I'm 21. I'm a massive nerd about my course, work part time in a rather nice student job, do a lot of extracurricular and voluntary activities and have met a wide range of prestigious leaders from a variety of fields. I thought this was pretty impressive. Then I heard about what a friend of mine, Dan Bridgewater, has been up to.
I know Dan through the UpRising Leadership programme, he's in his first year at uni and I've known for a while that he's working on a social enterprise aimed at making theatre companies in schools called the Fourth Wall Theatre Network. He's a pretty motivated, entrepreneurial guy so I figured it'd be pretty good but I've got to admit, after attending the launch of The Fourth Wall Theatre Network at the Custard Factory on Thursday, I was really impressed.
The Fourth Wall Theatre Network is a group of young people, lead by Dan, who aim to create a network of sustainable theatre companies within schools. The team offer a variety of competitive packages which involve them coming into schools, offering 24 weeks of a couple of hours of drama and business workshops per week and offering a small group of interested 'leaders' within the school 4 weeks of mentoring and leadership training to enable them to set up their own theatre company. At the end of the programme the kids put on a showcase of whatever drama they decided to create and, depending on which package the school selects and pays for, even get to keep a portion of the ticket sales. And on the subject of fees The Fourth Wall Theatre Network's top package costs just a minuscule £500, not bad for 28 weeks of stuff!
To me, it's a really great idea. It teaches kids invaluable skills at every level, whether they are interested in performing, lighting, set design, costume, producing, directing, setting up a business or anything in between it provides opportunities for young people to take initiative and learn how to lead. It's not just about a nice bit of drama, it's about creating leaders and giving kids the skills they need to make it in this tough economic climate, whilst having a lot of fun in the process.
What Dan and his team have put together isn't just good for a group of young people, it's good full stop. The business plan makes sense on every level and what they've come up with is both original and good value for money. There's no one doing exactly what they are in Birmingham and the equivalent cost per hour of drama workshops offered by their nearest competitor would be close to £4000 where The Fourth Wall Theatre Network's top package is a mere £500.
It's pretty awesome stuff! And if you fancy finding out a bit more about who these guys are and what they can offer for schools check out their website http://www.fourthwalltheatre.co.uk
So I didn't win the women's officer election...and I've decided that in between my job, extra curricular stuff and desperately attempting to end my final year on a first (could happen?) I maybe don't have time to organise a week of women's rights events from scratch, figure out the non guild officer/council member paperwork protocol and recruit a team of helpers to organise and run it on the day just before my dissertation is due in. So, sadly, International Women's Week is off...unless someone else wants to do it?
On the plus side I very much intend to continue campaigning for women's rights by joining in with some lovely external projects. But more on that later, this post is about the BAP.
Ok. What's the BAP?
Well it's the British American Project, a gathering of rather successful individuals aged under 40 picked from both sides of the Atlantic for their already impressive achievements and potential to accomplish a heck of a lot more.
So, as I'm sure you can imagine, after being told that the wonderful UpRising programme had joined forces with the BAP to offer specially selected UpRisers (including myself) an opportunity to meet these fabulous people in a day of networking and 'speed mentoring' I was just a little bit intimidated...but mostly quite excited. Particularly after being sent the 92 page document containing their rather impressive biographies.
Last Saturday myself and a group of other Birmingham UpRisers made our way up to London to meet the BAP. Our journey was full of delays (thanks network rail) but the event was brilliant.
The vast majority of the event consisted of 'speed mentoring', where one UpRiser was assigned two or three members of the BAP and asked a series of questions about their experience, interests and ambitions. After fifteen minuets a whistle was blown and the UpRiser had to move to the side of the room for a couple of minutes while the BAP'ers filled in a feedback form about how the UpRiser presented him or herself. Then the UpRiser had to pick another group of BAP'ers and the process started all over again.
For me, it was a really worthwhile experience. Members of the BAP come from so many different professional backgrounds and their own personal journeys are so diverse that each grouping had different advice to offer and new perspectives on my ambitions, goals and potential.
