YOUTH SUSTAINABILITY ACTION FORUM (Y-SAF)

Each Y-SAF empowers young people to get into the habit of Taking Action to lead their communities towards Sustainability. The Y-SAF programme includes a training on Sustainability and communication; research to design a local Action Project; a presentation to community leaders and, if approved, the implementation of the project.

RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION:

Purpose: The main purpose of the Y-SAF project is to get young people, and communities, into the habit of doing things for themselves – not waiting around for others to do things for them. Along the way, they learn how to craft a project, how to use their voices and gestures + their writing and PowerPoint skills to present their ideas and arguments compellingly; how to answer questions, expected and unexpected (“to think on their feet”) – and, finally, how to organise people, equipment and materials to get a project done and finished.

Who? – a Y-SAF is best done by a school, with three to five different classes or year groups pitching their ideas to each other and to elder experts; it can also be done by several schools across a town, as in Luton. Or it can be done by community groups – scout or guide troops, faith communities, environmental groups or Council-run Summer Programmes. Any grouping of young people under the age of 18 can be introduced to the basic ideas of Sustainability and Presentation techniques by a Y-SAF.

When? – a Y-SAF can be done at any time of year; marginally better in summer time;

How Long? – a Y-SAF takes place in 4 x stages:

1. The Training: Learning about Sustainability and acquiring / practising Presentation Skills

2. Prepare your Y-SAF Project & Presentation: Research local problems and decide what you’re going to do?

3. Run Your Y-SAF: Present your project to the Expert Panel and get feedback and – for some, if possible – sponsorship. We recommend a 2.5 hour time slot for your Y-SAF;

4. Implementation / Do Your Project: Raise any funds and extra help or permissions you need and get on and do the project that you planned. Then have a party to celebrate!

Stages 1 and 3 take 90-mins to 3-hours. Stages 2 and 4 can take as long as you like: all 4 x stages can easily happen in a week-long summer camp. If you have a 2- or 3-week summer camp, you can be more relaxed, taking more time over each stage. The important thing is to start implementing one or more of the projects before the Summer school or camp breaks up. In a school setting, we have generally taken longer – a term, with the training at the beginning of it; some weeks for the groups of students to do their research and come up with their different projects ahead of the Y-SAF itself towards the end of term. A start is then made on the Implementation. Some make it an annual project, but – in taking that long – energy can dissipate and momentum be lost. So best to telescope your Y-SAF into a shorter time.

STEP ONE: THE TRAINING

ONE: INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY

- A Selection from the 37 x Slides -

Introduction:

We recommend a 3-hour training session: 3 x 50-minute sections with 2 x 10-minute breaks. The first 50 minutes is the Introduction to Sustainability – 30-minutes to run through the slides and 20 minutes for questions, relating the global concepts of Sustainability to the daily lives of the students. The second two sessions teach presentation skills. This first session is all about posture, voice projection, body language etc. The second is about crafting an argument and capturing and keeping an audience’s attention.

The original training was developed for the Y-SAF in partnership with the English Speaking Union – the UK’s (perhaps the world’s!) leading ‘oracy’ or presentation skills training organisation. We urge you to contact them if you can afford to hire one of their Oracy Trainers as they are brilliant. Meanwhile, below, we give you Peace Child’s approach to the challenge based on our years of producing stage shows and building arguments in a dramatic way.

Introduction to Sustainability:

Start by apologising for using a long word: SUSTAINABILITY. Ask the students to put their hands up if they know what it means? Then ask if they are confused by the word. (Most of them will be – most experts are!). So break it down into dictionary definitions:

SUSTAIN = cause to continue for an extended period;

ABILITY = possession of the means or skill to do something;

So – SUSTAIN-ABILITY – means the possession of the means or skill to cause something to continue for an extended period. In the context of today’s discussion – in a word: (go to Slide 2) SURVIVAL! We’re talking about learning the skills to ensure that human beings survive and sustain life on Earth. Pretty important stuff – if you want to live a full life!

