Some of the young people  that I cross paths with have no idea of what they want to do with there lives, and no inner feeling of direction. I wonder if this feeling of direction is simply something that a few are born with, or is everyone but simply unable to know themselves enough to live their life purpose, or unable to break out of the social norms and pressures to begin their own journey. What would happen to society if young people were able to foster their life’s purpose, that energy that flows from the heart?

I certainly think there is an increase in people finding their inner voice, and listening to it, probably because of the situation that so many face in terms of unemployment and the challenges that they face as a result. People are now thinking more creatively and trying to get to know themselves more. I’m excited to see this continue and how this can bring about positive changes to the communities we live in and ultimately the world.

Here’s an interview with myself, that was by Dagmar Holubova, on this topic:

I think this video just about sums it up:

I am stunned to see that people are so blind to it, any mention of the issue and you get branded anti semantic, well blatantly I’m not, so this is my perspective on the situation, and you know what, if you love humanity, and the planet more than money, consumption and materialism I know that you’ll have already joined the dots.

Unfortunately due to media censorship and ownership over the news that is available to us, as demonstrated by the disgusting removal of Press TV from Sky on Friday; the majority of the ‘mainstream’ are either unaware or indifferent. They have either not noticed or believe the information that is fed to them by the big media outlets, who let’s face it are in the control of Rupert Murdoch both directly and indirectly, with his company’s owning routers and the associated press. So many journalists these days simply rehash press releases to in order to simply get an article out there with no real content.

So you get my point….

Israel, a big purchaser of weapons, with a defence force that kills Palestine Semites, (on a daily basis) the world’s biggest bully and manipulator of public opinion has so many people fooled.

Obviously the wonderful bastions of integrity, empathy and morality Obama and Cameron get their hackles up like some dirty alley cat, at the mention of Iran, shouting about nuclear weapons, when there’s no evidence of such.

So let me ask this question to these immoral war mongers, why the hell can’t they have nuclear weapons? We have them, America has them and oh, so does Israel.

For those of you that haven’t noticed there’s a war brewing at the moment between the ‘West’ and Iran, instigated by America and Israel in their best impression of the racist, islamophobic playground bullys who want to use all the space, and be in ‘charge’.

It’s pathetic that the people that supposedly represent us are unable to put respect and gratitude at the heart of their actions. Israel is like the blood thirsty bruiser of the gang, violently attacking people for no reason, other than their greed, control and paranoia issues. Angry, and unable to see or feel happiness and positivity from others around them, traumatised by some previous event, ultimately bullying others for revenge and some kind of sick pleasure. America and the UK the body guards of the brute, hanging around to protect him should anyone try to defend themselves against his actions.

Over the last few weeks American troop numbers have been building in Israel in preparation for attacks on Iran and Syria.

These muppets want us to believe that Iran is a threat, now let’s be serious, really, when was the last time Iran dropped bombs or invaded another country, it seems like ‘we’ (Israel, America and UK) are much more threatening, and a greater risk to humanity and the planet given our track record over the last fifty years.

Just also to make it clear, I’m referring to these governments and not the citizens as I know that there are amazing people in Israel being oppressed for trying to change things. This is about the governments that do not represent us.

Whole nations have been eradicated during this process and it continues. Hidden from the eyes of the world behind pictures of beautiful beaches and Aboriginal sacred sites, used for tourism purposes to promote the ‘lucky country’ and giving a false impression of valuing Aboriginal cultures.

2007 saw the introduction of the government intervention into the NT, a blatant step backwards in Australia’s history with the army being deployed to communities, the suspension of the race relations act, and most disgustingly removing the right of Aboriginal people to self determination.

Aboriginal land granted under the 1976 Land Rights Act was (stolen) ‘compulsorily acquired’ through 5 year leases. These leases should be coming to an end this year however the Gillard government has decided to implement more draconian measures, announcing the continuation of the Intervention for another 10 years, forcing communities now to sign 40 year leases in return for housing and basic amenities that often do not materialise as promised.

This continued imperialist attitude is further demonstrated by the expansion of the intervention and the introduction of new measures.

One such measure is the removal of welfare payments from parents whose children have more than 10days of ‘unexplained’ absences in one term. This measure epitomises the ignorance of the government to Aboriginal cultures, with bilingual education being cut or removed children are expected to attend classes that they do not understand. It also the negates to take into consideration important societal milestones and events such as ceremonies and funerals, and the time required to attend such.

In the 6 communities that these measures have already been operational school attendances and registrations have decreased. Suicides and self harm have increased by 50% and incarceration by 30%. Surely this is evidence enough that these measure aren’t working. Yet they’re continuing and expanding into a further 17 communities.

Allowing a cultural genocide to take place across the NT through this continued discrimination and dispossession that lead to suicides, Galiwinku is now experiencing one suicide a week. Thus helping to support the imperialist agenda of eliminating the first peoples of Australia from existence.

Whilst the Intervention has abolished community councils, seized assets and destroyed productive activities such as land management programs, municipal and cultural works, small tourism and farming ventures by removing the wages paid to Aboriginal people. (Aus)$2.5 billion has been spent on moving Balander bureaucrats and contractors into communities, paid at extortionate rates whilst providing no benefit to the indigenous population.

