Young Advisors are experienced volunteers who are actively involved with a community organisation in the StreetGames network. For StreetGames Summer Camp 2022, a team of 14 Young Advisors worked with StreetGames staff to take a lead on all aspects of the camp, from initial planning right through to the delivery of the event itself.
Kai is 16 and from Wigan. They joined the Summer Camp Young Advisor team as they were completing their GCSEs, with plans to go on to college in September 2022. Kai is a Young Ambassador with their local OnSide Youth Zone, having originally joined as a participant around 6 years ago. Initially joining the Youth Voice group as a way to spend more time with their favourite Youth Worker, they found that they were able to get ideas across quickly and clearly and realised how much they enjoyed amplifying the voices of their peers: “I get forward a lot of young people’s ideas and I can make them happen. Their reaction when we get something done is everything.”
It was through being a member of the Youth Voice group that Kai found out about the opportunity to become a Young Advisor for Summer Camp. Kai describes their main role at Camp as being the “mic man”: “I like speaking on the mic and telling everybody to get up. I’ve been chatting to people and getting to know people. I’m the same age as most of the young people so we get along and can relate on a lot of stuff”. This experience, along with their role as part of the Youth Voice group, has been a unique development opportunity for Kai, particularly in terms of confidence: “I wasn’t the most confident before I started, you were lucky if you heard me speak. I didn’t do anything, and I stayed in the corner, silent … To get where I am now has been extremely hard and I wouldn’t have done this about 3 months ago but I’ve come out of my shell because speaking to new people helps me learn new skills.”
Alongside this ‘soft’ skills development, Kai also relished the opportunity to take part in new activities and experiences at Summer Camp, including the camping itself and trips offsite to see events at the Commonwealth Games – and ranked the overall experience as 10/10: “It’s been absolutely incredible, it’s been amazing because the vibe’s been great. The campfires, talking to people, doing activities. It’s been action packed but very fun.”
In the future, Kai is keen to pursue a career working with young people – something they attribute to their volunteering journey and the opportunities they have had as part of this: “It’s always been a dream of mine since I joined the Youth Zone. It’s an amazing thing what they are doing and what StreetGames is doing and I want to be a part of that.”
