- Inspire young people through civil education workshops
- In person and online
- Two hours per week
- No experience needed
What is Inspire, Debate, Change
Inspire, Debate, Change supports University of Southampton students to deliver civic education workshops for primary school pupils.
The programme benefits young people from disadvantaged backgrounds by building their awareness and knowledge of citizenship and politics. Improving their critical thinking skills, and connection to their community to ultimately empower active citizenship. The programme will also benefit your engagement with the world around you, wellbeing and key skills such as confidence, resilience, leadership and teamwork.
This helped me gain confidence in myself as a leader and proved that I could still maintain a personal relationship with the young people while in a leadership role. The confidence I gained from my role with Inspire, Debate, Change has translated to a greater self-assurance in my everyday life. It has also encouraged me to do attempt more new things without the fear of failure.
Inspire, Debate, Change volunteer 2021-22
What you’ll be doing
As an Inspire, Debate, Change volunteer you will attend and deliver six weekly workshops with young people. The days and times of these projects will be confirmed shortly.
How to get involved
To apply you need to complete an application form to let us know why you’re interested in Inspire, Debate, Change, your availability for training and which series of workshops you want to take part in.
Once we’ve heard from you the next steps will be:
- Attending introductory training, including child safeguarding
- Attending workshop training
- Completing a DBS check
- Attending a project induction
If you have any questions, or require any support to get involved, don’t hesitate to contact Catherine at catherine.taplin-thorpe@southamptonhub.org.
FAQ
There are loads of benefits for you if you get involved with Southampton Hub. These include:
- Having an impact in the community. You can make a difference and support active citizenship
- You will develop key skills including teamwork, leadership, resilience and confidence. This will be supported by the professional training you receive and the support you get throughout your experience
- A certificate recognising the commitment you’ve made, which you can put on your CV and share on Linkedin
We’ve assessed the accessibility of all our opportunities and are able to discuss these with you prior to you starting your placement, this includes any reasonable adjustments we can make. All accessibility information will also be sent to you prior to your placement as standard. If you have any questions about accessibility, or want to make request a reasonable adjustment, please reach out to Catherine at catherine.taplin-thorpe@southamptonhub.org.
Some examples of reasonable adjustments we can offer include:
- Using an expensed taxi service to aid mobility conditions
- Making sure there is seating with no arms
- Extra time to complete activities in training, as you would get in exams
Our activities are all open for everyone so if you’ve not been involved in social action before, or you’re apprehensive about getting involved, reach out to Catherine at catherine.taplin-thorpe@southamptonhub.org. All of our opportunities practice a safe space policy meaning they are supportive, non-judgemental and always willing to listen.
We will be in touch as soon as we’ve read your application. We will let you know about upcoming training, our available opportunities and other key information to support the application process such as expectations to complete safeguarding training and get a DBS check.
DBS stands for Disclosure and Barring Service. These provide a UK criminal records check and are required when individuals are working closely with young people or adults at risk, or have access to sensitive information. In order to get your DBS check you will need:
- Your address history for the last five years
- Your national insurance number
- Your passport, driving license or other form of ID
Southampton Hub pays for the check and will support you at every step of the process. If you have a question about this check or want to make a self-disclosure about a criminal record please reach out to Catherine at catherine.taplin-thorpe@southamptonhub.org.
In order to support you to be confident working with young people as an Inspire, Debate, Change volunteer we deliver comprehensive training covering:
- Safeguarding, to ensure both you and the young people you work with are kept safe
- Advice on delivering the workshops, to ensure you share key information in an engaging way
- Working with young people, to give you the confidence you need to communicate with pupils and manage behaviour
It’s natural to feel nervous when you try new things, but don’t let you put that off. If you want to talk to a member of our team before applying or attending a session you can email them. Or if you’re not sure who to speak to email info@southamptonhub.org and we’ll get back to you.
Some things we recommend often include joining the programme with a friend – you could sign up together and come to the same session so that you’ll have a friendly face. Alternatively, you could arrange to meet a member of our team before a session so that you get to know each other 1-1 and can travel together. We’ll work together to find a solution which supports you to get involved, whatever that may be.