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How It All Began

By John Potter, Co-founder of Changemakers

In 1994 when I was Director of CSV Education, a division of the CSV the nationwide volunteering organisation, I met Jim Cogan. He arrived at office door with a burning concern that we should look for ways of actively engaging young people - many of whom were seen as relatively affluent - in contributing to the quality of life in their communities. Jim at the time - in addition to his role as a teacher and deputy head at Westminster School - was Director of School Partnerships Worldwide (SPW) a pioneering organisation that enabled young people to take an active part in supporting teaching and learning in schools in developing countries across the world. At CSV the Education team was concentrating on developing opportunities for young people - as part of their life and work in schools, colleges and universities - to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding through active engagement with their local and wider communities. It was clear that we had shared interests and, to a significant extent, a shared vision of what could and should be achieved.

After talking with Elisabeth Hoodless, the Executive Director of CSV, we agreed to host a partnership project at CSV under the name Changemakers. The name was suggested by an initiative in the States. The focus was on creating opportunities for young people of secondary school age to identify, manage, review and promote projects designed to tackle issues that they themselves regarded as important. The emphasis was on social enterprise and youth leadership and initiative rather than on the more traditional forms of volunteering and community involvement. We had, for some years, been developing this approach at CSV under the leadership of Dave Turner, an enterprising and energetic Australian who had previously developed the City programme in his home country. Dave immediately invested Changemakers with the community enterprise skills that he had been promoting through a series of CSV pilot projects across England. While all this was happening, CSV was developing three other major education projects. We were too stretched to cope with a fourth development on our own. We, therefore, agreed to promote Changemakers as a joint initiative with other agencies and youth organisations across the country. Jim shrewdly suggested involving Michael Norton, who had recently handed over the leadership of the successful Directory of Social Change and was looking for fresh challenges. We made links with several national organisations including Demos and the Secondary Heads Association, but the central thrust remained with the small executive team under the guidance of Michael and the development work of Dave Turner.

Looking back, it is encouraging to see that events bore out our early conviction that the secret of successful citizenship education - for as such it was increasingly being labeled - is the opportunity for young people to take responsibility for their own initiatives. Changemakers was constantly tempted to spread its net widely over the whole business of youth involvement, but time and again we came back to our core task: young people's leadership in doing what they believe needs to be done. This central focus consistently demonstrated the central importance of two key principles:

  1. Young people learn most effectively when they take responsibility for their own actions.
  2. Social challenges are best solved by those most affected by them - in this case young people.

These two lessons are, thanks not least to Changemakers, slowly being taken on board by policymakers and practitioners across the spectrum of public life.

The History of Changemakers



2006

  • David Cameron, newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, lays down a challenge to the youth sector to develop a new co-ordinated approach to support young people's transition to adulthood. Changemakers is a co-founder of the organisation which emerges to address this challenge, the Young Adult Trust. Adam Nichols authors the organisation's first publication, Purpose, Optimism, Belonging.
  • The new Y FUND programme is created to support local authorities in their delivery of the Youth Opportunity and Capital Funds, which place young people in control of a substantial proportion of the youth service budget in their area.
  • A new partnership is formed with ContinYou to further develop the Active Citizens in Schools programme.
  • Changemakers is commissioned by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to contribute a Social Enterprise module to the new Enterprise Education Toolkit.
  • Changemakers is rated as one of the top Millennium Volunteers providers in England in a quality audit by the DfES.
  • v, the new Russell Commission implementation body, is launched. Changemakers is commissioned by v to develop the volunteering infrastructure in the North East of England and to create a new Virtual Volunteering project with the Choose Action Alliance.
  • The Choose Action Alliance secures its first major funding from the Home Office to build its delivery capacity and establish a governance structure.

2005

  • Tony Blair endorses the work of Changemakers in Prime Minister's Question Time.
  • The first Changemakers Parliamentary Event is held, with over 100 guests in attendance and a keynote speech from Paul Goggins, Minister for Volunteering. Following the event an early day motion supporting our work is signed by over 50 MPs from all 3 main political parties.
  • The Russell Commission publishes its final report on the future of youth volunteering in England. The report strongly endorses the work of Changemakers and we are commissioned by the Home Office to produce Jus' Do It, a publication for volunteering and governmental organisations who wish improve the way they attract and retain young people from black, minority, ethnic and faith groups.
  • Changemakers contributes to the development of the Youth Matters Green Paper
  • All schools are now required to provide 5 days of enterprise education to year 10 students. Changemakers redevelops its Social Enterprise programme to enable schools to meet this agenda.
  • The Y ACT programme is expanded with a further 3 years' funding secured from the DfES and the Charles Hayward Foundation.
  • The Big Boost is launched to provide grants to young social entrepreneurs between the ages of 11 and 25. Funded by the Big Lottery Fund, Changemakers delivers the programme in partnership with UnLtd, the Prince's Trust and the Scarman Trust.
  • Make it Work, a Social Enterprise programme aimed at some of the most marginalised young people in the UK, is developed with the Prince's Trust.
  • Changemakers works with Voices for Change to help organise the International Summer School in Pune, India.
  • Changemakers joins up with the Bangladeshi NGO Working for a Better Life, under the British Council's Connecting Futures programme, to manage a series of exchange programmes involving young people in Bangladesh and the UK.
  • Changemakers develops a Peer Inspectors scheme, piloted in Camden, in which young people are trained to inspect youth services.
  • Changemakers grows from 5 to 18 staff. The Somerset office is closed with central operations relocated to London. We move to our own offices in Aldgate.
  • Changemakers revamps its image with a new brand and website.

