THE ADVOCATES
MORE THAN JUST DREAMERS
WHY WE DO IT
For Advocates
KNOWING | DOING | BEING | BECOMING
We see the dangerous impact that feeling disaffected can have on the confidence and aspirations of young people. Feeling unrepresented and powerless can lead them down a path of apathy and alienation.
Advocating for social change instills in a young person a sense of self-worth, giving them the power to change their own lives through improving the lives of others. They take the future of the world into their own hands and are no longer voiceless.
Knowledge & Insight: We broaden young people's knowledge of the world and the role they want to play in it, helping to extend their learning beyond the classroom. Our team of experts address real-world issues and the tactics that successfully effect change.
Skills: We know that many students leave education unprepared to lead in the real world. Academic qualifications do not always teach the skills they need to succeed. That’s why we focus on developing
three skills every leader and employer needs: Collaboration, communication & critical thinking.
Character: To make a difference, young people need healthy attitudes towards themselves and the world. They need to believe that change is possible and that they are capable of creating it. That’s why every element of our programme focuses on developing 6 key strengths: confidence, leadership, compassion, Grit, self-awarenes & hope.
Networks & Access: We know that young people from disadvantaged communities lack access to people with power and influence. We introduce them to powerful campaigners, grassroots organisers, politicians and Chief Executives (we could go on...) who expand their networks, deliberately choosing young role models to demonstrate that power isn’t always connected to age. And our participants join a small cohort who experience the year together, becoming a close-knit network of their own.
Action: In developing all of the above, our Advocates will embark on a path of life-long democratic participation. They take part in campaigns, vote in elections, advocate on behalf of causes, dream big for themselves and their communities, self-educate, and generally "become the change" they want to see.
For Schools
- Promotes the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of pupils and of society
- Prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life
- Supports the school’s provision of personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE)
- Actively promotes fundamental British values
- Curriculum links to many subjects, including Citizenship, RE, Geography, English and History
- Teaches leadership skills that Fellows can use to improve their school community
- A valuable use of Pupil Premium funding
- Encourages a greater sense of citizenship within schools
- Enhances written and oral communication through speech writing and delivery, debates and discussion
- We want all our participants to achieve academically, and so we pair every one of our students with a coach to help them increase their attainment.
For Society
For the Community: We are developing a new generation of community leaders who work together to make their local areas better places to grow up and live. We believe that we must increase active citizenship and strengthen local networks in order to assure the future vibrancy of British democracy. Our Advocates generate a ripple effect, impacting their families, friends, schools and wider communities.
For Society: Civil society is dominated by the privileged few. Valuable voices are missing from the debate, leading to policies and provisions that fail to reflect the diverse experiences and interests of all our communities. Good policy needs everyone's input.
Our Advocates are these voices.
CHANGEMAKERS
Our Changemakers sit at the heart of The Advocacy Academy's Social Justice Fellowship. Guiding every moment of the Fellowship journey, this small team of exceptional educators spend six months doing the deep work of turning a group of strangers into a powerful, close-knit community of leaders. Changemakers draw on their knowledge, experience and identities to deliver this transformational journey, and at any moment can find themselves wearing the hat of workshop facilitator, youth worker, artist, debate partner, disciplinarian, cheerleader, learning designer, speechwriter, mediator, tour guide or activist.
We’re looking for someone to join us who is as passionate as we are about building the world as it should be. If you’re a youth worker who dares to dream of a different world, or an activist educator who’s fired-up by the idea of shaping young people’s vision of the community they live in, we can’t wait to meet you.
Please read the role description below, and send applications to Liz@TheAdvocacy Academy.com by midnight on Sunday 10th May 2020.
CAMPAIGN COACHES
Over the years The Advocacy Academy has powered many incredible campaigns. The campaigns are designed by our Advocates, born out of their fierce dedication to justice, but our Campaign Coaches help bring those campaigns to life. Campaign Coaches join Advocates for a few hours every fortnight over the six months of the Social Justice Fellowship. They share advice, shape ideas, and tap into their contacts to help our young people make magic. We’re looking for activists, campaigners, strategists or lobbyists - all connected by a desire to make the world a better place.
