What Others Say
Testimonials and Stories of Change
In Education
“This was an exciting and innovative initiative, facilitated by Space Unlimited using a powerful framework to create ownership of the project by the students. The outcomes exceeded our expectations and provided us with a solid platform to further develop collaborative approaches to learning and teaching.”
Alex McLean, Stow College, Glasgow
“…I can’t remember a time when I have seen such an impact on our staff and pupils from any CPD work we have undertaken.”
Sam Otto, Herringham Primary School, Essex
“I feel like I am part of the puzzle. I know that I can help…I am here to help make change happen.”
Young Person
Thoughts from Community Stakeholders
“What you (the young people) have done, is amazing. You’ve taken the remit we gave you and you’ve generated some wonderful ideas to really make this Campus a part of the community. To make it somewhere not just for yourselves, but for everyone. And, to be honest, that was my biggest fear, that you’d come back with some lovely ideas that were either only for young people, or really outrageous to the point where we couldn’t do them. With these though, I think we can really work with you on these.”
Education Advisor, Angus Council
“It’s definitely the kind of input that we want to get, and if these young people are keen to actually help us with designs and taking some of the ideas forward, then that seems like it can only be a good thing for the community and for planning in general…Is this approach something that we might be able to share with other planning and development departments?”
Planning Officer, Angus Council
“I’ve seen a lot of youth consultations in communities. In my experience, the adults have an end goal in mind, and somewhere in the consultation process, the adult agenda will get the upper hand… Here, you could see that the ideas the young people were putting forward at the community event really mattered to them. They were saying them in their own words, and you could see in the adults’ faces – they were won over.”
Youth Worker, Haddington
“It’s just fantastic to see young people that engaged in the idea of changing the places they live, changing their built environment and how it’s used. It’s a perfect example of the type of participation that we need everyone across Scotland to be thinking about with young people. The Scottish Government has said that young people should have a voice, but also be an active role in the process of change – this is it in action.”
Funder, ADS
Interview with Christine McLean, Community Engagement Manager at National Museums Scotland
Young people benefit, authoring their own response to an authentic enquiry builds confidence and transferable life skills.
“Look where we are now – things are happening and we are making them happen. We succeeded in convincing the teachers to help us make a change. Before this, I didn’t realise that pupils can change their school and I didn’t think we’d be able to have much impact, but we can.”
Young Person
“I definitely feel closer to it (my community) now. I mean, I’d never really thought much about it before, but I definitely always thought I’d just want to get out as soon as I could. Now I’d like to try and change it for the better, so it’s a good place to be, and a good place to have my own family in…. It’s your home, and to be able to point to things and say ‘I did that’ to your own kids would be amazing.”
Young Person
“I was just a normal girl, not very important. But now I feel like I can change the community, that I have an important job to do, we’ve all got a special job.”
Young Person
Within organisations and communities, stories are told often and in lots of different ways. Stories matter because they often provide new insights and give us a deeper understanding of other people’s experience.