Reflections from the Youth Caucus

We were privileged to be joined by eight young activists at the Transition Assembly. Most had not encountered our movement before. They had time together to explore, contributed fully to the programme and also brought their wisdom and advice to those present about how to engage young people and the challenges and opportunities they may find in getting involved.

During their time together, they compiled two useful guides for Transition Groups.

Guidance on Engaging and Including Young People

Youth Caucus Challenges & Ideas

Below two participants in the Youth Caucus share their reflections on the experience. Read our full Assembly article here.

The Power of VoiceS – and how they ec(h)o

By Brad Barrass 

I was hesitant to leave my winter hibernation to come to Manchester. But I am glad that I did. My name is Brad and I left the Transition Assembly with hope, strength and just a cosy feeling of wholeness.

Being a part of the Youth Caucus was empowering. We were received with open arms. And I drew power from the support of my fellow youth members. Speaking to the entire Assembly about the penumbra of problems that young people face in the world today was a little daunting! On the morning of the first day, we had reflected as a youth caucus about what we wanted to get out of the day. I mentioned that although I felt confident in small groups and duo dynamics, sometimes larger groups could be scary for me. So, of course, life gave me a chance to speak with a microphone to a whole hall and say a bit about myself and what I think is happening in the world today.

So yes, I was able to push this edge… and speak. And I felt pretty accomplished afterwards. But something else happened that I did not expect: in speaking about the importance of paid opportunities for young people, I uncovered a fire inside of me. ‘Damn, yeah, this is actually pretty important… and yeah… being recognised for my work with a monetary exchange can on one level be… just helpful… and empowering’. I guess living in capitalism is kind of complicated, and talking helped me find some nuance. When I had the microphone, I spoke about a book called Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth. Among many other amazing insights, Raworth discusses the danger of replacing intrinsic motivations (e.g reading books out of love) with extrinsic motivations (reading books because a parent or the state offers a financial incentive for good grades). This distinction stuck with me for ages!!! I have been worried about what the bloody hell I’m going to do with my life. Can I find something I am genuinely passionate about, can I uncover my gifts so that I can give them away to the world? And, even if I can, will their vitality have any chance of surviving against the wrath of commodification. But there was something forgiving, compassionate and gentle yet also fire-y and insightful about the moment I experienced speaking to the Assembly.

Young people should be able to engage in meaningful work whilst still building basic capacity: a home, food, and community. We should be able to tend to the land, to eat real food, and to fight for a world where our hearts can sing and our differences can shine. And we will. We are.

So I am left writing this blog slouched on a sofa next to my cat, Alan, in Doncaster, marvelling at what I experienced in Manchester. Being seen, received, and supported by so many people got my spirit dancing new moves.

Last night, the Youth Caucus met again for our debrief. I am left asking myself questions about what young people can achieve together: how powerful of a banner can ‘youth’ be? Forget the political parties, what about a youth assembly? Maybe we have more in common and can build more strength than any divisive ideology. And how can we fight for capacity-building paid work for the justice, land and environmental sector?

Ultimately, I do not feel I can serve the feelings and inspiration swirled up by the transition Assembly with words. That is what brought me hesitation in writing this blog. But I will serve these feelings with action. I will serve these feelings by promising to remember how visceral connection, community and life can be. I will serve the love I received at the assembly by continuing the search for my gifts and for the gifts in others. I will serve this love with resolve and hope. I will serve this love by finding other voyagers who want to live; who want us all to live fully and wholly.

“A better future and one day a better present”

By Lucy Campbell 

Sitting in a school hall in a circle and watching people speak on connectivity and the importance of communication and community I think that the setting is fitting, not just because we’re not all crammed in like sardines, but because we have all come together to share knowledge, and really, isn’t that what education is about? I think that’s the point of this all: Every group within Transition Together, be it the Youth Caucus, Just Transition or even the Journalists, every town and community. We are here to share information, stories, and ideas. It’s why many towns joined, it’s the platform Transition tries to give us. Education is a large part of the role that I played while there.

The Youth Caucus (caucus being a fancy word for a group brought together to promote the same thing—I’m pretty sure we all had to look it up) was a first-time group. Danny Balla and Gina Umney formed us as a response to a feeling within Transition that there wasn’t enough involvement from “The Youth”.

Originally, I hadn’t known that the Caucus was a thing and so was only brought in and signed up for the group after arriving, the elusive 8th member. None of us knew exactly what to expect or who anyone was, I think I’m the only one from a town that is even a part of Transition Together. Despite how welcoming everyone at the assembly was—and they were all truly welcoming—this did make us feel a little singled out. Over every break the Assembly had, we were all asked by people more than twice our age how to get youth involved, both in their movements and in environmentalism, Transition Together and sustainability. While this is an important question and one we did our very best to answer there is no “one-size-fits-all” we could give. It depends on the person and what the movements are doing—though we all agreed a social media presence would help.

I say all this to highlight the purpose the caucus was asked to serve, which was to give both an outsider’s perspective and try to promote youth involvement in Transition. Things that are both good ideas. Ultimately we fit into a niche that no other part of the organisation was serving, we covered a base that nobody else could and that people wanted the opinions of. We were there to educate them on the things that Transition couldn’t see, they knew that something was wrong and not quite clicking for the “youth” but they couldn’t know how to fix the issues that were there. We were there to share a perspective that no one else had and this, I think, is a part of the root of Transition.

The sharing of knowledge is important if any of us want our movements to sustain themselves, both inter-generationally and just between peers. Ultimately we cannot help our communities, ourselves or the society that we live in, without first knowing what the problems we face are and having the conversations that help to spark the ideas that serve as our tools to fix them. Conversations between like-minded people only goes so far though and when these ideas stagnate it’s good to go looking for people who are younger, or older, or who live in the next town over to get more, to find out how else to approach a or to combine old solutions into new ones. We are not AI generators that can pull ideas from a million different places at once. We require conversation, we require the ability to listen and to learn from one another to grow. Even having no idea what Transition Together was going into this, coming away from a weekend with them I think that I have learned what their purpose is—to give a platform for us, for all of us, to learn and grow and to build each other up into having a better future and one day a better present.

The Youth Caucus serves only a small part of this greater picture, an important one, yes, especially for the furthering of groups and movements, but we are a single part. It’s only as a collective that we can have any real, systemic change. Something that we dearly need to make not only our communities but the country as a whole a better place—for the environment, for ourselves, for our children and for our grandparents. We all need to be involved for this to be possible.

There’s a quote that I think applies from the Chinese Confucianist Philosopher Xunzi—born Xun Kuang—(c.310 BCE-c.238 BCE), “Not having heard something is not as good as having heard it; having heard it is not as good as having seen it; having seen it is not as good as knowing it; knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.” and that’s kind of wordy and long but what’s often derived from that is this: “tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

This Youthful Wisdom

By Joe Gartland

Papers by the Youth Caucus:

Guidance on Engaging and Including Young People

Youth Caucus Challenges & Ideas

Read more on the Assembly here.