Big Society's Big Mouth Powered by v

Over the last few months I’ve watched with interest the growing participation in Big Society’s Big Mouth but more importantly, the emerging themes and concerns of participants. The contributions have been magnificent, thought provoking and challenging. I hope to comment on some of the dominant issues as the project comes to its natural end. The first topic I want to reflect on is the high level of concern about education and employment. With one in five of the age group unemployed and the recent changes to education fees and maintenance allowances it is perhaps not surprising.

There are however a large number of young people who appear to have actively disengaged from education, employment and training and I’m truly interested to hear more from them or about them. At a recent meeting with the Director General of the CBI he said that employers are really concerned for those young people who appear not to be ready for or interested in work and employers say they are ready and willing to put solutions in place if only they knew what they were! He asked me the question ‘what do young people tell v about why they ‘drop out’ or just actively disengage? Well, why do you ‘drop out’? What is it that leads you to reject education and work? Or have they got it all wrong and you don’t ‘drop out’, they’ve misunderstood and you just can’t get in?

Of great importance too are the questions: ‘what could employers usefully do to make getting into work easier?’ and ‘what could schools and colleges do to make staying in education a more attractive option?’.

Feel free to voice your opinion in the true tradition (albeit a short one) of BSBM!

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A parliamentary outreach event was hosted by v on the 23rd of May 2011 at Parliament Street, London. This was made possible via the v initiative: ‘Big Society’s Big Mouth’ campaign to enlighten young people about the roles and functions of the parliament in our country.
The outreach was attended by several young people from different parts of the country. Some came from Newcastle, others from Leicester, Kent, and some within London, and it included mainly 16-25 yr. olds with interest in the political process of the country.
The day kicked-off with a presentation from Hannah Roberts: a House of Commons officer; talking about what constitutes the UK parliament, how it works, the roles of the two houses (House of Commons and House of Lords), and the role of the monarchy in daily parliamentary activity. The session was very interactive as several people in the room had various questions to ask, which was concisely answered by Mrs Roberts. There was a break-out session where everyone was put in four groups consisting of about 5 people. This was done so each group could carry out the activity given to them after the presentation effectively. Each group was asked to list the different stages it takes for a bill to become law after it has gone through both Houses of Commons and Lords. They were given cards with every bill stage written on them and were told to arrange them in order of relevance.
Free lunch was provided after the morning session. This time also made it possible for everyone to mingle with each other and get to connect well as most of the young people who attended and were in the activity groups were meeting each other for the first time.
The afternoon session saw a presentation from Tracey Herald and Kate Oldroyd: staff members from v about campaign tools and techniques young people can employ in influencing government’s parliamentary decisions. This also led to another group activity where each group was asked to pick a topic that is affecting young people in our nation today, and show how they would campaign to make a change in that sector. Each group was numbered from 1-4, and group one came up with a very interesting topic about ‘making provisions for young people to be politically aware in the society and encouraging them to get more involved in politics’. The campaign here was to make politics a compulsory subject in secondary schools just as Maths and English. The tool they came up with is to gather government support into passing a law which will make politics a compulsory subject. The reasons they gave for their proposition was that it is important for young people to take up interest in politics because whatever decisions the government makes will affect them directly or indirectly. Other people from other groups argued that politics is already compulsory in secondary schools but that it is under the guise of citizenship education. However the point that was driven home by group one was that politics should be treated with the level of relevance that Maths and English enjoys if more young people are to become actively involved and aware of affairs that concerns the government.
The day finished with a group photograph and each participant in the event was given a certificate for attending and a gift pack to take home.
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