Earlier this month, some of our senior members were given the opportunity to travel to Mahdlo Youth Zone in Oldham to participate in a “Hackathons of Hope” workshop.
These workshops, ran by NCS and Onside as part of the Hope Collective Partnership, allow young people to discuss a variety of challenging topics. These topics included poverty, mental health, inequality, racism, as well as many others.
The aim of these sessions is to try and initiate change for the UK’s most vulnerable communities, and to try and help them to tackle discrimination, poverty and violence.
The Hope Collective Partnership was established in 2020 to support the Damilola Taylor Trust’s 20th-anniversary legacy campaign and is comprised of a number of different companies; including youth charities, health and justice professionals, and others.
Our young people were able to freely express their own thoughts and opinions on these topics and were actively encouraged to have their voices heard. Each of our members contributed their own views and outlooks and was positively engaged throughout.
It was truly inspiring to see what each person had to offer to the discussions and the amount of passion that was displayed helped to highlight how important it is to have these discussions and encourage change in our communities.
Head of Youth Work at Wigan Youth Zone, Sikander Ali said “
“It was truly inspiring to see what each person had to offer to the discussions and the amount of passion that was displayed helped to highlight how important it is to have these discussions and encourage change in our communities.”
We would like to thank Mahdlo for hosting the event, as well as NCS, Onside, and the extensive list of other organizations who were involved in giving our young people this amazing opportunity, and for allowing a safe environment in which they could freely express themselves.