At Youth Action Unlocked, young people from across the North East came together to design projects tackling real issues in their communities. In Sunderland, a brand-new group was formed of young people who had never met each other before the event. But by the end of the event, they were untied by a powerful idea: tackling the issue of school absence and young people not in employment.

This group’s vision was to host a series of events where young people could have fun while also learning about careers and employment opportunities. Guest speakers from local businesses, employment services, and people with lived experiences were invited to share their stories, showing that education and attendance are stepping stones to future opportunities.

We spoke to a few of the group members about their project. Lauren explained: “Our issue is education and employment. We’re trying to get the attendance ratings up by making lessons more fun and interactive for kids.” Blake also shared the long-term importance of education: “Attendance is obviously a big thing because it helps get most things that you need in life like your job. We want to help people build their future career.”

The group’s inspiration was clear - school often feels disengaging and irrelevant for many young people, but they wanted to change that. Lauren said: “I think the main consensus is that school is boring and no one really likes it.” Ellie agreed, “If [schools]  can make their lessons more interactive and more fun then more people will want to go.”

Blake reflected on how absence impacts futures: “I go to a different school to these, and we can both agree on one thing, attendance at school. You see your friends and they don’t come in regularly and you think about how much it’s going to impact them in their future like and what they’re going to do when they get older.”

Reflecting on how it felt to come together as a new team, Blake said, “I was a bit nervous… but I think coming together has made more friendships.” Ellie added, “I think it’s definitely made a big difference because we couldn’t have done it as separate youth groups.”

Before standing in front of the panel, the group felt nervous as Lauren admitted: “We’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s definitely nerve-wracking. Blake agreed with Lauren, “The same really, but I think we’ve all done such a good thing here today because none of us knew each other, [but] we came together and thought of this idea.”

The group worked hard to balance input. Blake explained, “Some of us had disagreements but we came to an agreement and then I think everyone’s ideas were all put into place.”

They also faced challenges during planning. Blake shared: “I think emailing businesses was quite difficult because we didn’t get some replies from some people […] we got quite a few people here today which is good.” Ryan added, “It’s also about managing the time because not everyone has the same time as everyone else.”

Throughout the experience, the group also developed a range of new skills. Blake developed teamwork skills, saying: “Before this if you put me in a room with a lot of strangers and told us to think of this idea, it would be a lot more difficult but now I feel like I could do it confidently.” Ellie also reflected on the skills she developed, “I would definitely say patience because it takes a lot of time.” And Ryan developed: “listening [skills] because you listen to everyone’s ideas to make a final decision.”

When asked what they were most proud of, Blake said, “I would just say getting everybody here that we did today [at the career’s fair], I would say it’s a big achievement.”

For the group, the meaning of youth-led action was clear. Ellie explained “So that young people get a chance in saying what they think is best for them because an adult speaking from a kid’s perspective isn’t the same because they haven’t experienced the same things as a child has.” Lauren added: “And I think school now compared to school when teachers and that were there is a very different thing, so I think having young people’s opinions is important.”

Ellie also pointed to the role of social media: “Social media plays such a big part in schools [too].” Blake agreed: “A lot of the reasons why some children don’t like coming to school is because of social media and because of bullying and obviously that’s unacceptable, and we want to try and change that. If we can get people participating during lessons, then they can connect with people more.”

Finally, when asked what advice they’d give to other young people who want to take part in projects like this, Blake said: “I would say definitely go to a youth centre because I started going a couple years back and it’s opened up so many doors for us and I’ve been able to have so many more opportunities.”

We also spoke to the group at our Youth Action Unlocked: The Showcase event, where we celebrated all the achievements of these amazing groups. We asked the group what it meant to be recognised and celebrated, and Blake said: “It feels very accomplishing and achieving knowing that we’ve done something to help young peers like ourselves [it’s] really inspirational.”

This group may have only just met at Youth Action Unlocked: The Hack, but by the end of this initiative, they had forged a shared mission: to reimagine how education can look for young people in Sunderland, and to give their peers a reason to come back to the classroom.