Stand out conversations for me include:
- Discussing the ridiculous nature of policy creation in Westminster with Murphey Cobbing (BBC radio producer), Tim Nuthall (Media Manager of the European Climate Foundation) and Robert Wilton (diplomat and writer of short stories and essays on politics and history)
- Hearing amusing tales of entrepreneur Paige Davis's family conferences and feedback sessions experienced as a small child, in her words 'looking back it was kind of controlling but it bred entrepreneurial spirit into me'
- And last but certainly not least, chatting to former apprentice Tim Campbell and International Director of CBI Rhian Chilcott. I'm very interested in potentially getting into lobbying on behalf of business groups one day so to talk to someone with Rhian's great mass of experience was just brilliant. Especially once Rhian explained that she didn't start off working for business groups but in fact a feminist pressure group, lobbying for more women in parliament. Her advice was that, wherever I think I want to end up, I should start by trying to work on things that I care passionately about because I'll try harder, work longer and build up more experience, expertise and contacts then if I just do something I'm not so fussed about. It's pretty good advice! And has certainly got me thinking about some more specific organisations and areas I'm going to apply to work in after uni.
There was of course lots more great advice received, interesting people met and stories recounted but what impressed me the most about the BAP was their approachable sense of enjoyment. They were having fun. They bantered with the 'master of ceremonies' Olly Barrett, joked between themselves and confessed to going out the night before and intending to again that night. They provided serious advice, without appearing too serious and unapproachable themselves.
So in short I really enjoyed the UpRising - BAP event and hope that if I'm ever successful enough to get invited to join a similar network, I'll be able to offer other young people as much good advice as the BAP'ers offered me...at least I hope I'll still be saying that when I receive my feed back forms later this week :s
I’m running for Women’s Officer at University of Birmingham!! So here’s a quick blog post to let you know what I’m all about and what I plan on doing if I win.
As you UofB’ers may have noticed the Women’s Rights movement within the University of Birmingham is pretty dead. No one at all ran for Women’s Officer in the first round of elections last academic year and even now in the by-elections there are only two candidates standing for it.
I want to change all this.
I first found out that we don’t currently have a Women’s Officer by accident. I’ve been working on organising a week of events surrounding International Women’s Day in March for a couple of months now and I figured the best way to get it off the ground with the guild would be to get the Women’s Officer on board. At which point I was told there wasn’t one.
To begin with I was pretty shocked but then I realised, if it hadn’t been for unfortunate events in my own life (see the post below) I wouldn’t particularly care about women’s rights either. It’s hardly a well-publicised area of concern and the crazy feminist stereotype (unfairly in my opinion) associated with campaigning for Women’s Rights is pretty off putting for most people. So I decided ‘you know what, this is something I care about and I really believe I can make a difference’ and I’m running for it.
In the UK recently released statistics show that female managers are paid an average of £10,000 less a year then male colleagues doing exactly the same job. This is technically illegal and recent legislation now means that all employees have the right to ask what their colleagues are being paid. If I win the election I will organise some workshops on ‘How to Be Assertive in the Workplace’ teaching women how to find out if they are being treated unfairly and what to do about it.
The second most frequently reported crime in the UK is domestic violence. An average of one in four women will experience domestic abuse in their life time. If I win the election I will promote domestic abuse charities around campus with the aim that, if a woman in this establishment encounters abuse they know where to go to get help. I will also raise awareness of organisations working with men who are afraid of becoming abusers. Often abusers don’t set out to be violent to their partners and if I can help make them aware of where to get help before it is too late I think it’d be in the best interests of the whole university community.
Around the world there are many issues affecting women; from forced marriage to gendercide in China and India to FGM and sex trafficking. In the week surrounding International Women’s Day (8th March) I will organise a week of events, working with both external charities and university societies, to raise awareness of a different gender inequality issue each day and fundraise for selected charities. I've already started contacting university societies and have found a selection of charities and brummie business women and journalists who are interested in supporting this idea and working together to make this event a reality. It was through starting to organise this that I first found out that there wasn't a Women’s Officer so, even if I don’t win the election, I will still try and run this event…though of course being Women’s Officer would definitely make the paperwork a lot easier!
