Democratic Citizenship - Women of WASSUP

Women of Wassup was born out of an identified need to discuss topics that are affecting the lives of young people; topics that are believed by our volunteers not to be discussed enough on a socital and/or governmental level. Volunteers have come together to raise awareness of the isues that affect them and their peers in an accessible, free to access podcast format that can be found here: https://anchor.fm/youthinaction/episodes/WOW---Women-Of-WASSUP---Consent-part-2-ejnavo

This is a project that engages young people who identify as women to raise awareness of topics and discuss them on a podcase as a planned objective with measurable results (how many people listen to the podcasts). This will attempt to implement change by providing other young people with the ability to articulate the issues around them and raise them with influential figures in their community (i.e. councillors and politicians). 

The voices of young women are not being heard on a governmental level. Women of Wassup: Topics for Democratic Citizenship will raise the issues that are affecting young people in their communities and mobilise their peers to have active conversations with influential people in society,

Knowing around community barriers

The Women of WASSUP: topics for democratic citizenship podcast project was delivered in phases.

During each phase, volunteers should be supported by the Youth Worker to move at a pace that they are comfortable with. The topics that were chosen for discussion as part of this project are potential triggers for young people, especially young people who are BAME and we have a responsibility as Youth Workers to safeguard our volunteers and support them as they explore the content for the podcasts.

This project is intended to be a safe space for people as women and the security of this should not be compromised. Anonymity is also something to consider in order to protect the identities of volunteers as they will be discussing topics that are potentially sensitive.

This project is a safespace for people who identify as women.

The podcast took an overall 1 hour and 10 minutes in length. The first 10 minutes of the podcast were focused on an introduction to this volunteer-led project for young women, who want to raise issues on topics that they believe are not discussed enough or effectively on a governmental level. Volunteers choose the topics and research, presenting their findings in a podcast format that is free to access so that they may engage as many of their peers as possible in these very important topics that affect all lives within their communities.

In the next 10 minutes, preliminary planning took place, explaining that this project is intended to be a safe space for people, and that their safety and security should not be compromised. Anonymity is also something to consider protecting the identities of the volunteers, as they will be discussing topics that are potentially sensitive.

The further 10 minutes were devoted to volunteer recruitment, explaining that the youth worker should recruit volunteers from the local community. At Volunteering Matters, this project works with young people who identify as women so that the content created can tackle the issues and barriers faced by women in the community. This project takes place in Suffolk, South-East England. Further background information was given that Volunteering Matters recruits volunteers through online advertisements, community advertisements and through local schools and youth clubs.

In this part of the podcast, it was also explained that during each phase, volunteers should be supported by the youth worker, to move at a pace that they are comfortable with. The topics that were chosen for discussion as part of this project are potential triggers for young people, especially young people who are BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) and that youth workers have a responsibility to safeguard volunteers and support them as they explore the content for the podcasts.

Over the next 10 minutes the podcast looked at deciding on topics and research. The youth worker should empower volunteers to decide on topics that affect them in their communities, especially on topics that are relevant to themes of democratic citizenship. The youth worker should support volunteers to create documents of research that they can use when recording their conversations for the podcast. On the UK project, volunteers chose to discuss men, female friendship and to produce a Black History Month special podcast episode.

Creating the podcast took the next 10 minutes. The youth worker should support volunteers to record their conversations for their podcasts. Recording the conversations for the podcasts can be as easy as recording the conversation or as complicated as using podcast recording software. In this session, the participants recorded group calls on Microsoft Teams and Zoom and used the audio files as their podcasts on the UK project. It is advised that the youth worker should review the content to ensure quality and appropriateness, and work with volunteers to re-record sections where necessary. In this session, the group used the programme Audacity to stitch the audio files together.

The further 10 minutes were on disseminating the podcast. The youth worker should upload the podcasts to an online provider. Here, the group used Anchor, because it is free to use, and it is a simple platform, meaning volunteers of most learning ability levels would be able to engage with it. They shared the hyperlink to the podcast to local schools, colleges and youth clubs, as well as with the councillors from the local authority. They also shared the podcasts online so that the general public could engage with their podcasts.

And finally, as evaluation is very important, the last 10 minutes was focused on evaluating the impact of the podcast. Because this is a grassroots initiative, the only impact the group measured was how many people accessed the podcasts, which is free to access when using the Anchor platform.