Please read Campaign Coach Brief below and email Liz@TheAdvocacyAcademy.com outlining your interest before 30th May 2020.
BECOME A TRUSTEE
We're on the hunt for a Chair of Trustees to join our Trustee Board! We're especially excited about applications from people of colour, women, disabled, working class & LGBTQ+ people.
Please read the role description and send applications to Hello@TheAdvocacy Academy.com
SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT
Your donations are what allow us to create this incredible community of social justice leaders.
Creators: Liv Francis-Cornibert | Kofi Asante | Shiden Tekle | Bel Matos da Costa
Photographer: Al Overdrive
Graphic Designer: Matt Bonner
Fairy Godmother: Ayeisha Thomas Smith
Bus Stop Brandalists: Special Patrol Group
BUT WHO ARE YOU?
Amelia Viney
Founder & Chief Advocate
Amelia has a background in Youth Movement leadership, and cut her teeth in politics as a Parliamentary Researcher in Westminster and a civil rights lobbyist in Washington, DC. She is hugely passionate about bringing these two worlds together to empower young leaders to improve their own lives and the lives of others.
Saba Shafi
Management Director
Saba has an MBA from Wharton and eight years of management consultancy experience. She kicked-off her career leading healthcare initiatives in refugee camps and diversity and inclusion programmes in graduate schools in the US. Saba is passionate about growing TAA. She would also like to go into space, if anyone has a ticket.
Liz Ward
Programmes Director
Liz is an educator, collaborator and activist, who first found her feet in Climate Justice after graduating in Zoology. She spent the start of her career travelling the length and breadth of the country, delivering workshops and speeches in schools, followed by managing a youth project in London, working with survivors of exploitation. She has been known to spit a few bars on the spoken word poetry scene and is still living off the glory of being signed to Everton Football Club U13s team.
Anneka Deva
Community Director
Anneka began her career running youth leadership programmes at a national charity, and has since gone on to hone storytelling and community-building skills at an award-winning brand agency, a tech startup accelerator, and the University of Birmingham. As a born and bred Brummie, Anneka founded and led TEDxBrum, one of the most respected TEDx events in the UK. She also hosted the first Enrol Yourself ‘learning marathon’ for lifelong learners outside London, and has run an actual half-marathon (but won’t be doing that again
anytime soon).
Alex Johnston
JustEducation Director
Alex has an MA in Social Justice and Education and a plucky disposition. She is obsessive about transformative justice responses to harm and violence within the UK education system and brings her expertise to the curriculum and delivery of JustEducation, and TAA at large.
Tom Ross Williams
Alumni Engagement & Creative Director
Tom is an actor, theatre-maker and activist. Their passion is bringing together the arts and social justice. They have been a Changemaker with The Advocacy Academy for over five years. In their role as Creative Director they develop partnerships with arts organisation and find innovative ways to integrate arts into the Fellowship as both a tool for pedagogy and for change.
Darcey Williamson
Leadership Director
Darcey has over 10 years experience of youth work and social justice education, tackling many different forms of violence young people endure and co-running anti-gentrification projects. With an MA in Applied Anthropology and Youth Work, Darcey aligns her practice with a self-emancipatory, radical youth work paradigm. As Leadership Director, Darcey leads our Younger Changemaker Apprenticeship programme, training and supporting our Alumni community to develop the leadership practice and social justice education methods to become Changemakers.
Laurence Palfreyman
Liberation Psychology Director
Laurence is a psychologist primarily based in the NHS. He's trained in a variety of models including CBT, psychodynamic, systemic, neuropsychology and body-based approaches to the impact of trauma. He is passionate about radical liberation psychology practices that position mental health problems as human responses to oppression and abuses of power. He believes that resistance and campaigning for social change is an essential part of addressing mental health. Laurence supports The Advocacy Academy through training, consultancy and developing the in-house psychotherapy service.
Amelia Leeson
Content Producer
Amelia is a writer and producer who has jumped at the opportunity to help grow The Advocacy Academy. She brings corporate experience in leadership development training, with a filmmaking background in feminist activism, to her current role banging the drum for our movement.
YOU'RE AWESOME, LET'S TALK.
