MOBILISING a CITY for LEARNING Lessons from the 80By18 Project

Written by Paul Strauss & Keri Facer, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol www.bristol80by18.org.uk MOBILISING A CITY FOR LEARNING Lessons from the 80by18 Project This document is designed to be read with Adobe Acrobat 2 For me 80by18 is showing you that there's so much more to do in the city than you thought was possible. lt can make you feel a bit differently on life actually, seeing that there's so much to do and that you've got to set yourself goals cos you might not be able to do them all in the future (80by18 Young Researcher) Contact information 3 Contact information Keri Facer Graduate School of Education University of Bristol 35 Berkeley Square Bristol BS8 1JA Email - [email protected] Twitter - @80by18 Acknowledgements 4 Acknowledgements Large numbers of people gave their time, their expertise and their goodwill to create the 80by18 resource. Over 200 came to face-to-face events, hundreds of others suggested ideas and offered support and encouragement. We are hugely grateful to all who contributed. Thanks in particular to the children and teachers of all the schools who participated. We need to give particular thanks however to two groups of people: First, our First Partners who gave us the courage to get this going and who are such important allies in advocating for young people’s rights to fully participate in the city: Steve Sayers (Windmill Hill City Farm), Hannah Higginson (Watershed), Roger Opie (Ablaze), Nicholas Garrick (Lighting Up Learning), Tim Leaman (ASDAN), Philippa Bayley (Cabot Institute, Bristol Uni), Sam Thomson (UWE), Reethah Desai (Mshed), Shawn Sobers (UWE), Chris Luffingham (Independent), Hugh Thomas (MyFutureMyChoice), Alison Crowther (facilitator) as well as to Sandra Stancliffe (English Heritage) and Matt Little (RIO) who have been active supporters throughout. Second, our thanks are also due to the web development team and the team working at the University without whose work, and significant extra effort behind the scenes, 80by18 just wouldn’t exist: Matthew Moutos, Lizzie Packham, Lindsey Horner, Clara Lemon (website), Dan Tagg (website), Ben Carruthers (design), Teresa Nurser and Mary O’Connell. Any errors and omissions of course, are our own. This project was funded as part of the RCUK/AHRC Connected Communities Programme (Leadership Fellowship) Contents 5 Contents Executive summary 6 Executive summary ● The 80by18 Project is an ongoing Bristol initiative that aims: Background research 1. To identify and mobilise the organisations, places, spaces of the city with over 150 young that could offer interesting and challenging future-facing experiences people from diverse for young people; backgrounds across 2. To make these resources visible to young people online along with Bristol identified that resources to help them access them; and young people were keen to explore and 3. To actively encourage young people to participate in these find out about experiences. resources in the city ● The project is premised on the assumption that cities are potentially powerfully rich resources for young people’s learning that are too often untapped; that young people have a right to participate in the public, civic and commercial lives of cities and to influence what happens there; and that the sorts of contemporary economic, technological and environmental challenges that young people are facing requires young people to participate in activities and experiences that simply cannot be provided by schools alone. ● To realise these aims, the project has involved 1. a city-wide engagement process to identify the resources of the city that might support young people’s learning and development and 2. the creation of a website that showcases ’80 things to do in Bristol before you are 18’ and guidance to help young people achieve the challenge. Executive summary 7 ● A public call for ideas for the list involved over 1000 people in consultation processes and over 500 young people in workshops. To uncover resources outside the familiar ‘high status’ activities of the Drawing city required street consultation and face to face workshops. on Bristol’s Future facing resources ● Experiences on the list had to: 1. Use Bristol assets Encourage, 2. Be interesting for young people challenge and excite young people 3. Face the future. ● The call generated 617 ideas, which were curated into a final list of 80. The call also surfaced a significant number of resources – information, events, activities and materials - that could not have been identified The 80by18 sweet spot through any other process. ● 8 themes emerged from these ideas. These were proposals for experiences that: 1. Allow young people to act as citizens (‘Worldchanging’ category), 2. Offer opportunities for play (‘City as Playground’ category), 3. Offer a distinctive ‘Bristol’ experience (‘Random’ category), Executive summary 8 4. Offer opportunities for reflection and tranquillity (‘Slow Down’ category), 5. Connect children with their past and address hard questions about where we come from (‘Back to the Future’ category), 6. Build children’s capacity to live well in conditions of change (‘Take a Risk’ category) 7. Encourage them to develop practical skills (see ‘Survive and Thrive’ category) 8. Encourage their creativity and self-reliance (see ‘Do it ourselves’ category). ● Three organisations (Oxfam, BBC, Bristol Bike Project) volunteered specific additional ‘offers’ to the young people of the city. Cultural, public sector and civic organisations have been more forthcoming than businesses in showcasing their resources. Over 250 organisations are represented on the list. ● The pilot website was launched in November 2013, and has been taken up as a project and integrated into the activities of primary schools, South Bristol Youth Consortium and Girl Guides units. ● Research into how the list could be used as resource for young people was conducted from January – July 2014, with teenagers recruited as peer researchers. Executive summary 9 ● Findings revealed the element of challenge was a significant motivator. Impact included: • Increased independent mobility around the city • Less uncertainty, fear, and increased confidence to access spaces and interact with host-organisations outside of cultural milieux • New knowledge about organisations and their relationship to city resources • Exposure to and positive reflection on different ways of learning including increased attention to the sensory and the material ● The list can be used in a relatively ‘light touch’ manner by young people on their own to encourage mobility and exploration of the city; the more challenging activities and resources required some adult mediation and support, but offered greater benefits in terms of understanding and engaging with city resources. ● Where the resource was used in schools, there is some evidence to suggest that it has the potential to enhance school-parent relations, to enable families new to England to better understand the resources available in the local area, and to enhance teachers’ understanding of how to use the city for learning. ● The project has been well received in its pilot year. It has had an initial strong impact on a relatively small group of young people who have been exposed to it, but further work is needed to ensure awareness of the resource amongst families, young people and schools across the city. Executive summary 10 ● The research with young people has identified the significant role played by friendship groups in mediating and enabling access to public spaces and cities for young people. Friendship groups have the potential to play an important role in enabling more independent exploration of cities. Cultural and other organisations (as well as parents) wishing to encourage young people’s autonomy and city-participation should consider carefully how to design and support activities for friendship groups as well as families and school visits. ● The pilot also demonstrated the significant potential benefits to be had in terms of cross-cultural understanding by encouraging young people to simply visit and get to know organisations in culturally different parts of the city. A within-city twinning project might provide a valuable next step. ● The website and the network that the project has built around learning in the city is now being further developed in collaboration with core city partners, organisations and individuals interested in contributing to this agenda, or in using 80by18 to develop activities to support young people, are encouraged to contact us directly. Introduction: Why mobilise a city for learning? 11 Introduction: Why mobilise a city for learning? Whose job is it to equip children for the future? Is it the role of parents and families? Is it the role of schools, colleges and universities? Or is it also a collective social responsibility in which we all – civil society, businesses, custodians of public spaces – can participate? The 80by18 project described in this report is an ongoing attempt to explore whether and how this third ‘resource’ – the city – might be mobilised to offer a rich variety of experiences that are educational in the broadest, most challenging and exciting sense. It is premised on the assumption that cities are potentially powerfully rich resources for young people’s learning that are too often untapped; that young people have a right to participate in the public, civic and commercial lives of cities and to influence what happens there; and that the sorts of contemporary economic,

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