4.3 Becoming a positive changemaker
People find their voices in all sorts of ways to highlight the issues they are concerned about, to fulfil their aspirations and to bring about change. The boys who are making this course have used their experiences to help other young people to think differently, and to change people’s perspectives of them and their community.
Marcus Rashford uses his experience and voice (and social media) for families and communities across the country living with food poverty. Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky and other Parkland students in their darkest hour used their experience and voices to speak for better gun laws and in doing so built a community of hundreds of thousands of other young people, through their social movement ‘March for our Lives’. So let’s look at what you might be able to do in your communities?
Activity 9: How can you make a positive contribution?
Now take a few minutes to think about all you have learned before reflecting on the following question. You can discuss your reflections with your friends or community worker or others in your class if you are studying this in school.
How can you draw on your experience and your values to make a positive contribution to your community or society?
Discussion
The contribution you can make either individually or collectively by working with others on common concerns will be personal to you, or the group you are working with, your experiences and values.
People find their voices in all sorts of ways, to highlight the issues they are concerned about, to fulfil their aspirations and to bring about change. Remember, community is not something that is fixed. It is something that is created by people over time and can be remade by people, and this includes you.
Activity 10: Time to reflect
Before you finish, take a look at your hopes and aspirations for your future and the qualities you want others to see in you, from the beginning of this session [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Do you still feel the same? Is there anything you want to add now you have had time to explore, and imagine different possibilities? Think through the consequences and what you might want for yourself.