetings every week, in every country, grow that girl’s confidence by a little bit, teaches her that skill that will come back to her in a moment of need in later life, and gives her friends to call upon for support.

At the Young Women’s World Forum, I met a woman who taught me a lot about inspiration too - Leymah Gbowee. She pretty much ended the civil war in Liberia, aided by her skills as a public speaker. One thing she said was that “small steps, create a huge impact, and leave a lifetime legacy. Small Steps, Huge Impact, Lifetime legacy.” Even the smallest step is a journey, and the best way to take somebody on a journey is with a story…

From there I was inspired to find a way to make a bigger impact and leave an even greater legacy. I utilised what I knew about social media and my network of guiding contacts to campaign through social media, and when I found the opportunity to go to the UN with WAGGGS I emailed the International Commissioner asking her to approve my application.
I got a phone call just before Christmas from CHQ, saying they didn’t plan on sending anybody after bad feedback from previous attendees, but they’d find £500 towards my flight if I’d pay the rest and cover all my own expenses in New York. I had a dream to speak at the UN and a mission to make the world better for girls by sharing the stories I’ve heard. I saved up my wages and student loan, and mid-February I was wandering through central park.

I co-chaired a panel discussion with women from Soroptimist International, analysed texts and lobbied government negotiators. I learnt a lot about international politics and the workings of the UN that week and was thirsty for more.

Earlier this year I went back to the Commission on the Status of Women and then to the Rio+20 conference, both as an Event Co-ordinator for WAGGGS – a more senior role within the delegation where I mentored other young women. I achieved my dream of speaking at the UN, and met many inspiring people along the way.

In Rio, together the representatives of children and young people got Non-formal education – the method of guiding and scouting- into a UN outcome document agreed to by heads of state. And I personally pestered the DEFRA minister, Caroline Spelman, enough to get Sexual and reproductive rights mentioned in Nick Clegg’s speech to the UN. These are great successes that benefit people, and guides in particular, all around the world.

But actually, the most dramatic outcome for me, is that this journey has helped me to understand past events in my own life especially around leaving an abusive relationship and has given me the skills to deal with other experiences.

A project is worth doing even if it helps improve the life of just one person, 1 girl or young woman. At the end of this story, I had originally set out to make the world a little fairer for our sisters around the world, and along the way all those women, you women, have helped me to understand myself. Thank you.

Museums, Non-Formal Education and Gender Based Violence

So my blogging has been lacking for a while - mostly because I returned from Rio to face the reality of just over 2 months in which to write my Master's dissertation. But my work in Rio, and at previous UN events for WAGGGS has come in really handy as I have been writing about museums as a form of non-formal education and how they can work on the social justice issue of gender based violence.

I hope to publish the dissertation in it's entirety on this site once it's been marked - so look forward to that - but it has got me thinking about the relationship between formal, non-formal and informal education and why the latter two might be better mediums for tackling the issue of gender based violence.

Within my dissertation I've included a chapter on what non-formal education providers beyond the museum sector are doing on the issue - citing WAGGGS, AVA and UN Women as examples. And, actually, it was easier to find examples of non-formal projects than where it's tackled within the formal curriculum.

Comprehensive sex and relationship education is not compulsory in England beyond the biological facts which form part of the science curriculum. The government itself approached the issue of teenage relationship abuse through non-formal and informal methods rather than using schools to transmit the messages. You can see this powerful campaign at http://thisisabuse.direct.gov.uk
 
I figure it's because the causes of violence are rooted in social values - and these are more directly worked on with the population at large when you use non-formal and informal methods. Formal education only reaches those currently aged under 18, and gender based violence is most prevalent in the 18-24 age group.

Anyway, the main conclusion that I reach is that non-formal education providers, including museums can have a significat impact when working on social justice issues and the imperative is there for them to engage.

A Queer Perspective on Sustainable Development

I’m sitting on the floor following negotiations on health, education and gender equality paragraphs for the Rio+20 outcome document ‘The Future We Want’. What strikes me is how what these suited people, sat round the table, relates (or completely doesn’t relate) to me.

I’m here in Rio with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, and back home I’m also a member of the Stonewall Youth Panel – the UKs main Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual rights organisation. And I’m sat here thinking ‘I haven’t seen a single person at this event addressing gender and sexual minorities’. I know that, after many nation states walked out of a meeting addressing these issues at the Human Rights Council earlier this year, there’s unlikely to any direct reference in the formal outcome document. However, I haven’t seen a single NGO side event talking about it or an organisation working on these issues directly represented (if they’re happening please point me in the right direction!).

And, I mean, there’s plenty for them to be talking about here on the small number of topics I’m following alone.

Firstly I should say that I think the idea of ‘developed countries’ is a myth – no country is perfect and all are still developing. Countries are in different places, but this linear notion of development is misguided and any support for sustainable development needs to work for ensuring rights and access to services of populations the world over.

Health

There has been extensive discussion (and challenges) of sexual and reproductive health and rights over the last few days but in a most definitely heterocentric and binary gendered fashion – what else would you expect when the Holy See is vehemently  participating in discussions?!

Being young and queer my experience of sexual health provision in the UK has been lacking, and obviously such services are non-existent in the majority of countries. Refusal to administer certain tests for sexually transmitted infections is common – the misconception being that certain diseases can’t be passed between same-sex partners being concluded for the low rates of transmission. On several occasions I have had to assure a doctor of an opposite sex sexual partner before they’ll take my request for STI testing seriously. Heterosexuality is always presumed, with me having to tell a medical practitioner otherwise – usually with the narrow category options of heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual which simple don’t reflect the diversity of sexual minorities.

Hate crime has also had a serious impact on my health as a young person, mentally and physically, and there is no doubt that levels of economic and social development, as well as historical factors, seriously influence the likelihood and severity of such crimes. Within the UK I have faced verbal and threats of physical violence based upon my sexuality and gender identity on far too many occasions. However I have also experienced the much harsher hate violence prevalent in many other countries during a visit to Ghana. Aged 17, I was picked out based on my clothing and mannerisms amongst other things, and subjected to things that no person should ever face…Everybody has a right to live a life free from violence and this is a right denied to sexual and gender minorities on a daily basis. Violence has a dramatic cost – socially, economically and environmentally – and so any programme of sustainable development should seek to address it.

Education

I was buoyed by this article today showing that a UN agency has recognised the specific education barriers faced by gender and sexual minorities, and it makes many important points. Whilst it’s well-known that girls are forced out of school for reasons based around their gender, sexuality and gender identity forces many others out of education to. In the UK, bullying based on my sexuality and gender identity forced me to drop out of formal education at the age of 13. Sustainable development, in all countries should ensure that children can remain in education regardless of any factor of their identity.

Whilst I am heartened by the news of progress that schools who participate in Stonewall’s Diversity schools programme are making in terms of homophobic bullying – I firmly believe that non-formal education has an incredible role to play it is ability to promote shared values of diversity and equality.

Conclusions

I am incredibly frustrated by my position within a group who still don’t have their rights formally recognised within the UN system – one day I hope that gender and sexual minorities will be given the due space and consideration to productively input into international political processes.