The Team London Young Ambassador programme began in 2013 with an inspired mission – get more young people volunteering.
By getting involved in social action it benefits local communities and the Young Ambassadors themselves, as they build confidence, gain experience and learn new skills.
From its initial 12 pilot schools, the programme has grown to 2,100 schools, 111 of these being for disadvantaged children or those with special educational needs. This means over 120,000 schoolchildren raising funds and awareness for issues as diverse as homelessness, food poverty, bullying, connecting generations, homophobia, child obesity and improving the environment. The Young Ambassadors can say they have truly made a difference!
Here are some of our highlights
Since 2014, Team London Young Ambassadors have presented on stage at WE Day UK. This stadium-sized event, organised by WE, brings together world-renowned speakers and award-winning performers with 12,000 young people to celebrate how they’ve made a difference. Prince Harry, Malala Yousafzai, Kate Winslet and Jessie J, have all taken to the WE Day stage, each sharing inspirational messages and giving thanks to the incredible young people who are giving back to the world.
We Are Silent marches saw large numbers of Young Ambassadors marching across Tower Bridge to protest silently for children around the world whose voices cannot be heard. They wanted to raise awareness on issues that were important to them, from Black Lives Matter to women’s rights and xenophobia.
The launch of Team London Young Leaders in 2016 was an opportunity for young volunteers to integrate with other schools in their borough and run projects that they were passionate about. The scheme helped young volunteers learn about joining forces to make an even bigger impact!
The Ambassadors benefitted from Unilever brightFuture Grants in 2015 and 2016, which helped the programme reach even further. Grants of £1,000 were given to schools to do something even bigger and brighter for their local community.
The biggest ever Team London Youth Conference was held at the Copperbox Arena in Stratford. It allowed passionate young people to come together to hear inspirational stories and learn how to make even more a difference in their own local communities.
And finally, as a measure of its success, the Young Ambassador programme won the Department of Education Character Award 2016. This award celebrates excellence and encourages programmes which develop traits like confidence, perseverance and resilience in young people.
Making a positive change to our city and our children!
And so it has been an exciting, busy and inspirational four years for the Team London Young Ambassadors programme.
Everyone involved is proud of the achievements that young people, teachers and volunteers have made to make it a success. Teachers involved have said that 100% of young people who have taken part now demonstrate more consideration of local issues in their everyday life and 99% of the young people are more likely to demonstrate positive behaviour.
Not only that but those involved are able to demonstrate increased leadership among their peers, have stronger communication skills, are more likely to stand up for others that are treated unfairly. All of which make these inspirational, social and confident young leaders become strong leaders of the future.
Kia, Year 4 sums it up perfectly,
Being an Ambassador makes you a better leader and builds your independence; I have presented two assemblies already and enjoy celebrating achievements with my friends.