A league of young voters
Brief Description
The workshop was designed to encourage and motivate young people to vote in the up and coming General Election taking place in the UK on the 7th May 2015. There is already a national campaign in the UK called League of Young voters that shares the aim on increasing young peoples participation in election processes and the workshop delivered linked into this campaign that hopes to change the low turnout of young voters in elections. Only 2 in 10 young people under 24 used their vote in the European Elections in 2014.
The main aim of the workshop was to inspire and inform a group of young people to become Democracy Champions so that the reach of the workshop would be wider as young people would share their learning with peers at school and within their communities. We wanted to encourage young people to register to vote so that come the May 2015 election they were ready to fully participate and to exercise their right to vote, but more importantly we wanted to create a group of young champions who would use their influence with peers to encourage other young people to participate in election processes within the UK.
The workshop:
· Informed young people of the Idea-C project
· Provided opportunities for young people to explore why voting is important
· Demystified the registration process for young people
· Emphasised the power young people have when they engage in electoral processes.
Workshop activities were purposely interactive to make them engaging and fun. To reinforce the message of empowerment the workshops were co-delivered by young people from Oldham’s Youth Council.
The workshops were held in the Civic Centre in Oldham, this was chosen to introduce young people to the building which houses democracy for the town and to enable young people to build a relationship with the physical base of decision making in the Oldham.
Activities were designed to enable young people to have:
· The opportunity to discuss key youth Policy Issues.
· The opportunity to explore how Government money is spent and how these decisions are made
· To look at how decisions are formed, what can influence our ideologies and how we can challenge common misconceptions and make truly informed decisions when it comes to democracy within our lives.
Methodology Used.
Recruitment of Participants.
Contact was made with local schools and colleges to invite participants to the workshops. We contacted specific tutors who were responsible for delivering politics or citizenship lessons so that we could attract young people who would be most interested in the theme.
Designing the Workshop.
As Oldham Youth Council are already involved in campaigns promoting young peoples active citizenship and involvement in democracy we worked with members of the Youth Council to design the workshop, drawing on their knowledge of what young people would best engage with. Two of these young people would also be workshop leaders to reinforce the message that young people are leaders in our communities and have an important role to play in democracy.
Workshop Delivery
Presentation
The workshop began with a presentation outlining the IDEA-C programme, key messages around the importance of democracy and active citizenship and key facts about the lack of engagement of young people. The presentation included a short 2 minute film made by the National League of Young Voters Campaign about why young people should vote.
Ice Breaker
We delivered a short ice-breaker exercise so that participant could introduce themselves. This was a name game that involved participants introducing their names and telling the group an interesting fact about the area they lived in.
Activity 1
This activity was called vote with your feet. It aimed to get everyone in the room to share their views and opinions. The game highlighted that being registered to vote makes your opinions more valued and harder for decision makers to ignore.
Before the activity began 25% of the participant were given a sticker to wear but not told why.
The rules of the activity were:
· Respect everyone’s right to be different
· You can change your mind after hearing others views and move sides!
Participants were asked to stand up in the middle of the room. At the right side of the room was an A4 sign that said Agree and the left side of the room was an A4 sign that said Disagree.
Workshop leaders read out a range of statements about topical issues and participants were asked to go to the right side of the room if they agreed with the statement, the left of the room is they disagreed and if they were unsure they could stay in the middle.
Examples of statements:
· Political education should be taught to all school age children
· University fees should be lowered
· The voting age in the UK should be 16 year
· The UK is stronger for being part of Europe
After each statement had been read, participants voted with their feet and the group leaders facilitated discussion asking participants to share the reasons for their voting position. This led to some debate and enabled young people to explore and listen to a range of views and opinions on key issues.
After 4 statements had been read out, those without a sticker were asked to sit down. Only those with a sticker could continue with the activity and workshop leaders read out a number of statements asking the young people still playing, to vote. Those without a sticker could not vote or contribute to the discussion.
At the end it was explained to participants that if this group represented the whole of the youth population in the UK who are eligible to vote, those with a sticker are the young people registered to vote and those without are not registered to vote, highlighting that not being registered to vote excluded you from the decisions being made.
Activity 2
This activity was called show me the money. The aim of this activity was to get participants to understand how money is spent and how decisions are made at a Government level
In groups participants were instructed that they were now the Government. They had a budget of £100 to split between all areas of government outlined on a sheet that was provided. They had 5 minutes to decide how they would allocate the budget. There were no limits to how they spent the budget across the areas but they had to spend it all. The group were informed that the £100 is representative of the total money Government has available and in reality the total amount is vastly greater that £100.
After 5 minutes each group fed back how they had allocated their budget and why – looking at where they spent most/least money and what process they used to make the decisions.
After the feedback the groups where informed that due to an economic crisis £30 had been cut from the budgets. They now had only 3 minutes to adjust their budgets and make the reductions.
