Resilience Revolution – Activist in Residence project

The Boingboing approach to resilience is about “beating the odds, whilst also changing the odds”. This means that as well as creating opportunities for people and communities to bounce forward through tough times, we take action together to change things that are unfair and make things tougher for people in the first place.

In Blackpool, people and communities across the whole town are joining together to apply this approach to resilience in their own lives, homes, schools, workplaces and support services. This collective action is known as the Resilience Revolution! Part of what we have been doing is exploring the potential of activism to prevent, address and reduce mental health problems through positive action (beating the odds), whilst at the same time, tackle injustice and issues that can impact so negatively on our mental health (change the odds).

As part of our contribution to co-leading the Resilience Revolution, we are launching an exciting new project which is all about creating more ways for people to take part in activity to change the odds – by becoming a Youth Activist in Residence!

But what is activism? Check out our short animation (also visible below), co-produced by Henry (Boingboing), Jess, Gracjan & Dylan (Grand Young Company) to find out more and for some ways you can get involved.

True to one of the Resilience Revolution fundamentals (co-production), we have worked with some brilliant people to co-create what we think a residency should look like – and we are now ready to share this with the world and launch our call for:

HOST ORGANISATIONS who are willing to support a residency
Check out the brief for details of what’s involved and get in touch if you want to find out more. We are hoping to create a ‘bank’ of host organisations who are willing to support the project and will then match a Youth Activist with them
YOUTH ACTIVISTS
Check out the brief for an overview of what it’s all about – we hope we have given you enough information to consider your ideas, but you can get in touch with us to talk it through if you wish. We will need to make sure that what we have to offer is a good fit for the ideas and change you want to make happen. So, we are asking anyone interested to submit a ‘Hope for Change’ which will help us choose who to partner with in this round.

ALLIES & SUPPORTERS – you might love the sound of the project but not be in a position to host or be outside the age range to take up a residency but we’d still love to hear from you! We believe in the power of the collective and know that this project has the best chance of achieving change when it is surrounded by allies and supporters. There are loads of ways to contribute from shouting about it to others, to connecting people up, to mentoring a Youth Activist or taking part in a skills swap. Whatever it is you think you can offer, get in touch.

Contact Henry on [email protected] / 07999467704 – we can’t wait to hear from you!

Activist in Residence – let’s make it happen

An activist is someone who sees something wrong in society, and wants to help change things for the better.

Activists do all sorts of different things. They organise community groups, they lead marches, make films and talk to politicians.

The point is that anyone can be an activist. Maybe you’re worried about knife crime.

Maybe you’re concerned about homelessness,

Or perhaps you think we’re just not doing enough to protect the environment. Whatever it may be, if you want to do something about it, then become an activist, and help us to make a change.

Watch our workshops: how to do community co-research on health equity

Created as part of the ongoing Community Solutions for Health Equity project that Boingboing Foundation are proudly part of, we are pleased to share recordings of a series of workshops held recently in Blackpool. These workshops are free resources to be taken advantage of by any community members or organisations looking for a beginner’s guide to developing the research skills and knowledge needed to explore health inequalities in coastal areas.

A guide to becoming more eco-friendly in Blackpool and the Fylde Coast

Hi, I’m Maya, and I wanted to say a big thank you to you for reading. These guides were created to help people in Blackpool and the Fylde Coast become more environmentally friendly, without feeling too overwhelmed by climate issues. They were produced as part of the Boingboing Activist in Residence project, which gave me the opportunity to work as an Eco-activist in Residence at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. I decided that I wanted to use this role to make two guides: one for local residents, and another for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals’ Green Champions.

The Boingboing Resilience Framework

The Resilience Framework is a handy table that summarises ‘what works’ when supporting children and young people’s resilience according to the Resilience Research base. The Resilience Framework forms a cornerstone of our research and practice. On this page we have pulled together lots of useful links so you can find out all about the Resilience Framework.

Ready, Set, Resilience

Ready, Set, Resilience is a workbook and supporting guidance created to support young people’s resilience aimed at year 9 students. It uses mixture of activities which support individual resilience (beating the odds) and activities to support changing the odds like activism.

More Than Words: Supporting effective communication with autistic people in health care settings

Over several months our autistic CSRJ and Boingboing colleague, Dr Gemma Williams, worked with a stakeholder group to co-produce some guidelines for communicating well with autistic people in healthcare settings.

Activism is for everyone – and it’s essential for building resilience

I stood there on a warm August day with a sense of hope. People of all ages had come together for Make A Change, the inaugural launch event of the Activist Alliance in Blackpool. And it seemed to have come at just the right time. Things seem to be going from bad to...