Image by Oliver Salmon
FEATURE
MOVING IMAGES
GIVING YOUNG PEOPLE A VOICE Young people are at the centre of the Trust’s work. Alice Palmer talks about a video project in Bristol, and we showcase entries from a student photo competition.
On a sunny Saturday morning in Bristol I set out to talk to young members of the public about their mental health, and how they manage it. The idea came out of my new role for the Trust as Participation Lead. The role was established after conversations with CEO Clare Stafford about the importance of ensuring young people's voices and ideas are incorporated into the very heart of the charity's work. I started as a Young Advisor and Speaker with the Trust almost ten years ago. That helped me realise how important a sense of agency was as part of my own journey as well as the empowerment it gave others around me. So now it’s incredibly exciting to play a lead role in ensuring as many young people as possible have a part to play in decisions and discussions – all too often these happen on their behalf, rather than with them.
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And what better way to kick things off than heading to a city full of students and asking them what they really think? Working with filmmaker Kristian Garside and mental health campaigner Haleem Clift, both very talented men in their early twenties, I was hopeful we’d make an approachable team. Our aim was to come out with some useful content for helping people understand what young people are feeling at the start of a new academic year emerging from the pandemic. Wearing a Charlie Waller t-shirt and armed with a microphone and camera, I worried young people might find the prospect of speaking to strangers about their mental health a little daunting, but within 20 minutes I proved myself very wrong. A young man bounced up to us to say, “I’ve heard of Charlie Waller – they’re great – what are you guys up to?” After three hours we’d interviewed fifteen young people, asking questions ranging from “how do you know when you’re feeling low or anxious?” to “what can other people do to help if you’re feeling that way?” The honesty was overwhelming from everyone we spoke to, and the ability to articulate what they needed when they were struggling was humbling and important for others to hear.