So that’s what I want to do and I hope you agree that ‘Henrietta is Better’ for Women’s Rights and Vote Henrietta between October 24th and 28th!!
Today I met Nick Clegg. I'm not joking. Thanks to the amazing UpRising programme I was invited to take part in a presentation on said programme to the Deputy Prime Minister.
When I was told I was going to be doing this I assumed that the venue would be some massive conference hall and the UpRising Alumni Advisory Board would just shuffle on stage, say our bit, be vaguely acknowledged, get a brief round of applause and shuffle off again before a representative from another programme took the floor and the discourse moved on. I couldn't have been more wrong.
The event took place in the intimately small Nomad Room at the Custard factory and a relatively entourage free Nick Clegg sat front and centre, mere feet from those presenting. On top of this Nick, who has been a patron of the UpRising programme for the last three years, revealed that not only was this the first event he's attended in Birmingham this visit (before even his own party conference) but in fact the only non party related event he's going to be going to. And that's not for want of invitations. It was also being filmed and beamed out live to BBC and Sky News 24.
There was a brief introduction from Zehra Zaidi, the brilliant Birmingham UpRising co-ordinator followed by the UAAB presentations in which I took part (and sneakily managed to promote the gender equality project I'm working on). At this point I should probably explain what the UAAB is: it's the UpRising Alumni Advisory Board: the board is made up of committed UpRisers who were selected out of a range of applicants for their dedication to the programme, we now work with the organisers to act as a sounding board for the programme and represent UpRisers at amazing events like this.
The UAAB presentations took the form of each of us talking for 2minutes about what the programme means to us and what our best moments from it were. Each did ourselves proud (if I do say so myself) but the highlights for me were Michael Olajide talking about his journey from Nigeria, to innercity London to Birmingham and the UpRising programme, Jessica Woodley talking about the programmes dedication to diversity and how coming from a mixed race, working class, innercity background it's helped her believe in herself and her own potential and Daniel Bridgewater talking about how its helped him gain the confidence, know-how and networks to set up his own company/social enterprise: the North Wall Theatre Company before he's even started uni. Their stories really summed up what UpRising is all about.
Then it was Nick's turn; he offered his response to the programme and, after a couple of pre-selected questions from chair and UAAB member Mobeen Amin, he opened the Q&A session up to the floor. Prior to the event we'd been told that all questions had to be cleared by his office first. In fact just before he arrived we were given a sheet of paper with said questions on and told to hand them out to other non-UAAB UpRisers to ask. So you can imagine my surprise when, instead of merely taking questions from the designated people he just picked whoever had their hand up, including me. I wont bore you with the details of all that was asked and said (I believe the event went out live on BBC and Sky News 24 so if you're interested I'm sure you can dig out the whole thing somewhere) but I will give you some edited highlights:
In response to my question of 'the latest statistics show 3/4 of those convicted in the recent riots already had numerous criminal convictions, what do you think the government can do to identify wayward individuals, preferably after their first offence, and educate them and help get them out of that lifestyle and involved in their communities before they become habitual offenders?' (originally even more poorly phrased and in a nervous manner of course) Nick told us about his views, some of which are already being made into policy:
- He agreed with the need to educate, not just condemn and abandon convicts calling the current prison system 'university for criminals...all it does is churn out better more hardened criminals'
- Stated that 'all prisoners are now met on release by someone whose job it is to keep them on the straight and narrow, the coalition government pays for them'
- And talked about wanting to implement 'restorative justice' whereby criminals are forced to meet their victims, apologise and help rebuild their lives. He also talked about putting criminals to work, paying them a wage and teaching them skills but having a portion of their wage go into a 'victims fund'
- He stated that whilst it is important to help criminals so they don't repeat offend, you can't overlook the fact that they have committed a crime and should be punished accordingly, and you can't ignore those who come from tough backgrounds and don't commit crimes; they should get just as much, if not more extra help.
