Hi, my name’s Cheska and I’ve just joined UFA as Young People’s Leadership Coordinator. My role is all about empowering and enabling young people’s voices to be heard. As I see it, it is my job to increase the range and scope of young people’s involvement, both within our own organisation and out in the wider community. I’m also hoping to build a lot of networks with like-minded organisations, so we can pool resources, add value to each other and generally achieve more than we could do alone.
My background is in youth work and I get a lot of satisfaction working with young people, because no matter whether the intervention is long or short term, you get to build relationships and see the growth in spirit, capabilities, attitude and confidence played out before you. I’ve held many interesting posts, working with a wide range of young people from differing backgrounds and with diverse needs. I started out working in mainstream and SEN youth clubs, then specialised in Sexual Health and Relationships and delivered Sexual Health workshops in schools and colleges for the Youth Service. I’ve done a bit of nannying, brokered volunteering opportunities and supported young people with VInvolved, worked on an Educational Farm… and my role prior to UFA involved designing and delivering training, workshops and programmes of work for young people and the professionals engaging with them.
I was drawn to UFA because firstly, I identified and agreed with their ethos surrounding young people’s leadership and their belief that authentic leadership opportunities can promote positive growth and confidence (actually, I think this is true whatever age you are!) and that learning should be fun and engaging. If I’m honest, I have fallen out of love with the current schooling system, and I believe that too much pressure is put onto children and young people in an institution that in many cases can be inadequately preparing them for life and work. That’s not to say I don’t understand the pressures and challenges faced by teachers, nor do I discount the care and passion they have for their work and their students. It’s rather that my background in youth work has lead me to work with lots, and lots, and lots of young people who have underachieved, don’t believe in themselves, and have really low aspirations. In many cases this can, in part, be attributed to a method of schooling that did not allow for their personal learning style, interests or needs. I do feel as though not enough individuality is applied to learning and that’s what made UFA stand out to me – the belief in the individual and person-centred learning opportunities for young people. And secondly, I’m a creative person and I think I can really be given my head to expand my skills here at UFA. It’s just that sort of environment!
The biggest challenge surrounding young people’s leadership, I would have to say, is self belief. Whether there are 2 or 2 million opportunities to be involved in leading, shaping and being a part of something, you can only do it if you think you can. And perhaps that’s why we’re here. To empower young people to believe in themselves.
And then create those 2 million opportunities…