The National Strategy for the Next Generations (NSxNG) programme is picking pace and developing more complex and participative future visions. This year the Next Generation Champions have already contributed youth voices to the Bond UK Futures Dialogues. The Champions explored possible future roles of the UK and created artefacts from four futures of international development.
About the programme
We are delighted to announce that we have received funding from The National Lottery Community Fund to continue this work. In partnership with Teach the Future and ShoutOut UK, we are launching Our Community Futures, an exciting new programme for 16-30-year-olds in the UK to imagine futures for their local communities and to connect this back into a larger national vision for the UK and internationally.
Our champions will receive Futures Leadership training from Teach the Future. That will ensure they have the skills to identify their assumptions about the future and the confidence to imagine diverse alternatives. The Champions will then apply this training by designing and delivering a Visioning workshop with their local communities, imagining the future of their communities and how it is affected by the UK’s global role. Champions will also receive seed funding – to start their futures-focused campaign or project in their local community.
Our approach
We believe a national strategy needs to arise from and connect to communities all over the UK. Additionally, one of the main learnings from our Pilot programme was the need to seed conversations in existing communities rather than convening people centrally. Our Community Futures explores how to give agency to young people to host their own conversations, connect people’s local lived experiences to national strategy discussions, and build future visions for the UK that relate to the needs and imaginaries of individuals in their communities.
If you know any young people aged 16-30 based in the UK who might like to get involved, please let us know or send them this application form! Applications close at 11:50 pm on Monday, 29 August 2022.
To learn more about the programme, get in touch with Finn Strivens.