Children's Express reports from a conference run by the Trust for the Study of Adolescence.
| It’s very important for young people to have opportunities to express their opinion on decisions that affect them. |
"All young people are valuable and should be valued by society. If society can do that then we'll see that young people will build their confidence and self-esteem."
Those are the views of Kath Hammell from the charity, Weston Spirit: views that seemed to be re-iterated by all who were present at the Trust for the Study of Adolescence conference on Young People, Self Esteem and Empowerment on Tuesday 30th October.
Held at NCH Action for Children in London, the event brought together youth work professionals to share ideas on how to empower young people and raise their self-esteem. The day was divided into speeches and workshops, followed by a performance by Pop-Up Theatre.
Among the speakers were Director of the TSA Dr John Coleman, Saskia Neary from the Coalition for Youth, Paul Campbell of the African and African-Caribbean People's Advisory Group and Paul Oginsky of Weston Spirit.
Explaining the need for the conference, Dr Coleman said: "One of the problems young people have today is they don't feel that they are listened to and they don't feel respected. It's very important for young people to have opportunities to express their opinion on decisions that affect their lives."
He continued: "I was at Parliament the other day and the young people were saying that at every meeting about them half of the people there should be young people. The Members of Parliament said 'that wouldn't work because there would be no space for us,' and everyone burst out laughing."
The conference wasn't all serious discussion. Weston Spirit's attention-grabbing presentation got the delegates playing 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' and still managed to prove a serious point about people being of equal value. They then challenged visitors to find a cash-filled envelope. This game was used to show how the charity raises the self-esteem of young offenders by presenting them with tough dilemmas.
The conference showed how hard it can be to define self-esteem and empowerment, and how difficult it is to help young people feel good about themselves by discovering their individual abilities.
Some of the speakers showed how some young people have the wrong kind of self-esteem.
"Self esteem and empowerment are tricky subjects to approach," said Paul Campbell. "Some young people who are doing the wrong things in school have a negative type of self esteem around their peers. They think 'If I get a detention a day you'll think I'm great.' They're getting negative self-esteem.
"But every child has capabilities and given the right encouragement these can be used to benefit society as a whole."
On the whole we felt the day was a success. Self-esteem is an important aspect of the lives of young people and it was good to see adults are considering ways they can help raise self-esteem and give a sense of empowerment to young people.
The work of Weston Spirit was particularly inspiring because they are attempting to give young offenders a sense of self worth. Their ideas have now been shared with other organisations that will go on to use them in their own work with young people.
About the team
This article was produced by Camille Noriega, 16, and Zak Garner-Purkis, 13. It was published on the Trust for the Study of Adolescence website.
