2morro : it's our future and we can shape it

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All Rise for UpRising

Hey Guys

If you didn't meet Omar from UpRising at 2morro last weekend, then you may have missed our on hearing about his programme which is all about developing new leaders. Yep, that could be you. Here's more info about UpRising and if you want to get involved in their programme then check out their website!
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>> UpRising is a new leadership programme being developed by the Young >> Foundation to support and train a new generation of public leaders. >> UpRising identifies, recruits, develops and supports 19 to 25 year >> olds to enable them to play a greater role in politics and public >> decision-making.
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>> The aim is to create a pool of talented young leaders from a range >> of backgrounds who can transform their communities for the better >> and take up positions of power in public institutions. UpRising was >> launched in 2008 and is being piloted in the East London boroughs >> of Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Tower Hamlets. It will then >> spread across London and into other major cities across the UK. The >> programme has cross-party support with Gordon Brown, David Cameron >> and Nick Clegg serving as its patrons.
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>> Elements of the UpRising leadership programme include: monthly >> learning sessions; a weekend residential; support and advice to set >> up a community campaign; one-to-one mentoring; learning visits; >> networking events and placements. As well as developing skills and >> networks, UpRising aims to create opportunities for young people to >> form strong ties and work together to serve their communities.
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>> More information about UpRising is available at
>> www.uprising.youngfoundation.org.
>>

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our future our vision: youth voice on climate change

Wow we're busy on the blog today! Here's an update from Envision, who ran the climate change open space at 2morro. Read on to find out what YOU created at 2morro, and be proud....

Hi Everyone

We’ve gone through all your brilliant ideas and put them together to form “our future – our vision”, a message from young people to the international decision makers meeting this December at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

I’m sure you’ll agree this is pretty inspiring stuff. We hope you enjoy it!

Envision

Our Future Our Vision

Young people will…

Lead by example and encourage others to live responsibly and be the change we want to see. We know that we don’t need to completely change our lifestyles but need to ‘try our best’ by committing to the little things. The small things can make a difference and the small changes in our everyday lives help others and the environment without having a negative impact on us. We can make people close to us care about it and inspire adults to care about our future.

Spread the word and get political by joining campaigns and signing petitions. We will keep spreading the message that together there are things we can do.

Make a commitment to reduce, re-use, recycle.

Stop burning as much fuel when we’re out and about by riding a bike and using public transport. We’ll stop flying as much and try and visit places by train or discover the wonders our own country has to offer.

Reduce our energy use by turning down the heating and wearing more jumpers, turning off the lights, watching less TV and not leaving things on standby. Make sure our schools and families do their bit too as both are meant to have our futures in mind and helping to tackle climate change is the best thing they can do to protect it.

Help to teach others, especially younger generations, about the causes of climate change and the sustainable actions that can help to tackle it. This means we need to know the facts ourselves so we will learn more and pass it on.

Consider how far our food has traveled and buy local when we can.

Reduce how much water we waste and pester those around us to do the same.

Think before we do. The easiest way to act sustainably is to think more about where things come from, what they’re made of and if we really need them.

Run our own projects and take action to improve the environment in our communities.

So you should…

Involve us and think about our futures. Become better at listening to the voices of those whose lives will be most affected by climate change. Climate change is not only an environmental issue, above all it is a young people’s issue. Our opinions matter because whatever you decide will affect us.

Make businesses take responsibility. Governments should offer subsidies to companies to use sustainable products and provide economic support for sustainable industries. Tax industries that create pollution and force them to find a way to reduce pollution. Harness the creativity and use common sense to force corporate cooperation. Simple things like all mobile phones using the same charger would mean less waste.

Put money into scientific research to improve on existing renewable energy sources and discover new ones. Commit funding for independent university research.

Commit to reducing carbon emissions. Do this through using renewable energies and not nuclear power and by spending a quantity of money that reflects the vast size of the problem. Put in place recycling systems that are the same across countries to reduce the amount of resources we are all wasting.