After the 3 minutes the group feedback the new budget allocations and shared how they had made these decisions. As part of this discussion the workshop leaders shared some information about the impact of their cuts. So for every pound from the budget you cut the impact will be….
Some examples:
· For every pound cut from education 201 primary schools will close
· For every pound cut in welfare and benefits – 72,581 people would be living in poverty
Workshop leaders debriefed the participants after this activity by explaining that if you have decisions to make that involve giving someone something your more likely to give that to someone who you see all the time, someone who has an influence in your life… so when Governments are making decisions they are more likely to take into consideration the needs of the people who actually vote for them.
Activity 3
Registering to vote. Participants had the opportunity to complete the registration form for the electoral register and all those eligible did.
They were also then asked if they would become League of young voters champions and workshop leaders outlined what this would involve.
The workshop leaders then led a brief evaluation that asked participant to share what they felt they had learned form the workshop. They were asked if it had changed their attitudes to voting and being part of democracy. They were also asked to share ideas about what they felt would encourage young people to get involved more.
Target participants involved
· 14 Young people aged between 15 – 24years
· Residents in Oldham
· Male and female
Results and recommendations
The activities clearly demonstrated that young people have an appetite to be involved in politics and democracy. They all fully engaged in the activity debates and had contributions to make. Many of the young people shared that they felt this was the first time they felt their opinions were being listened to and that they wanted more opportunities to participate in activities that explored democracy and active citizenship.
Through evaluation discussions with participants we were able to identify the following outcomes from the workshop.
· Raised awareness of democratic processes within the UK and Europe.
· Increased engagement of young people in active citizenship.
· Understanding of the role of the EU in the lives of young people in the UK.
· An understanding of how decisions are made.
· Participants were empowered to use their learning to influence others and to promote active citizenship with their peers.
· All 14 participants stated they were more likely to vote as a result of participation in the workshop.
· All 14 participants stated they would encourage others to register to vote and to participate in the electoral process.
As a result of the workshop the local college have requested input from the Youth Council in their Citizenship and Politics lessons. Inviting the Youth Council to come and replicate the workshop with students at the college in the future as well as giving a presentation to the students about the work of Oldham Youth Council.
If we want to ensure that Young people are fully participating in democracy we need to ensure that they have opportunities to participate in workshops exploring these issues within their schools and colleges. We also support the idea of having political education built into the Education Curriculum for all young people. It was clear from the evaluation with young people that this is something they would like to see implemented.
The workshop was designed to encourage and motivate young people to vote in the up and coming General Election taking place in the UK on the 7th May 2015. There is already a national campaign in the UK called League of Young voters that shares the aim on increasing young peoples participation in election processes and the workshop delivered linked into this campaign that hopes to change the low turnout of young voters in elections. Only 2 in 10 young people under 24 used their vote in the European Elections in 2014.
The main aim of the workshop was to inspire and inform a group of young people to become Democracy Champions so that the reach of the workshop would be wider as young people would share their learning with peers at school and within their communities. We wanted to encourage young people to register to vote so that come the May 2015 election they were ready to fully participate and to exercise their right to vote, but more importantly we wanted to create a group of young champions who would use their influence with peers to encourage other young people to participate in election processes within the UK.
The workshop:
· Informed young people of the Idea-C project
· Provided opportunities for young people to explore why voting is important
· Demystified the registration process for young people
· Emphasised the power young people have when they engage in electoral processes.
Workshop activities were purposely interactive to make them engaging and fun. To reinforce the message of empowerment the workshops were co-delivered by young people from Oldham’s Youth Council.
The workshops were held in the Civic Centre in Oldham, this was chosen to introduce young people to the building which houses democracy for the town and to enable young people to build a relationship with the physical base of decision making in the Oldham.
Activities were designed to enable young people to have:
· The opportunity to discuss key youth Policy Issues.
· The opportunity to explore how Government money is spent and how these decisions are made
· To look at how decisions are formed, what can influence our ideologies and how we can challenge common misconceptions and make truly informed decisions when it comes to democracy within our lives.
Methodology Used.
Recruitment of Participants.
Contact was made with local schools and colleges to invite participants to the workshops. We contacted specific tutors who were responsible for delivering politics or citizenship lessons so that we could attract young people who would be most interested in the theme.
Designing the Workshop.
As Oldham Youth Council are already involved in campaigns promoting young peoples active citizenship and involvement in democracy we worked with members of the Youth Council to design the workshop, drawing on their knowledge of what young people would best engage with. Two of these young people would also be workshop leaders to reinforce the message that young people are leaders in our communities and have an important role to play in democracy.
Workshop Delivery
Presentation
The workshop began with a presentation outlining the IDEA-C programme, key messages around the importance of democracy and active citizenship and key facts about the lack of engagement of young people. The presentation included a short 2 minute film made by the National League of Young Voters Campaign about why young people should vote.