In response to questions about how to improve the diversity of political parties, both ethnically and in gender terms, he stated:
- He couldn't agree more, the major political parties are too much like him 'pale and male' and he's implementing programmes within the Lib Dems to try and address this issue within his own party
And of course there were the inevitable questions about education and tuition fees:
-Whilst he didn't necessarily defend the obscene hike in tuition fees he did say that he hoped it would do some good to the country; he believes that we place far too much importance on academic qualifications and we should also be focusing on sorting out vocational qualifications which he referred to as currently being a 'spaghetti' like 'mess' and 'mistrusted by employers'.
- He brought up a new coalition policy which provides all very young children 15 hours free pre-schooling a week to help take some of the strain off working parents and give them a better start in life. (In my opinion it's a damn good policy and, bless him, he clearly thought so too saying 'I wish the people would talk about some of our other policies like this one sometimes')
Overall Nick Clegg came across as a really nice guy. During the speeches he was attentive and I know that during mine whenever I made eye-contact with him he smiled encouragingly, which was much appreciated given the pre-presentation nerves I'd been suffering from! He even made jokes about his own and the lib dem's reputation commenting 'Up Rising would a be good slogan for my party given what's happening to us at the moment!'. And even without all that, he took an hour out of his obscenely busy schedule just to come and talk to us. After the event he made no attempt to network with prominent individuals, promote his own policies or anything like that he just posed for some photos with us UpRisers and left. Admittedly, having some nice soft press about how Nick cares about young people may of been part of his motive for coming, but it certainly didn't come across like that. He seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself and eager to meet and help inspire young people, as well as support the UpRising programme as a whole.
So in short, whatever his successes and failures in parliament, when it comes to personality I like Nick Clegg. And regardless of his motives, the media coverage he's afforded the UpRising programme just by meeting with us will do a heck of a lot of good when it comes to recruitment and finding funding. Ta Nick!
H.B.
x
Oh for a brief bit of news footage covering the event check this out:
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to meet Lord Digby Jones for coffee with a few of my fellow UpRisers.
I was very excited about this event. I've been organising it for months. So you can imagine my self-directed annoyance when I managed to cock up the time of the meeting, telling two of my fellow UpRisers that the meeting was to begin at 3pm...when actually it was 2pm (with the relative chaos I returned to from Europe at home and uni I suppose something had to give, but that was a pretty big mistake to make :s ). Fortunately I like to be early, a whole hour early in fact so I managed to contact everyone and disaster was averted.
From that less then promising start the meeting turned out to be a total success. For those who don't know Lord Digby Jones is a very successful businessman, originally hailing from Alvechurch just outside of Birmingham. He's proven his mettle, and business know how, in a variety of fields starting in law with Edge&Ellison (1980-2000), moving on to public affairs as Director General of CBI (2000-2006) and leaping into politics as Minister of State for UK Trade & Investment (2007-2008). He was knighted for services to business in 2005 and made a life peer in 2007. He's also a surprisingly down to earth and friendly guy with a passion for socially inclusive business and a palpable love for his country and its business sector.
