Peer Power
Develop your understanding of the significance of using collective voices to advocate for change. Write a letter to a person in power to highlight offensive weapon or youth violence issues within your community. What change would you like to see?
What you will need
You will need...
Timing: 45 mins
- Handout
- Lined paper
- Pens
- Text/images for gallery walk (optional)
Instructions
Start by...
Explain that we have the power to make a change within our communities and the more voices we gather the louder we are, and the more likely we are to be heard by influential people. Decide who you are going to be writing to: teacher, councillor, community police officer, politician etc. As a group, agree on what issue you would like to raise and what action you would like to see taken to make your community safer. To help learners come up with ideas they could go on a "gallery walk". Place images and information on knife crime and the drivers of youth violence at different stations around the room. Rotate the groups around the stations to help inspire learners with issues within the community they could focus on. Who is the best person to write to that could make this happen? A teacher? Councillor? Police? An organisation?
Middle bit...
As a group create a plan. Use the template in the handouts to help you. Provide tips for when they’re writing and allow them to begin.
End by...
Stop them every so often and ask someone to share what they’ve written so far. Re-emphasise the influence that they have to make change both within their community and nationally.
Have your supporter look over the letters before deciding whether they are appropriate to be sent to the chosen person.