Ice Breaker
We delivered a short ice-breaker exercise so that participant could introduce themselves. This was a name game that involved participants introducing their names and telling the group an interesting fact about the area they lived in.
Activity 1
This activity was called vote with your feet. It aimed to get everyone in the room to share their views and opinions. The game highlighted that being registered to vote makes your opinions more valued and harder for decision makers to ignore.
Before the activity began 25% of the participant were given a sticker to wear but not told why.
The rules of the activity were:
· Respect everyone’s right to be different
· You can change your mind after hearing others views and move sides!
Participants were asked to stand up in the middle of the room. At the right side of the room was an A4 sign that said Agree and the left side of the room was an A4 sign that said Disagree.
Workshop leaders read out a range of statements about topical issues and participants were asked to go to the right side of the room if they agreed with the statement, the left of the room is they disagreed and if they were unsure they could stay in the middle.
Examples of statements:
· Political education should be taught to all school age children
· University fees should be lowered
· The voting age in the UK should be 16 year
· The UK is stronger for being part of Europe
After each statement had been read, participants voted with their feet and the group leaders facilitated discussion asking participants to share the reasons for their voting position. This led to some debate and enabled young people to explore and listen to a range of views and opinions on key issues.
After 4 statements had been read out, those without a sticker were asked to sit down. Only those with a sticker could continue with the activity and workshop leaders read out a number of statements asking the young people still playing, to vote. Those without a sticker could not vote or contribute to the discussion.
At the end it was explained to participants that if this group represented the whole of the youth population in the UK who are eligible to vote, those with a sticker are the young people registered to vote and those without are not registered to vote, highlighting that not being registered to vote excluded you from the decisions being made.
Activity 2
This activity was called show me the money. The aim of this activity was to get participants to understand how money is spent and how decisions are made at a Government level
In groups participants were instructed that they were now the Government. They had a budget of £100 to split between all areas of government outlined on a sheet that was provided. They had 5 minutes to decide how they would allocate the budget. There were no limits to how they spent the budget across the areas but they had to spend it all. The group were informed that the £100 is representative of the total money Government has available and in reality the total amount is vastly greater that £100.
After 5 minutes each group fed back how they had allocated their budget and why – looking at where they spent most/least money and what process they used to make the decisions.
After the feedback the groups where informed that due to an economic crisis £30 had been cut from the budgets. They now had only 3 minutes to adjust their budgets and make the reductions.
After the 3 minutes the group feedback the new budget allocations and shared how they had made these decisions. As part of this discussion the workshop leaders shared some information about the impact of their cuts. So for every pound from the budget you cut the impact will be….
Some examples:
· For every pound cut from education 201 primary schools will close
· For every pound cut in welfare and benefits – 72,581 people would be living in poverty
Workshop leaders debriefed the participants after this activity by explaining that if you have decisions to make that involve giving someone something your more likely to give that to someone who you see all the time, someone who has an influence in your life… so when Governments are making decisions they are more likely to take into consideration the needs of the people who actually vote for them.
Activity 3
Registering to vote. Participants had the opportunity to complete the registration form for the electoral register and all those eligible did.
They were also then asked if they would become League of young voters champions and workshop leaders outlined what this would involve.
The workshop leaders then led a brief evaluation that asked participant to share what they felt they had learned form the workshop. They were asked if it had changed their attitudes to voting and being part of democracy. They were also asked to share ideas about what they felt would encourage young people to get involved more.
Target participants involved
· 14 Young people aged between 15 – 24years
· Residents in Oldham
· Male and female
Results and recommendations
The activities clearly demonstrated that young people have an appetite to be involved in politics and democracy. They all fully engaged in the activity debates and had contributions to make. Many of the young people shared that they felt this was the first time they felt their opinions were being listened to and that they wanted more opportunities to participate in activities that explored democracy and active citizenship.
Through evaluation discussions with participants we were able to identify the following outcomes from the workshop.
· Raised awareness of democratic processes within the UK and Europe.
· Increased engagement of young people in active citizenship.
· Understanding of the role of the EU in the lives of young people in the UK.
· An understanding of how decisions are made.
· Participants were empowered to use their learning to influence others and to promote active citizenship with their peers.
· All 14 participants stated they were more likely to vote as a result of participation in the workshop.
· All 14 participants stated they would encourage others to register to vote and to participate in the electoral process.
As a result of the workshop the local college have requested input from the Youth Council in their Citizenship and Politics lessons. Inviting the Youth Council to come and replicate the workshop with students at the college in the future as well as giving a presentation to the students about the work of Oldham Youth Council.
If we want to ensure that Young people are fully participating in democracy we need to ensure that they have opportunities to participate in workshops exploring these issues within their schools and colleges. We also support the idea of having political education built into the Education Curriculum for all young people. It was clear from the evaluation with young people that this is something they would like to see implemented.
