£35K SCHEME PUTS POLITICS ON AGENDA
Project aims to raise interest levels among students
DOZENS of teenagers are taking part in a £35,000 project to get more young people involved in politics and grassroots community campaigns.
The Government-funded scheme is one of several to celebrate 100 years since women got the right to stand as MPS and cast their votes in elections.
Now more than 40 students from Stoke-on-trent Sixth Form College and Newcastle College – most of them female – are exploring how to make the issue more relevant to the lives of their classmates.
It will see them work with professional artists to produce an animated film about politics and an art exhibition inspired by efforts to cut down on plastic waste.
They have also been finding out what it’s like to be a politician by meeting Stoke-ontrent North’s Labour MP Ruth Smeeth and Conservative councillor Abi Brown, deputy leader of Stoke-on-trent City Council.
Sixth form college student Lily Soaper has helped to survey hundreds of young people to find out what turns them off politics.
The 16-year-old, from Trentham, said: “A lot of the responses have been things like ‘it’s boring’ or people saying politicians don’t understand how they feel. As we can’t vote until 18, our age group gets ignored.”
Keren Mason hopes the animation will give young people more of an insight into how politics works and where different parties stand on key issues. The 16-year-old, from Trentham, said: “It’s about how we can make a difference.”
At Newcastle College, students have decided to look at one particular topic – the dangers posed by plastic.
Eighteen-year-old Holly Jones, from Packmoor, said: “We are going to be making a dining table completely out of plastic as part of the project.”
She has been struck by how many people her age are already put off voting.
MP Ruth said: “It’s about normalising that voting. On the doorstep, I still have too many people who are proud that they don’t vote. But I tell them they can’t complain about me if they don’t vote.”
She hopes the project will encourage more young women to consider going into local politics themselves.
Before she was elected to Parliament in 2015, there were fewer female MPS than there were MPS called John. That year, she was the only female general election candidate across the city.
Ruth recalls getting interested in politics from a young age. By the time she was eight, her trade unionist mum was getting her to submit annual pay claims for pocket money.
“There were negotiations and I learnt about things like interest,” she added.
The project linking college students with politics is being led by the arts and education organisation, Partners in Creative Learning. Its director, Erica Love, said: “It’s about engagement in civic life and how you can make a change. We want young people to step up and lead the way.”
The funding has been awarded through the women’s vote centenary grant scheme.