There-after – follow the slides and the accompanying Explanatory Notes with the web links which, of course, you can copy and share with the young people so they can continue their research and enhance their under-standing of the issues in their own time. Encourage them to do so. Also encourage them to link each global issue to their local lived experience: so – on Population: if the size of your town or community doubles, you need more roads and schools and shops – and food and water to feed everyone. That becomes a problem if space is limited – just as it is on one small planet. Do that with every issue so that, as you go through the slides, the young people are encouraged to think about the projects that they might do to advance sustainability in their neighbourhoods.

Learn and Practice Presentation Skills:

Vocal Warm-ups: Start this session with Vocal Warm-up skills: most famous actors or speech-makers run through some basic vocal warm-ups before they make any presentation or go on stage. It is a great habit to get young people into. Most people start with a basic 5-minute vocal warm-up, which requires a quiet space to focus and perform the exercises without distractions. Avoid rushing through the warm-up: relax your body and your mind and think through each of the following 5 x exercises:

The Short Vocal Warm-Up

1. Loosen up and “Shush!” Loosen up: wiggle your shoulders, relax your neck, release your jaw, and take some deep belly breaths: good vocal breathing is all in the belly so put your hands on your belly and push your stomach into your hands—like a balloon filling up with air. Now, try pushing the air out from your stomach through the front of your mouth.

Then “Shush!” Pretend you are a librarian shushing ornery students. Give a big “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” and repeat it a few times, thus:

Shhhhhhhhh

Shhhhhhhhh

Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh

Shhhhhhhhh

2. Tongue Trills: A tongue trill is when you roll your tongue as quickly as possible in your mouth by repeating a consonant many times. Do these tongue trills about five times each with ascending and descending pitch.

D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d
R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r
Kr-kr-kr-kr-kr-kr-kr-kr-kr
Tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr

3. Hum: Humming loosens up your vocal cords, especially necessary if you are speaking early in the morning. Start by doing one long “hmmmmmmmmm.” Hold it for as long as you can. Now go up and down with your hum. Alternate between descending and ascending hums. Do your hums five times.

Hmmmmmmm
Hmmmmmmm
Hmmmmmmm - Ascending
Hmmmmmmm - Descending

4. Chant: A “chant” is when you say the exact four words over and over again:

“Meem, Mime, Mohm, Moom”

These words go naturally right after your humming because they all start with the letter “M.” Start by using the same tone, then try ascending and descending ones. You will know you are warmed up when the sound coming from your throat is long, smooth and clear.

MMmmmmmmmmmmmeem mime mohm moom
MMmmmmmmmmmmmeem mime mohm moom
Ascending
Descending

5. Pronounce: Try adding these sounds to your chant:

“Ma, Pa, Ta, Ma, Pa, Ta”

Hold these for short staccato bursts and then move on to holding the long ones:

Maaaa paaaaa taaa maaa paaa taaa
Maaaa paaaaa taaa maaa paaa taaa
Maaaa paaaaa taaa maaa paaa taaa

Try ascending and descending and really try to enunciate these sounds and open your mouth wide on the ‘A’s.’ Do this five to ten times, and then you’re done! But – just for fun, you can try wrapping your tongues around these popular tongue-twisters:

“Unique New York.”

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,”

“She sells seashells on the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells!”

“Red lorry, yellow lorry.”

“How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?”

“Scissors sizzle, thistles sizzle.”

“Irish wristwatch, Swiss wristwatch.”

Body Language: This is a fun exercise to do with young people. Get them to stand in a circle – and repeat the following 4 x Body Expressions:

Defensive / Aggressive Open: “What do you think?” Make your point Loudly! Make your point Firmly!

