The Citizens Enablement project’s focus on the Vulnerable Young & the Silver Potential dimensions

Of all citizens, the vulnerable young have huge potential waiting to be released, and after changes in further and higher education caused by Covid-19, academics must learn to facilitate their empowerment so they achieve their full capabilities. Similarly, during the pandemic senior citizens have been isolated because they are often thought to be differently vulnerable, due to potential health problems often due to disabilities caused by old age. In spite of this, such elderly citizens also have much potential to help all citizens, and especially the young, developed through life-long learning and their resulting wisdom. This Silver Potential could directly help those who are want to support all citizens, and especially the young, who could then benefit from their knowledge and skills which will often be offered caringly and patiently by those individuals who may well have the time to offer and the willingness to offer help. The latter group, known as the ‘Silver Brain Squad’ by Professor Leif Edvinnson 2020 may also be prepared to offer this learning enablement for little extra reward than actually wanting to help others in their retirement.

Indeed, this present pandemic has given the opportunity for this present development by a group of wise citizens, who were either Leonardo Corporate Learning Ambassadors or part of the PASCAL International Observatory – a global alliance of life-long learning researchers, policy analysts, decision makers, locally engaged practitioners from government, higher education, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector, to suggest the whole process presently presented. And, while both organisations mentioned here focus on issues concerned with all aspects of adult learning related to place, social capital and learning cities and the latter had already developed a programme to promote academic support of a greater enhancement of citizens learning, from which this present proposal has gained succour.

Looking at these two groups and how the project might be used to help citizens enablement:

With respect to the Vulnerable Young Citizens – Academics have the capability to enable young citizens’ self-learning in order to empower them to achieve more for themselves for the future. In the UK, 18.5% of the young are Neither in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs). Society must fully recognise the current needs of this vulnerable group, and by practical means, learn to enact sensible solutions on supporting this urgent issue and related problems. We have shown that the innovative capabilities of both academics and young citizens can be combined to develop an approach that can solve the problems of the latter. And our studies of best practices in related areas, including some with the young, show what can be achieved across a broad range of problems facing citizens. However, we also know that only a bottom-up process, where the young can give voice to their real needs and desires, will lead to success. For significant changes to occur, the values and behaviour of all partners in necessary collaborations must be combined, using a questioning framework, to ensure they share ideas that lead to sensible working practices, and feasible outcomes.

As part of our overall project, it is our hope to create a deep, meaningful and lasting empowerment for all young vulnerable groups in the age range 16 to 25 years, enabling their own self-development, in order to achieve their desired ends. And this is where insightful and willing academics, or other sensitive learning enablers including the Silver Brain Squad, can help by facilitating the young.

By way of example from our existing studies, the Salford Innovation Forum (SIF), revealed in Case Study 9 (in Part II), provides just the facility, with its matching enablers to ensure citizen focused innovation can start, grow and flourish, especially for young entrepreneurs. Similarly, a Community Reporters project, enabled by Peoples Voice Media, developed over 2,000 citizens who are now working across the whole of Europe, with different levels of professional competence, acting in gainful employment with real impact as bona fide commercial reporters; in this project the reporters start by learning how to use anecdotes and stories told by themselves, and others, which proved to be an ‘invaluable way of them making sense of their own experiences, thus providing them with a voice to let out the whirling mass of their inside thoughts’ (Rattray, 2020) and we would therefore use this as yet another process to extend our approach when working with the young. Finally, Barbara Hastings-Asatorian similarly used such tools, alongside our developed questioning framework, when she developed another of our best practice cases, ‘Contraception: the Board Game’; this was developed with young citizens to help other youngsters learn about contraception and sexual health; the Game became a world most well used by the young, saved many unwanted pregnancies, was translated into 3 languages and its enabler was then voted woman innovator of the year.

Turning to the current proposal, Sinead Gormally from Glasgow University has begun to show what is acceptable as evidence in individual’s storytelling which is ‘frequently dismissed as “anecdata” and not really valid.  She shows how stories can and should highlight social injustice and inequality and be used as a tool to inform policy and strategies and approaches. That work with people should be political, have a clear value base and move agendas forward.  Storytelling is not just about an opportunity for individuals to feel “lighter” when sharing burdens but for the whole systems of inequality and injustice weighing down on them to be held up for scrutiny. The reality of this needs to be understood, and we should never underestimate the power of story-telling to bring this to the fore, especially for young people.  When stories are told, we need to listen’. And, as we have said before, through the Community Reporters development we have a proven way of story-telling to many more people than was once possible. And as Kathryn Rattray says, “storytelling is a powerful tool, not just for the teller but also the listener and reader.  Stories are how we learn from each other and what happens to people when shifts happen in their lives.  How the decisions and actions of others can open doors and support new journeys, put a blocks in our roads, take us down paths that we never expected and send us off on what my dad would call a “wild goose chase” in pursuit of something that we thought we could reach but which stayed just around the next corner. Interestingly, the elderly are often extremely good at telling stories which engage and intrigue the young, are prepared to spend the time telling those compelling stories.