The conversation flowed easily and after giving a brief introduction to what the UpRising programme is, does and what it aims to achieve we moved on to a general chat about how to set up a business before a question and answer session on a wide range of topics. So much was discussed, in fact, that picking out a few key points and interesting responses is pretty tough, but for me the most memorable moments were:
1) Fellow UpRiser Brook Simons-Akwah is in the process of setting up a brand new business/social enterprise aimed at helping young entrepreneurs set up their own businesses by working with the council to utilise empty shops and offices. UpRiser Daniel Blyden also runs his own business (YEP Media http://yepmedia.co.uk/). They wanted advice on what it takes to make a start-up business a success. Over the course of the discussion Lord Jones provided some very clear and to the point advice:
-'It takes bloody hard work. I've worked my balls off every day of my life and I still do’
-‘The people who make things look easy work harder, prepare more, and leave nothing to chance'
-‘You’ve got to have confidence …every day I look in the mirror and think “my god I love you” …the inappropriately named ‘soft’ skills are important, nobody likes a limp handshake’
2) Given Lord Jones's experience as a leader in a variety of fields I was interested in what he thought about free leadership programmes, such as UpRising and what skills he thought they should be teaching. His response was very interesting, not least because of the very precise and technical nature of the skills he thought were important:
- ‘[programmes like UpRising are] extremely worthwhile, but they are only worthwhile if they operate on three levels: the first is if they get young people talking and understanding risk in business, the second is that they bring bright minds together and the third is if they have clearly stated aims and know what they want to achieve’
- ‘[they need to teach young people] how to write a business plan, get them understanding capital and cash flow…they need to understand that they have to deliver and have discipline’
3) Earlier this year Lord Jones published a book entitled ‘Fixing Britain’ detailing his views on what Britain needs to do to improve its economy and skill up its work force (I recommend giving it a read, it’s surprisingly interesting and easy to absorb). Whilst certain sections talk a lot of sense I had to query a few – namely one section where he proposes increasing the number of male primary school teachers by offering them higher wages than women and another where he proposes freely encouraging trade with countries that, shall we say, don’t exactly have the best human rights track records – so I asked: how far should businesses take into account moral and social problems in their actions? And I again received a typically candid response:
-‘I believe in social inclusive wealth creation…Businesses can take all of society with them’
-‘Business is the most important part of our society…Only businesses create revenue for the government in the form of taxes paid on their profits and employees’ wages…the taxes they pay pays for the NHS and the public sector. But business has a responsibility to train its people…The bankers had it wrong, business has got to take those at the bottom with them’
-‘23% of single mothers have never lived with a man…85% of primary school teachers are female…boys need strong male role models because if they don’t when an older boy asks them to join his gang he becomes the role model, you may disagree with it but we need more men in teaching and one incentive that works is money.’
-‘Business encourages human rights…if the Western World hadn’t been trading with China, if we hadn’t let them host the Olympics its citizens would have even less freedom…It’s different for different nations: where they need us more than we need them we can impose sanctions but if we need them as much if not more, realistically we can’t limit trade’
4) Lord Jones also had some strong views on what was the primary cause of the August riots:
- ‘Enhanced, disgusting criminality…look at the locations; in London it was organised and planned to stretch the metropolitan police to their limits.’
What to do about the illiteracy problem amongst Britain’s youth:
-‘Fire teachers if too many of their mentally and physically healthy pupils over 11 can’t read, write, count and use a computer…[and] stop parents benefits and replace them with food stamps if their kids can’t read, write, count and use a computer’
And a whole host of other interesting issues (many of which appear in his book if you fancy finding out more).
We then rounded up the discussion, said our thank-yous and left Lord Jones in the company of UpRising Director Alveena Malik, who was delighted to inform us that he had agreed to become an UpRising ambassador. So I’m guessing the programme organisers and us UpRisers impressed him almost as much as he impressed us.
In short, whilst some of Lord Jones’s personal views may be, shall we say, somewhat divisive, there is no denying his belief in the potential of the youth of today and his social conscience. Here’s a final quote from the discussion which, I think, aptly illustrates this dedication to practising the socially inclusive attitude he preaches:
-‘Young people are the future – that’s why I’m here on my lunch break giving you pointers…I can’t afford to just give young entrepreneurs money, but I can try and give my time’
He may be blunt and opinionated but he certainly believes in the future of our nation’s business. And his positive attitude is very infectious.
I have too many blogs. There's my social action project blog (I'm organising a week of events surrounding international women's day on the 8th March highlighting gender inequality issues across the world), my etsy shop blog (SoWhatIt'sVintage - selling good quality vintage clothing with a no nonsense, reasonable prices approach http://www.etsy.com/shop/sowhatitsvintage) and my travel blog (I've just got back from 24 days interrailing round Eastern Europe and am deluded enough to think someone might be interested in my experiences) and on top of that there's all the other stuff I do, influential people I meet and articles I write that don't fit into any of the aforementioned sections. So I'm amalgamating all of them into one great big mighty blog of experience. I find it interesting, and I like to think some other people killing time on the world wide web do too....maybe...meh enjoy!