Move on from this to practise what NOT to do:

The Slouch – if you are as bored as you look, your audience will be too!
The “Irritating Tick” – fingering your ear, any gesture you repeat often;
Appearance: your audience will notice what you are wearing – so dress for the occasion: if you wear slovenly clothes, your audience will not take you so seriously;

The Argument Exercise: Move on from body language – which can take the form of silently making, and responding to, an argument, to allowing the young people to use just two words in making and responding to an argument. Yes and No are the obvious ones; well and but are others – and finding situations that interest the youth are key: A Teacher seeking a student’s homework…” / being late for hockey practice / trying on new clothes. This is a test of improvisation as well as body language – and prepares the students for the next stage:

Craft Your Argument: There are a million ways to craft an argument – and you will make your own way. But, before you begin, it is worth learning about the Classical Method developed in ancient Greece by Aristotle, and improved by Roman orators like Cicero and Quintilian. It’s designed to get your audience to focus on the claim you are making with your argument and on the clear evidence that will lead them to the same conclusion you have arrived at. It uses a 6-stage structure, thus:

1. Introduction: Present the issue

2. Background: Discuss the historical context of the issue and explain its importance

3. Proposition: State your primary claim and outline your argument for it

4. Proof: Present your reasons, evidence and statistics that support your claim

5. Refutation: Think of why some people might disagree with your proposition and explain why they are wrong and you are right;

6. Conclusion: Summarise your claim and primary evidence. Make an emotional appeal to the audience's values and/or self-interest

Great Arguments in History: Finish the session by watching one of the great recorded arguments in history. These three are personal favourites: you can find many more on YouTube. But though each is very different, they are all great examples of crafting an argument and of how to use voice patterns and body language to create a compelling presence that gives weight to what they are trying to say. The Jeff Daniels speech from the first episode of Newsroom also makes great use of silences and visual cues. They all give a great sense of how to deliver or perform a speech – speaking softly, slowly at the start, working up into a passion with a loud voice – and closing modestly, softly again. All with unimpeachable sincerity and integrity.

STEP TWO: PREPARE YOUR Y-SAF PROJECT & PRESENTATION

Choosing a Project: You are now ready for the fun-part of this exercise: choosing and developing your project. First you have to decide HOW you’re going to select your project. We suggest that you invite each student in the class or group to come up with an idea – and present it in the following B-O-A-C Project Framework:

Basis for Action – What is the problem your idea for a project seeks to solve?
Objectives – What are your project’s goals? What will change if you do the project?
Actions – What Actions do you have to take to achieve those Objectives;
Costs – What are the costs – human and financial - associated with taking those Actions;

Selecting your Project: Most projects are best-presented by teams of 3-5 young people. So if you have a class of 30, you should be looking for at least 6 x project ideas. BUT – you can invite every student to come up with their own ideas, and then assemble a team of 3-5 students to present the chosen project. First, you have to agree with all of them the Criteria by which you are going to assess each project idea. A simple way to do it is to create a matrix or a spreadsheet that lists the project ideas down the vertical column and sets some agreed Criteria Questions across the Horizontal line at the top. Then score each idea out of 5 (5 = top!) – and you will be able to see at a glance which idea gets the highest score.

Selection Criteria Questions: We suggest the following questions:

ONE: General – do you like the idea? Does it feel good to you – because if it feels like a good thing to do to you, it will probably feel that way to the rest of the community;
TWO: How strong is the link to Sustainability? Very strong = 5; no link at all = 0;
THREE: Basis for Action: how serious is the problem it addresses? Very serious = 5;
FOUR: Objectives: how clear – and possible – are the goals of this project idea? Very clear = 5;
FIVE: Are the Actions clearly linked to the objectives? – will they do the job? Yes, easily = 5;
SIX: Are the costs manageable? Yes, easily = 5; Not possible at all = 0
SEVEN: Overall – is the project practical? Is it do-able? Yes, easily = 5; Very, very hard to do = 0

We suggest you get your group to score each project idea together – and reach consensus on the number for each answer. That way, the group will feel collective ownership of the decision. Or you can give out the Spreadsheet and get each young person to answer individually, and tot up the scores at the end – but that is quite complicated, and time-consuming.

