The Clarion Ambassador Programme (CAP), funded by Clarion Housing and Arches Housing, encourages young people and residents to take part in youth led social action in their community.
Recruitment
Endeavour reached out to their local primary school, to see if any of their young people would like to be a part of this programme. Initially, there was some interest in being a member of the group, but quite a lot of the young people needed more information to see if it was something that they wanted to be part of. On the first session the room was filled with lots of nerves and uncertainty. This was the first time that the Endeavour staff could talk about the programme to the young people and answer any questions they had. By the end of the session there was lots of interest in being part of the programme and already the young people were coming up with ideas of how they felt they could help their community.
Ideas
The next time that the group met there were some new faces. The young people had been telling their friends and peers about the programme and more people wanted to be involved. This session the young people spent thinking of more ideas of how they could tackle issues in their community, but also improve the lives of the residents. The young people concluded that they wanted to base their work around litter and homelessness. Both of these topics were important to the young people and they had already started having debates about how they could best support these issues.
Litter
The young people wanted to encourage people in their local community not to litter. They decided to make a large banner to hang outside school to deliver the message. The young people wanted to make the banner impactful so decided that they were going to stick litter to the banner to spell out the letters. Not only did they want to make a banner, they decided to go out and litter pick themselves. They were keen to make a difference in the area, but it made them realise just how much litter there was on the floor. This led them to think about the animals living there and how they have been impacted. They decided to make some animals homes in their school garden, where they thought the animals might like to live.
Emmaus
Homelessness was another issue that the young people wanted to focus on improving and supporting. The group teamed up with a local charity who helps the homeless and decided that they wanted to do a fundraiser for them. The group baked buns and cookies to sell in the school playgroup after school. The group raised an amazing £50 for the charity and wrote them letters to tell them the great news. The young people then began to think of other ways that they could help the companions at the charity. The group were keen to do some cooking to donate to the charity. The group came to Endeavour’s training kitchen for the day and cooked some lasagnes for Emmaus. These were greatly appreciated from the charity and they tasted delicious. The young people also made and donated some winter handwarmers for the companions to use.
Training
As well as the initial social action training, the young people complete 2 AQA-UAS awards. These are accreditations that the young people can work towards. Once they are completed the young people receive a certificate for the unit that they have completed. Most of the young people completed a certificate in ‘Planting with support’ as well as ‘Basic Food Skills’.
Other Activities
At Endeavour we deliver lots of outdoor activities and the young people decided that they would like to give canoeing a try. The group had a really fun day out and enjoyed being out on the water, but also began to improve their communication and team work skills. Being in a canoe was something that tested the young people to begin with but by the end their confidence had improve massively. The CAP group also hosted a stall at their summer fayre. They raised money for the school by selling homemade lemonade and homemade slime. They did an excellent job of running the stall, from talking to the customers to counting out the correct change, the young people really excelled themselves.
Impact
Not only have the CAP group impacted the lives of those in their community, but the project has also had a remarkable impact on their own lives. The project has improved the young peoples’ confidence and engagement at school. One of the members of the CAP group said ‘It’s made me realise how brave I am, I never knew I would be able to do this and I have gained so much confidence. I felt I have given back to my community and I would encourage more people to do so. Anyone wanting to take part should remember not to be afraid of not being good enough!’ Whilst another young person described their time on the CAP programme as ‘an amazing experience to learn new skills.’
If you would like to be involved with any Endeavour projects like this please do get in touch!