Similarly the children and young people’s lives we are looking to support in the proposal, has changed beyond recognition. “Not only have schools and universities closed, but fundamental life events and experiences have been missed. They have made these sacrifices without revolt or complaint”, says Deborah Ralls (University of Manchester), and “we now owe it to them to ask them to help shape the post-COVID world. Many people currently feel powerless and unable to take control over their own lives. But children and young people are among the worst affected by the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. There is, therefore, an urgent need for our national and local governments to become more responsive to the interests of the young, to consult and engage them in collaborative discussion, debate and decision making about the key issues that are affecting them, their families and their communities. Indeed, the UN Inter- Agency Network on Youth Development (UN IANYD) is calling for countries to implement the following measures in order to aid sustainable and equitable global recovery from the pandemic: Building safe and effective partnerships with young people during and after the COVID-19 crisis; Recognising young people’s own actions and their potential to advance the fight against the pandemic; and, understanding the specific impacts the pandemic has and will have on young people, while ensuring that the responses uphold their human rights and are inclusive of young people’s specific needs.

We believe that, rather than forcing them to passively observe the pandemic or submit to policy, young people must be given the opportunity to act as citizens and give ‘voice’ to their needs and wants. But research on young people’s political participation criticises the lack of any real opportunity for them to have a say on social and political issues, and highlights how they have been marginalised and neglected by policy makers. Surely now is the time for policymakers’ engagement with young people to move beyond the traditional approaches of ‘you said, we did’, where power is exercised, and decision-making controlled, by adults?  It is also clear that children and young people’s contributions to policy discussions on COVID-19 raises wider questions about the UK’s conceptualisations of democracy and citizenship. Some argue that youth non-participation and the political inequality it engenders have significant consequences, including social inequality. Evidence shows that over recent years policy is becoming less responsive to the interests of young people, with policies developed in favour of high-turnout groups such as the over-65s.

Our approach is also timely following on from this, as we pass hopefully through the worst of Covid-19, and as citizens, communities and even governments are waking up to the issue we have seen for some time. So, for instance, in September, the mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham’s Task Force on this issue, reports back with its recommendation to form a ‘Young Person’s Guarantee for Greater Manchester; it will focus on helping them: keeping connected; staying well; preparing for the transition to work and/or education; and reducing economic inequalities. Furthermore the Royal Society of Arts is showing similar leadership with its ‘Bridges for the Future’, the British Government is beginning to consider this vulnerable group, and the World Economic Forum is suggesting  a powerful series of its own supportive programmes. Our suggestions therefore feeds on from these and shows a practical solution to the issues based on over 20 years of exploration and hundreds of best practice examples of our cost-effective approach.

So, this is the context, part of the present proposal seeks to involve Academics (from Further and Higher Education), and others like minded Learning Enablers, to work with Vulnerable Young Citizens to produce  solutions to cope with just some of the following key needs and support for: the key in our new project will be to actively listen to the needs and wants of the young 16-25 year olds and to help them embark on new challenges, with confidence and enjoyment. Our hope is the approach we have developed will lead them to fulfil their aspirations and just some of the things we might explore with them include: 21^st Century skills including social, soft, emotional and entrepreneurial skills; innovation & creativity; second chance opportunities in technology and commercial skills; digital inclusion; mindful learning; integration in society; literacy skills; learning to know; learning to do; learning to live together; learning to be; gainful alternative employment; care leavers development post-18; community engaged scholarship; coping with disabilities and disadvantage, risk, protection, vulnerability and resilience etc. But, and we stress this most sincerely yet again, it will be most important for those enabling the vulnerable young, to tackle the problems and issues they perceive to be theirs and what they want to tackle. We also believe all young people have their own capabilities, but often they have not been in environments where these capabilities can be drawn out and allowed to shine through. They are bright in their own way, but are perhaps as yet unqualified, they are innovative yet constrained by their existing circumstances, and often lack the confidence even to start to take control of their own destinies.

So, our ambition is for our Learning Enablers to respond to the needs of the young as expressed by themselves and to use their skills to ensure Young Persons’ Citizen Enablement in a world which is no longer simple, predictable, orderly and defined, because the future is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. This will require those with skills, who want to help young citizens, to think more systematically and systemically, about how we might drive changes where the enablement/empowerment needs to be personally contextualised. And this is at a time when education often seems increasingly narrow in what it offers, down to the lowest common denominator, for reasons of economy. In particular, we will have to use our improving teaching and learning skills, resulting from meaningful research, to lead citizens towards learning to learn for themselves.