Sample Spreadsheet: YOUTH SUSTAINABILITY ACTION FORUM - PROJECT IDEA SELECTION SPREADSHEET

QUESTIONS	ONE	TWO	THREE	FOUR	FIVE	SIX	SEVEN	TOTALS
PROJECT IDEAS
PROJECT IDEA ONE
PROJECT IDEA TWO
PROJECT IDEA THREE
PROJECT IDEA FOUR
PROJECT IDEA FIVE
PROJECT IDEA SIX
PROJECT IDEA SEVEN
PROJECT IDEA EIGHT
PROJECT IDEA NINE
PROJECT IDEA TEN

What kind of Project works for the Y-SAF? Amongst the projects that we have encountered in previous Y-SAFs, the over-whelming majority have been to do with litter: litter-picks, installing new recycling bins, learning to separate waste etc. Other popular projects include tree-planting; creating school gardens or fish ponds; organising walking buses, cycle racks, or improve drop-off facilities for students coming to school. More ambitious projects have included creating a multi-cultural arts centre and an Eco-sewage treatment plant! Other projects proposed include protest Marches, School Strikes, Debates about Eco-Issues, and Intergenerational Conversation Cafés. We resist these slightly as they lack the Action/Doing component but, if your young people vote to do that, we urge you to go with it: the mere fact of doing an Action like this will empower them and boost their self-esteem / self-confidence.

What kind of Presentation? In a word: CREATIVE! The most memorable presentations at our Y-SAFs have been those with a good, impactive PowerPoint, 5-7 kids who speak loudly, confidently and clearly, who sell their project with wit and energy – asking questions of the audience and each other; some doing physical mime, others staging a little scene or singing a song. (see Sample PowerPoint HERE)

STEP THREE: RUN YOUR Y-SAF

Date / Time, Place & Occasion: The date and time has to fit in with school commitments – like exams, sports fixtures, Open Days etc. And time? Weekday evenings are best. Also, consider linking your Y-SAF to another occasion – the retirement of a leading environmentalist in the town; a THANK YOU to the Town Council or a Town Councillor for doing something particularly eco-friendly or sustainable; or any occasion that is significant to your community. Doing this will help you get an audience for your Y-SAF – but: make sure it’s appropriate. Linking a Y-SAF to a Boxing Match or a Graduation Party might not be the best way to promote sustainability!

Select Your Panel: With the date, time, place and occasion fixed, you are ready to invite your Experts Panel. And they do NOT have to be experts in Sustainability: they need to be people who ought to be concerned with sustaining a health, resilient environment for your students’ and future, generations. So we propose you have a mix of professions represented on your panel:

1. An Elected Official: your MP or your Mayor or a popular Town, District or County Councillor;

2. A Business Leader: the CEO or Senior Executive of a company that promotes itself as a green, sustainable company;

3. A Teacher – who is concerned with the teaching of Sustainability and Environmental Issues;

4. A local Eco-Group Leader – who is knowledgeable about local environment / sustainability issues

And – of course – If you are linking your Y-SAF a THANK YOU to a distinguished local person, include them on the panel. 3 – 4 is an ideal number for the panel. More is NOT better in this case!

Get an audience:

As for other events in the Peace Child Resource List, empowerment happens in front of an audience: if no one turns up to your Y-SAF, that’s disempowering for your young people.

So...

Design and put up attractive Poster / Flyers around your school and/or your community. Make a target list of key people you really, really want to be there – and write letters to them. Send emails home with students from all local schools: pester students and teachers to come. This is the major task of the Partners – making sure that there is an equal number of youth and elders in the audience. And – if possible – an equal number of women and men – as it always seems to be the women who come. If it’s a big one – try to get on local media: local radio – and article in a local newspaper, even local TV;

Organise the Logistics: CHECK EVERYTHING including the following:

1. Decide on your Host: Great if you have a student with the confidence and competence to do it.

2. Directions to the Hall: print or scan a map for the back of the invitation.

3. Parking? – is there enough? Is it clear where your Audience and your Elder Panellists will park?

4. Meeting and Greeting: Elected officials, indeed all your Panellists, should be met at the Front Door of your venue and greeted by a senior staff person and youth representative, working on the event. At schools, the welcome party would also usually include the School Principal.

5. Security on Entry: does the venue require bag checks or full body scans? If yes, have you got a budget to staff those security controls? Are you sure that you have the necessary keys and codes to access to all the doors and cupboards that you may want to enter;

6. Coffee / tea-making equipment, cups, saucers etc. Have you got enough cutlery and/or crockery for any refreshments you want to serve? You may not want them, but it is good to greet the Panellists and the Presenters with a refreshment of some sort.

