‘Lead and Be Led Workshop’ Puts our Youth at the Forefront of Tomorrow

Earlier this month, the Anti-Tribalism Movement (ATM), in collaboration with You Press, began with the first of eight workshops dedicated to empowering our youth to find their identity and sense of self.

The ‘Lead & Be Led Workshop’ was facilitated by Farah Mohammoud, founder and director at You Press, and held in the Shepherd’s Bush neighborhood of London.

As an American intern, I had the opportunity to sit in for the workshop, which I found to be an incredibly engaging and informative experience. We began with an icebreaker, splitting up into pairs to get to know one another, then introducing our partner to the rest of the group, which surely helped everyone feel more comfortable with each other.

What followed were various activities meant to make you think deeply about who you really were inside, with discussion on the tail end breaking everything down.

Two of the activities stood out to me, with one being the group splitting into two and creating a list of five core values most important to them. Afterwards, the two groups each shared their five, and worked together to deduce the five most important to everyone in the room. The final result included respect, commitment, honesty, community, and confidence.
The second, and final activity, involved writing a text to our future selves, a personal message about how I feel in the moment, to serve as a reminder in case I ever lose my way. My text finished with “hold on to the same drive you have always had.” I hope that one day, myself and the others with me can find solace in the words of our past self.

I began the night not really knowing what to expect from the ATM event, but left feeling a bit more understanding of my own feelings than I had before.

I returned last week for the final session of the ATM workshops. The progress I had seen from the other participants was extraordinary. The group had managed to take what they had learned about leadership and identity and channel it into something tangible. They had worked diligently over the weekend on developing a social action plan together.

They had decided on creating a podcast together to discuss the many issues Londoners from all different backgrounds face. Farah had walked them through all the necessary steps to build their plan, which the group quickly carried out with great attention to detail.

The group’s vision, mission, and desired outcomes were decided first, followed by more logistical steps, including team roles, risks, and budgeting.

Everyone seemed legitimately excited and passionate about their plan, and their vision to “help set a foundation for the younger generation.”

Growth seemed to be the central theme of the ATM workshops. The transition from trying to find growth within one’s self to helping to grow the community through initiative was beautiful. If more youth were able to take these same steps, it would have a transformative impact on our society.

Overall, the ‘Lead & Be Led Workshop’ proved to be a rousing success, and showed firsthand how YouPress’ goal of giving young people a voice is coming to fruition.
The group’s finished podcast, ‘Life of a Londoner’, will be available to stream starting August 12th.

By Joe Brady, You Press Intern