2004

  • Changemakers celebrates its 10th anniversary with an event featuring Margaret Hodge, Minister for Children and Young People and Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop.
  • Changemakers holds a high profile social enterprise event at the DTI in London as part of Enterprise Week.with Nigel Griffiths, Social Enterprise Minister, as keynote speaker.
  • The DfES contracts Changemakers to deliver Y SPEAK, a youth led grants scheme providing funding for projects which enable young people to consult with policy and decision makers. Over the next 18 months, youth boards award over 200 grants totalling nearly £1m and over 20,000 young people participate in consultation projects.
  • The Choose Action Alliance is formed to pool knowledge and experience in order to play a leading role in the transformation of the youth sector. The Alliance comprises five youth organisations: Student Volunteering England, Youth Action Network, Worldwide Volunteering, YouthNet and Changemakers.
  • Changemakers makes a major contribution to Mike Tomlinson's review of 14-19 education.
  • Changemakers is featured in the Institute for Public Policy Research pamphlet 'Something for Something'.
  • The DfES commissions Changemakers to develop young person led practice through the Millennium Volunteers scheme with a publication and training programme.
  • Changemakers publishes the Guide to REAL Citizenship.
  • The Citizenship in Action award is piloted in Berwick.
  • The DfES commissions Changemakers to disseminate the Active Citizens in Schools programme to 12 local education authorities across England.
  • Changemakers opens an office in London, incorporates sister organisation Changemakers North East and opens an office in Newcastle.
  • Adam Nichols succeeds Jane Buckley as CEO.

2003

  • Changemakers is chosen to manage one of the DfES / LSC funded Enterprise Pathfinder programmes. Our Social Enterprise programme is developed in 22 schools over the following 2 years.
  • Changemakers is represented on the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and the DfES Gap Year Consultation Group.
  • Young Advocate Ataf Sabir impresses many with his Radio Ramadan project and an appearance on Radio 4's "Midweek" with Libby Purves.
  • Changemakers is commissioned by the British Council to design and introduce a Civic Society module into the Leadership programme for schools in Romania.
  • Changemakers develops a partnership with Anglicare to introduce the Changemakers approach in Australia.

2002

  • Changemakers is featured in the Howard Davies review of enterprise education.
  • Changemakers is represented on the Windsor Group on the Future of Youth Volunteering.
  • Changemakers is featured in the DfES 'Learning to Listen' publication.
  • A feature on Young Advocate Adam Short is published in The Guardian.
  • Changemakers secures funding from the DfES and Diana Memorial Fund to rollout the Young Advocates programme across all nine English regions. 45 young people participate in the programme over the next 3 years.
  • Kiffer Weisselberg succeeds Christine de Cruz as Chair of the Board.

2001

  • Changemakers is commissioned by the DfES to develop the Active Citizens in Schools programme, involving 22 schools in Cambridgeshire over the following 3 years.
  • The City Parochial Foundation and the Tudor Trust fund the 3 year Youth Bank in Schools pilot in 11 schools in London and the Midlands.
  • Changemakers publishes its hugely successful Facilitator's, Developer's and Young Person's Guides, which are still in print 5 years later.
  • Changemakers Foundation is established as a limited company and registered charity.
  • Christine de Cruz succeeds Michael Norton as Chair of the Board.
  • Jane Buckley becomes the first CEO of Changemakers.

2000

  • The Lloyds TSB Foundation funds the pilot of the Young Advocates programme.
  • Changemakers is a co-founder of UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs.
  • Changemakers is represented on the DfEE Advisory Group on Post 16 Citizenship.

1999

  • Action Pays, a youth led grants scheme funded by the Community Fund, is established in partnership with the National Council of Voluntary Youth Services. Over the next 3 years the project enables thousands of young people to run projects that make a positive impact upon their local community.

1998

  • Changemakers is a co-founder of YouthBank UK, a partnership which also includes the National Youth Agency, the Prince's Trust, Community Foundation Network and the British Youth Council. YouthBank extends the concept of young person led into decision-making on the allocation of resources. Six pilot programmes are established in Bradford, Bristol, the Highlands, Northern Ireland, Tower Hamlets and Tyne and Wear.

1997

  • Changemakers North East is established to provide regional leadership for the development of Changemakers in the region.
  • The Changemakers Foundation is established to formalise the organisation's structure.

1996

  • Changemakers commissions think tank Demos to explore the potential of active learning in the community as an important part of the educational process. Tom Bentley starts work on the seminal text "Learning Beyond the Classroom".
  • A national network of trainer-consultants is set up to respond to requests from schools and youth clubs for information on the Changemakers approach and to develop new Changemakers projects.
  • Changemakers actively lobbies for the creation of a national volunteering programme based on the young person led approach. This approach is eventually incorporated into the Millennium Volunteers Scheme introduced by the incoming 1997 Labour government.
  • Changemakers also lobbies for active learning in the community to be incorporated into the plans for Citizenship Education.

1995

  • Changemakers establishes an executive committee to oversee its activities. Michael Norton is appointed Executive Chair to lead the development of Changemakers supported with back office facilities provided by Community Service Volunteers.
  • Changemakers decides to devote half its resources to initiating pilot projects and half towards advocating a young person led approach.
  • A consortium of charitable trusts, including Tudor, Esmee Fairbairn and Wates, agrees to fund Changemakers for three years (later extended by another two years).
  • Young people make a keynote presentation at the Secondary Heads Association Annual Conference, attended by the Secretary of State for Education.

1994

  • Changemakers is founded by Jim Cogan, Michael Norton, John Potter and Dave Turner with an initial grant of £20,000 to pilot a new concept of "young person led community action" in schools and youth clubs.
  • Six schools establish pilot projects.
  • The Chairman of the Secondary Heads Assocation selects Changemakers as his special charitable project for the year.

 

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