7. Test, re-test and test again any Video or powerpoint projectors, public address and computers you may want to use: in our experience, the technology is what will always go wrong; do a sound check on the PA system to make sure that microphones are not squawking with feedback and that the sound level is a balanced throughout the hall so that everyone can hear.

8. Consent for Photographs: Decide if you want to take photographs and/or record your event on sound or video: if you do, you must get Consent forms signed (** see sample copies below) by every Panellist and young presenter BEFORE the meeting. The audience don’t matter: you are not photographing them. Ask your Panellists if they’re happy to be photographed in their invitation.

Brief your Panel: Make sure your panellists know where they are coming, what time they are expected to be there, and exactly what they are expected to do when they get there. We suggest that, for the Y-SAF itself, you select 5-6 of the best project ideas, that have the best presentations: more than that is too much for normal mortals to sit through – and you want your Y-SAF to be fun, not an ordeal. The job of the Panellists is similar to that of your group/class when they selected their project idea, so you can use the same sort of questions, and give each panellist the same spreadsheet to record their scores – out of ten, we suggest: 10 = top score; 0 = really poor;

ONE: General Quality of the Presentation:– did they present it compellingly? How good was their delivery? Would you support it if it was presented as a request for funding to you?
TWO: Does the Presentation demonstrate that they understand the meaning of Sustainability?
THREE: Basis for Action: is the problem that the youth have chosen to address one that concerns you? How accurately and comprehensively have they identified the problem?
FOUR: Objectives: how clear – and possible – are the goals of this project idea?
FIVE: Did they clearly link the Actions to the objectives? Do you believe they can do the job?
SIX: Did they convince you that the costs are manageable for a youth / school group?
SEVEN: Overall: is the project viable/practical? Is it a feasible proposition?

Here is a sample spreadsheet to print on the back of the Panellist Briefing Sheet (earlier sample below)

Running Order for the Event: The Running Order on the Panellist Briefing Sheet above works well. We copy it here so that you can see the timings for each section: Adjust according to your time available:

Arrival of Youth Presenters:- take them to the Auditorium; test the powerpoint; go through running order; answer any questions; [30-mins ahead of start time]
Arrival of Audience: usher them to their seats in the hall; [30-mins ahead of start time]
Arrival of Panellists: Welcome Party take to Green Room & offer refreshments[10-mins ahead of start]
Usher the Panellists into the Auditorium – invite audience to applause; [2-mins ahead of start time]
OPENING WELCOME – from the organiser or owner of the venue; introduce the Host; [3-4-mins]
INTRODUCTIONS by the Host or by the panellists themselves; [2-3-mins each] [Intros = 15-minutes]
FIRST Presentation; [10-mins]
SECOND Presentation; [10-mins]
Comments from the Panel [2-3-mins from each panellist = 10-mins] [30-minutes total for this section]
THIRD Presentation; [10-mins]
FOURTH Presentation; [10-mins]
Comments from the Panel [2-3-mins from each panellist = 10-mins] [30-minutes total for this section]

B R E A K – Refreshments if possible

FIFTH Presentation; [10-mins]
SIXTH Presentation; [10-mins]
Comments from the Panel [2-3-mins from each panellist = 10-mins] [30-minutes total for this section]
Comments & Questions from Last Year’s Y-SAF presenters; [10-mins]
Comments & Questions from Audience; [10-mins]
Final Comments and Scores from the Panellists; [10-mins]
Closing Remarks from the Host or Organiser; [3-mins]
Announcement of Sponsorship for those who want to implement their projects; [2-mins]
Presentation of Certificates to all Presenters; [10-mins]

STEP FOUR: DO YOUR PROJECT

Because every project is vastly different in terms of cost, the permissions needed, the time of year when it can be done, and the time it will take to complete, it is impossible to give clear guidance on how to complete Step FOUR. However, some general principles should be adhered to:

Size of Team & Expertise Needed: If you have done a good job on your Y-SAF presentation, you should have your project all ready to just turn the key and get started as soon as you have the necessary funds and permissions. In reality, there are almost always tweaks that you, and members of your team, may want to make. Also, you will identify gaps in your knowledge and practical expertise that you will want to fill before you get started: you may want a gardening expert, or a carpenter – or you may just need more people to help you. So – make a list of the Actions that need to be taken to complete your project and make sure you have enough people with the right skills-sets to be able to do the jobs required.

