The last month has been so busy that I nearly missed that Social Innovation for All turns 2 on 21st July. I guess that means we are officially a toddler and according to UNICEF we are learning to connect with people around us, getting more independent and perhaps a bit defiant. I’m going to keep an optimistic mindset that we are heading into the Tremendous Twos, rather than the Terribles Twos!
And two years in there is quite a lot of growing up to celebrate. Through the Young Green Briton Challenge and Eco Pioneers we have now worked with over 6600 young people, building skills and opportunity through enabling young people to become changemakers in their local communities.
Picture from the Young Green Briton Challenge celebration event held at City Hall in London on July 4th 2024 showing all guests celebrating the participating teams.
"I loved doing something real, bigger than school and feeling I could make a valid change to the world." [YGBC Student]
We have been building our own skills by participating in the Skills Builder Impact Academy. Through this programme we have now achieved Skills Builder Level 3 accreditation for both the Young Green Briton Challenge and Eco Pioneers, demonstrating that students have the opportunity to apply the essential transferable skills of Teamwork, Problem Solving, Creativity and Communication.
Collaboration continues to underpin our work. We couldn’t have done any of this without our lovely team of partners at GenEarth (formerly Volunteers for Future), Ministry of Eco Education and the Green Britain Foundation. And looking to the future we are excited to be planning work with lots of new partners for 2024/25, particularly as we seek to expand our impact in the North West and North East.
One of the problems I set out to solve this year was improving our organisational structure and governance to enable growth. With support from Law Works and Charity Mentors Sussex, I discovered all the things I didn’t know I didn’t know in terms of social enterprise legal structures. Together we navigated the process and the paperwork to enable the appointment of our first two Directors. A huge welcome and thank you to Caspian Woods and Caroline Allen.
Looking forward we will need to be constantly creative in lots of areas. Funding is always a challenge. School budgets are increasingly in the red and voluntary funding is very competitive. So we are excited to be building new partnerships, including with Ecotricity, Adelphi, Mid Sussex District Council and the Co-op Customer Donation Fund. We are also testing our first crowdfunder, which is being matched by the lovely people at Aviva. But we are working hard to bring on lots more interesting and exciting partnerships in 2024/25 who can also help to bring their expertise into our programmes, bringing learning and careers to life for students.
Curriculum time is a real challenge with teachers having to get very creative to squeeze in project based learning opportunities, such as the Young Green Briton Challenge. Our curriculum materials next year will have three different options from BiteSize through to full cross-curricular to try and help them.
But looking forward I’m optimistic:
We have a new government which has just announced a much needed review of the curriculum along with a raft of green policies.
In 2024/25 the Young Green Briton Challenge is aiming to work with more schools and new partners, including EcoVida Routes to strengthen our work the North West
We are planning to test project based learning qualifications working together with Pearson EdExcel
And (perhaps most importantly) our work is bringing hope, with 82% of YGBC students saying they now feel they can make a positive contribution to addressing climate change
So there is a lot to celebrate and be excited about. Now we just need to work on keeping some of the toddler mindset as we grow - curious, exploring, connecting and a bit defiant when we need to be!
PS We are celebrating with birthday waffles in Brussels as we set out on a train trip to Germany and my birthday present to all of you is to check out Man in Seat 61’s website to plan fabulous rail trips all over Europe (and save a load of carbon in the process).
PPS Did I mention we are currently crowdfunding..... check it out here
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