Room for Young People: introducing the judges!

With just two weeks until the nominations for the Room for Young People Inspiration Awards close, we’re delighted to share some details about the judging panel.

Team Young People is a collective of graduates from the Bootstrap Charity’s social enterprise programme in East London, each with a different lived experience of overcoming disadvantage.

Colin Falconer, Director of InspireChilli and Expert Consultant to the Foyer Federation, is a mentor on the Bootstrap programme. He established the Team as a space to collaborate with, and provide opportunities for, young people to benefit their own social ventures while informing InspireChilli’s asset-based training and consultancy offer.

A key principle of Team Young People is that members are always paid for their skills, insights and time, with access to ongoing peer and mentor support. The Team’s skill base in graphic design, film, youth-led training, research and mental health expertise has supported a number of InspireChilli’s contracts. Their biggest achievement to date has been helping to shape InspireChilli’s research for an exciting new proposal investing directly in young people’s potential to create personal and social change, which is being launched as a pilot programme with two funders in 2020.

Two members of the Team won the ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Breakthrough’ categories at last year’s Inspiration Awards. One of these is Bea Herbert, who is also a speaker for this year’s mental health and wellbeing workshop. The Team reflect the youthful innovation spirit of InspireChilli and will bring a savvy perspective as enthusiastic judges for inspiration in the sector.

Don’t forget: you have until the end of August to nominate your young people, staff or service. Take a look at the event poster and follow the links to nominate someone for an award and to buy your tickets. We hope to see you there!