Obtaining Permissions: Permissions are key to any project, and here the young project leaders must seek advice from elders. If something is to happen on school land, or some one else’s property, the project team must have written permission to do so: even if it is the installation of a litter bin, they must seek approval from the officials responsible. This is not just for the achievement of the specific project on which the young people are engaged: it is to get them into the habit of obeying rules and getting official permissions for doing what they want to do.

Budget and Sponsorship: Some older people tell us that we should not bother children’s heads about budgets and money: given the importance all governments attach to STEM subjects, this is most odd. Preparing an accurate budget for a Y-SAF project, getting it funded and then executing it as planned is one of the best possible exercise in the practical application of Mathematics. It will teach the students the importance of contingencies, of assessing whether spending less money on an item is a worthwhile saving or a false economy. When Peace Child International organised its Y-SAFs, it ensured that there was a few hundred pounds available to sponsor presenters’ projects. Though some projects can be cost-free or done with donated materials or services it is still worth encouraging your youth teams to budget accurately the cost of each item or service so that they can understand the real world value of what they propose to do.

And – Key Point – we would strongly recommend that the Budget to complete the project is raised BEFORE the project is started. Also, it should be banked in an account from which it can be disbursed to the Project Team as and when they need it. It is hugely dis-empowering to young people – and to those that seek to support them – if a project is abandoned when only half complete.

Schedule of Work to Completion: This is perhaps the hardest task the project team has to handle – as every member of it has school work to do, family holidays to go on, sports and leisure activities to pursue. And the expert elders you engage will likewise have other, busy lives. So getting days, afternoons, hours when everyone can be in the same place with the same purpose will be hard. Welcome to the real world, Kids! This is their challenge – and by following the three classic stages of project management – they will learn how things can get done, even if they don’t do it perfectly, they will come to realise, watching big government projects from HS2 to the digitisation of Post Office accounting systems, that almost no one does. Learning how to try is empowering for them:

1. Plan: Write down the dates and times of each Action required to complete your project with the name(s) of the person(s) responsible for delivering that Action alongside. Check and re-check the availability of those person(s) at the time stated, and the availability of the materials they will need to complete the Action. Some call this a “Movement Order.” In military terms, it could be called a “Plan of Attack.” For most of us, the simple term, “Management Plan” – explains what needs to be prepared.

2. Execute: The Y-SAF project implementation process allows young people to learn and demonstrate leadership skills: older people supporting the project team should notice and encourage different kinds of leadership by empowering different members of the team with responsibilities that are supported by that members character, talents and idiosyncrasies. For instance, a shy character can be transformed by being given responsibility for the accounts or materials of the project; a gregarious character can be made responsible for ensuring that personnel turn up on time. Peace Child encourages “Horizontal Leadership” with no one person taking full responsibility: in some projects, a single leader maybe necessary, but in most, the collective ownership of a team effort is what ends up empowering the most people.

3. Evaluate, Report & Celebrate: When the project is finally done and dusted, call the Project Team together for a final Evaluation Meeting. Dig out and distribute a copy of the original B-O-A-C proposal and ask the team to go through it, assessing how far each component has been fulfilled. We suggest you take it in reverse order, C-A-O-B. Look at the Costs first: how close were the team’s original Budget projections to the actual cost? Note down where the differences lay, and think about what caused them? Then move on to Actions: were there additional Actions? Did some become unnecessary? Were some dropped because they were too difficult? Objectives? Did you meet them? Were some more fully achieved than others? Finally – look back at your Basis for Action: was the problem actually as you perceived it to be? Was it a real challenge to Sustainability? – and by doing what you have done, have you advanced the sustainability of your community? If YES to the final question, plan a party to celebrate. For you have done the main thing that a Y-SAF sets out to achieve.