A youth workshop at MyPlace Finsbury Park
By Hani Salih and Annick Matthews from the Quality of Life Foundation.
MyPlace Finsbury Park is a project that aims to empower local young people aged 13–18 to be researchers, advocates and leaders for the diverse communities they represent in Finsbury Park. Taking place over the course of the summer of 2022, the project is based in an urban room on Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park.
Last month, we delivered a workshop to the young participants that focused on how to carry out face to face engagement with community members, as well as introducing them to our Quality of Life framework themes as a tool to categorise and analyse feedback from respondents.
Over the course of the afternoon, participants at the workshop were invited to take their own experiences of everyday life in Finsbury Park and use the framework themes to think about their area.
Photos of the local area sparked questions and a lively debate;
Do you feel safe around the station bridge?
Does the money made at the music festival come back into the community?
Where do young people go for fun in Finsbury Park?
The young people went on to reflect on how these experiences impact their health and wellbeing, as well as thinking about how other members of their community might respond. To tie the learning together, participants engaged in a role playing session where they used both the Quality of Life themed questions and some that they created themselves to build the confidence needed to develop their own project. When presenting their unique projects to the Advisory Board, the passion and new skills of these young people was on full show.
