A/UK 4th Anniversary: Overlooked and undervalued by the powers that be, ReGen A requires transformative "learning clubs"
We have been conscious of A/UK being in a long tradition of citizens education. This is made all the more obvious by our Scandinavian inspiration and its traditions of bildung, the late 19th century character education that seems to be the Nordic Secret to these countries success.
What a Bildung 2.0 might be has certainly been one of our deep interests - our relationship with the research institute Perspectiva (who are publishing our next A/UK inspired book, The Politics of Waking Up) is close and ongoing in that regard.
But we want to show you in this anniversary week how these interests are hitting the ground running. They are being particularly driven by our hundreds of co-creators - who are bringing their talents, experience and time to building the conditions for a transformed politics.
Coming from two leading co-creators, the core A/UK associate Maria Dorthea Skov and teacher Roz Birch, this is a proposal of a new kind of “youth education”. But this is a “learning club” which goes far beyond the usual instrumentalising of “young people” (18-25), on behalf of old ideologies and vested interests.
We have coined the term “ReGen A” at the Alternative UK (as opposed to any Gen Z or Gen Alpha). ReGen A we think correctly describes the potential of this youngest generation of adults to seize our crisis, and make a better future.
Of course, they can call themselves as they like… which is of course the point… but let us point to some tools that may be useful and fun.
We’ll start with Maria Dorthea Skov’s personal testimony as to why she feels these learning clubs are vital:
MARIA: 2015, at the age of 25, I did a 9-month course in creative, community-rooted project management combined with personal development with about 10 other young adults at Kbh+ Projektakademiet in Copenhagen, Denmark.
At the time I had just dropped I just dropped out of university after one year of continual discouragement. Although my intellect and my social life had been charged, I felt distant from the issues I was seeing and experiencing in my city, my country and the world, which I wanted, and felt I needed, to respond to. I had ideas but no idea where and how to start.
At the course I was learning tools and method of idea generation, project coordination, funding & financing, communication and collaboration one week and apply them in my community the next. I was given space and time to prototype, to make mistakes, to get to know and understand my community and in particular to understand the complexities of collaborating with others. It was the break from our competition-drive society I didn’t know I needed and have been longing for ever since.
In terms of personal growth, it was the time of my life. I now generally feel able to respond to the issues I’m noticing in myself, my immediate surroundings and in the wider world. Not because I have all the answers, far from, but I know how and where to start. Often I loose my drive and my confidence but I have the tools to return to it.
Since my experience, I’ve had to wish be a part of facilitating a similar journey for young people in the UK. Mainly because everyone deserves the time and space to deeply explore the part they can play in changing the world.
And also… our crises feel much more pressing now than they did in the 2015, and especially since what we have been through in the last year, our future feels incredibly uncertain, our systems unfit and our Government unprepared to provide the solutions.
RegenA is our future, they have the ideas and solutions but these are overlooked and undervalued by the powers that be. The aim of a learning club or journey for RegenA is to share with them the tools and methods, based on what has already been learnt and trial about transformation, to get on with it themselves.
Here, Roz Birch details the strategy and context for these ReGen A “learning clubs”:
ROZ: In May 2020 after a very enthusiastic and collaborative Alternative UK (A/UK) “Co-Creator” gathering a small group embarked on exploring a “ReGen A” learning club, with initial ideas exploring mentorship, learning and grassroots place-based projects.
Through research, dialogue and conversations with existing projects and programmes a summary of potentials and possibilities was shared with The Alternative UK Co-Creator community. Over the course of 2020 the small co-creator group has synthesised ideas, models, curricula and achievable practical ways of developing a Alternative UK programme aimed at “young people” (defined as 18-25 year olds).
As co-initiators we have been aspiring to co-design a programme with young people and bring on board additional co-creators to form a core team to carry the project forward.
This year, through taking part in the Kickstart scheme funded by the DWP, A/UK now has the opportunity to create 6 placements for young people aged 16-24 at risk of long-term unemployment as ‘Community Connectors’.
The ReGen A team want to offer a community placed-based programme to 6 community connectors where each young person will be based in their unique community but together will be given tools to research community needs, learn approaches to collaboration and prototype one project each, which will affect change in their communities.
The programme will also include co-development practices to support place-conscious and self-conscious learning; activities will include future-visioning and workshops to specifically look at COVID impact, climate justice and systems change.
Stories of their journeys will be shared through art, theatre, writing and visuals, which will be shared on The Daily Alternative.
The co-creator team is awaiting news of funding applications that will enable us to undertake the co-design and co-development process and bring this project to fruition, with the aim to use the Kickstart scheme as a pilot to showcase the potential of a “ReGen A” programme and extend the offer to more young people in 2021.
We are looking forward to empowering young people’s agency and participation in their communities as “Changemakers" through a regenerative learning approach and mentoring process that can establish meaningful and place-conscious ‘real-world’ innovation for young people's cosmo-local aspirations.
If you’d like to know more about this project, please contact us here. And see our site archives on learning and Equip For The Future