Nikki Brooker is passionate about social change, she has worked tirelessly on a number of projects for over fifty percent of her life, driving forward the voice of young people and marginalised groups. Nikki has been involved with numerous community and social development projects, often combining campaigning and youth work. Here you can find a chronological biography of Nikki’s professional development.
Nikki developed an interest and passion in social justice and human rights as a child, initiating and involving herself in a number of community activities. By the age of 13 she had was been trained in youth participation by Kent County Council and as a result of being involved in this training she made it her mission to ensure that young people were involved in decisions that affected them.
As a teenager Nikki worked on creating a youth forum that was representative of the youth population there, and delivering on youth priorities in Maidstone, and began setting up a countywide youth council with the support of youth workers and other young people.
By the time Nikki was 14 she was frustrated with the lack of urgency that the government placed on young people and the issues that affected them. As a result Nikki became the first young person in the UK involved with a campaign to create a youth parliament and through her continued perseverance; Nikki enabled other young people to be a part of the steering committee for the UK Youth Parliament. During 4 years of campaigning Nikki ran various consultation exercises across the UK to engage young people in the process and to ensure that there was a need for a Youth Parliament coming from the young people that she spoke to.
Whilst undertaking this, Nikki was also trained a as Peer Educator in Sexual Health and Relationships developing a series of workshops to be carried out in youth clubs and schools based on consultation with young people in order to ensure that young people had access to relevant and appropriate sexual health information.
During this time that Nikki became actively involved in the development of Peace One Day at a strategic level, with Nikki advising Jeremy Gilley, the founder of Peace One Day, on appropriate ways to engage young people. Nikki was involved with Peace One Day in various capacities for 4 years culminating with her coordinating 43 youth evens across the UK to celebrate the first UN International Day of Global Cease-fire and non-violence, in 2002.
At 17 Nikki found she was homeless, but despite this continued the work she had been doing previously to raise awareness of children’s rights and was supported through the network of youth workers she had contact with through her campaign work.
At the age of 18 Nikki became a Trustee and Company Director for, Democracy for Young People trading as the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP), she held this position for 3 years, developing policies from child protection to engagement strategies all the time ensuring that it was in line with the wishes of the young people involved with UKYP at a grass roots level. Nikki resigned as Trustee and Company Director at the age of 21 in order to concentrate on local youth work in the area of London that she was living in. Working to support young people with disabilities and develop local youth councils for surrounding Borough’s.
It was during this time that young people from the London Region of the UKYP contacted Nikki and asked her to assist with the running of their training residential. After this residential the young people offered Nikki the job of London Regional Co-ordinator for 3- 4 months as they felt that she would be able assist them with building strength before a National event that was schedule for July that year. Nikki worked for 2 and half years with the London Region of UKYP, all the time directed by the young people and working for the young people to develop project plans and funding applications. Taking participation within the London Region from 7 Borough’s when she started to 27 at the time of her departure.
Whilst working as Regional Co-ordinator, Nikki supported the young people in: re-writing the Metropolitan Police Standard Operating Procedures in relation to Stop and Search, organising high profile publicity and consultation events, worked on an anti gun and knife project which spanned 2 years and included 2000 young people in the process through consultation and the production of the film to be used in schools and youth clubs across the capital. In 2007 this film won a national award for portraying young people positively.
Nikki whilst working for the UKYP also undertook other work with local youth services to develop youth participation within these localities, developing training packages for young people, conference’s and many camps/residentials for young people. Nikki has been involved with over 30 youth camps/residential activities with an attendance of young people ranging from 12 – 450 all within the age range of 10 – 20.
In 2002 Nikki was invited to attend the Queen’s garden party at Buckingham Palace in recognition of her outstanding commitment to youth affairs.
In October 2006 Nikki travelled to Australia but remained dedicated to Children’s Rights, undertaking youth work in many of the cities she has travelled to.
In early 2008, Nikki worked for the Australian Red Cross, to provide services to young people in an Aboriginal Community in Arnhem Land (NT, Australia) this experience enable Nikki to learn about Aboriginal Rights, the degradation of Aboriginal Communities through policies of oppression, and as a result of this Nikki will continue to work to raise awareness of this issue on return to the UK.
Nikki worked in Darwin, NT from 2007 until 2008, to develop a Multicultural Youth Council. She quickly established that there was a need for a platform for young people to have a voice, and that it was being driven by young people. She worked with a group of young people and provided training and support to ensure that they were able to develop this organisation. At the end of 2007, the Multicultural Youth NT (Mynt) were recognised with an award for Multiculturalism and in 2008 they became the only youth organisation to win a grant of $250,000 from a national Australian youth charity.
In 2009, Nikki returned to support UKYP, working as a consultant, organising events to enable young people to talk directly to government, one a debate on whether the UK should have a National Youth Week and the other a high profile debate with senior politicians to debate whether the UK should have a written constitution.
Undertaking a personal and professionally challenging role at a local authority in London during 2009 Nikki learnt a lot about the experiences of migrant communities to the UK, creating in her a desire to create an organisation supporting intercultural communication and understanding.
November 2009, saw Nikki establish Ethical Experiences, a social enterprise that puts social experiences at the heart of creating a greater understanding of each other. Ethical experiences projects have included youth participation projects for local authorities, delivering citizenship packages in schools, supporting international students, providing employment advice and support advice, and working internationally on social justice and civil participation activities.
In December 2010, Nikki began a 6 month Campaigner in Residence position at the University of Roehampton, working to support students to get involved in campaigning and become more active members of society. In this role Nikki worked with students to create a campaigning tool kit to use to realise their objectives through a number of different mechanisms. Working with a number of passionate and inspiring students Nikki establish a talk radio show called Grey Matters, and a student campaigning group called Ethical Action.