Balance the desire for economic growth with protecting the environment and addressing the needs of developing countries. Learn to think of the well being of humanity over profit.

Help people to make better travel decisions. It should always be cheaper to get a train than a plane. Invest extra money in low carbon transport across countries especially rail.

Hold public bodies to account; all publicly funded institutions should have to justify their resource use.

Accept climate change is a crisis, take it seriously and show leadership. Don’t let us be the generation people look back on and blame. Change is about positive action not just positive thought. Take responsibility for your decisions and the future and walk the talk. Act now!

Raise awareness and get the message straight: by using renewables and thinking sustainably we can not just maintain, but improve our lifestyles.

Work together. A unified global policy on climate change would be rather lovely…

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Big Sistas are the Best

Hi Guys

Another post about one of the great things that came out of the event last weekend. Junction49, the online ideas platform from Timebank, were at 2morro running a Community Open Space.

Lots of you want to improve your community, help change the world or just make a difference to something you care about, and Junction49 were on hand to offer £200 to kickstart the best idea!

The grand winner was The Big Sista Project, a mentoring organisation for young girls and run by young girls. The project's starting with the mentoring of two girls: Danielle (10yrs) and Malaika (8yrs, and after the trial, the aim is to set up Big Sista clubs around the UK, which aims to raise positive role models for girls, within the community, and develop a sisterhood who can learn and mentor each other.

The experts that Big Sista met and received advice from were:
Constance Agyeman - Head of Programmes, Match Fund at V
Lizzy Chenery - Invisible Children Junction49 Project Volunteer
Paul Massey - Creator of we20
Laura-Liz Partoon - Battlefront campaigner

And though they won the £200, it's not over yet. Go see the Big Sista Project page on Junction49, and if you want to get involved, offer in your skills and expertise, ideas and advice. This could be the start of something....

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your manifesto for education

Hey guys

Wow, it's now over a week since 2morro, we've just about recovered and had a bit of sleep.

Now it's time to look at all the great stuff that came out of the event and to track where it goes. First up, some of you will have been to ESSA's Manifesto for Education and their Dragon's Den session where YOU got to pitch ideas on how we need to develop our schools and education system for the future.

There were three proposals taken to the Den:

- a proposal for learning programming and html with students from year 7 in ICT lessons

- a proposal for the develpment of a social enterprise scheme which gave young people the chance to develop their own initiatives

- And the winner was 19 year old Adam Tyndall who gave a fantastic speech on the need to make the British education system more globally focused and more competitive on the international stage.

The Dragons made up a great team. Dee Majek works for mWorld and has recently worked with a group of students from Newham college developing a website to showcase their achivements, making him particularly well placed to consider the proposals to changes in IT. Andrew Elliot is a member of the ESSA council for the North East, and is an expert on student voice. Omar Salem works for the Young Foundation on their Uprising initiative which gives young people extensive leadership training and the skills they need to make their ideas into realities. None of them let the competitors off lightly, demanding all the details of how it would work in practice.

ESSA got lots of ideas from the workshop and the Dragon's Den and will be writing it all up to contribute to the Manifesto. We'll share the full Manifesto with you when it's ready....

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Akala

Here is a video blog from Akala, talking about the Hip Hop Shakespeare company!

Download now or watch on posterous

VID%2000004-20090704-1627.3GP (18237 KB)

Nat :)

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Video blogs- Making things for 2morro

Video blogs from Riverside 5's making things for 2morro session have been added to our YouTube channel. Check out some of them here...

Kat and Shivani's dream:

Smara's video:

and Sho's video about his ICT experience in school:

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Hide and Seek video of games

Download now or watch on posterous

Hide and Seek Camera game.3GP (1427 KB)

Hide and Seek games in full swing... loads of fun... check them out!

Also, lots of video blogs about experiences with ICT in school and after school added to our YouTube channel, check them out the channel is called 2morro09

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