The extension of the Intervention also sees changes made regarding to quarantining of welfare payments for those suffering from alcoholism, currently 50% of their payment is held back to be spent via a Basics Card on government authorised purchases (food, clothing and rent) in selected stores. The law now allows for 70% to be quarantined, yet little to no investment has been made in preventative or addiction support services in communities. Alcoholism and other social problems are a direct result of the brutal history inflicted on Aboriginal people at the hands of British and Australian governments.

It must also be noted, that alcoholism is rife throughout the non indigenous population yet no sanctions have been placed on them.

Ramingining Elder Mathew Dhulumburrk, a 67 year old Gupapuyngu man has said that the Yolngu people feel that the ‘true enemy of our people is the government…they have declared war on us….The government is drowning us slowly and wonders why twice as many of our young people are attempting suicide….Community empowerment is vital for tackling issues in the community, but the intervention leaves their hands tied…..we need bilingual education, Yolngu teachers and Elders involved in developing curriculum.’

Homelands and remote communities have been proven to be better for Aboriginal people, ensuring that they retain their connection to country, forcing Yolngu into urban areas where they’re on foreign land is destructive to the retention of law, culture and traditions, thus increasing the social problems the Intervention claims to address.

Aboriginal people need our support just as other oppressed peoples suffering human rights abuses at the hands of governments around the globe do.

Maybe instead of threatening Iran with sanctions we should be pursuing the Australian government for their crimes against humanity, this at least would be legitimate given that the Queen is still their head of state. Oh but wait we want the natural resources that we can exploit from Aboriginal land.

As I was brought up, there was a culture or belief that Christmas was for family, celebration, sharing time together, giving gifts (although it was the thought that counted). There was also some emphasis on the fact it was a Christian festival, with my parents loosely encouraging us to participate in the traditions that occur at this time of year like taking us to church and decorating the house.

However by about 12 I had lost interest in the materialism, by 15 the sharing time with family had disappeared and then from about 17 my interest in observing these traditions involved the sending of a small number of cards and avoiding giving or being required to receive gifts.

Now my interest in it has spread to include contempt for the greed, materialism, ignorance and waste that is demonstrated almost every time I leave the house at the moment.

Whilst working at that restaurant I found myself almost being forced into some modern day capitalist/materialist ritual that precedes that great celebration of greed and wastefulness, as it has become, tomorrow.

This Secret Santa thing is it appears a time honoured tradition….
What annoyed me the most about this little ritual was that
I was being told to buy a gift for someone I knew nothing about, and had barely had any interaction with. To me this seems ridiculous that rather than build relationships with each other we’ll just gifts.

What’s all this about then people, why does this tradition exist?

Is it simply because we have got so caught up in replacing time, consideration and empathy for each other with items/things that we do this instead of actually knowing them.

In general I don’t support this religious festival for many reasons but the main one is that I don’t believe that the man who’s ‘birthday’ this is suppose to be remembering and celebrating would actually support it. In fact, I think he would have utter disdain for this consumerism driven society of ours.

I don’t like the thought of buying something for someone simply to conform, or feel the need to buy things for people because society and the media says I should be.

I feel like Christmas should be a time for spending time with people you care about and reflection, and not all about what things your gonna get, or a declaration of extravagance through excessive giving.

Saying all this, I do enjoy ‘Christmas’, as everyone is distracted and I get left to catch up on my never ending paperwork!

Have a great day if you celebrate it.

I’m looking for someone to attend with me.

Over the next couple of days I’ll be posting more information about this event, how you can be the person attending with me and how to get involved with similar opportunities in the future.

If emailing me please include the subject as: Better Life, Better Opportunities

Nikki Brooker, Campaigner in Residence Southlands College, Roehampton University

Summary
Arriving at Roehampton in December to undertake a 6 month residency as the Campaigner in Residence, I spent the first 4 months building relationships and trust with students through listening and trying to establish a platform through which they can learn skills which will enable them to participate as more active citizens in society.

I established that there are already a number of web based platforms that the students use to gather information and become interested in the social issues and discussion that leads to campaigning.

Running throughout this piece of work has been the creation of a mechanism that can enable sustainability, through student involvement and ownership. As a result these relationships are at the heart of the success of the continuation of the active citizenship that campaigning fosters.

The last 2 months I have worked on pulling together information and resources, to create this mechanism of support and participation. Following the discussion with students and staff it became obvious that the Moodle internal teaching resource should be used to host a tool kit a useable resource for students interested in social change to use as a way to engage other students.

Introduction:
I have worked across campus with a focus on Southlands, Human Rights/Social Science/Business faculties, my focus has been to work with students that are on the margins of the student community for a multitude of reasons from their culture, religious or ethnic background to them being branded as ‘geeks’ by the mainstream student population. I have found the more mainstream on campus student population difficult to engage as they are already extensively involves in University activities. Students that live off campus have also been hard to engage, however the barrier to their participation has been identified as the lack of ease of access to information from a source that they feel is relevant. The tool kit aims to address this.

The R U Bothered? ‘tool kit’ enables students to identify an element of ‘campaigning’ that they feel is accessible to them, by being broken down into sections as follows:
• Experience It,
• Do It,
• Make It,
• Speak It,
• Change It,
• Enjoy It,
• Give It

Students are able to find an element that they can fit into their life; with the potential that something they are already doing falls within one of these elements. This resource has been designed with student participation and ownership at its core, and relies heavily on using the student radio show, Fresh Air, as the platform for dialogue and development, through the continuous development of Grey Matters.

Grey Matters is a weekly ‘talk radio’ style show, with discussion from an unapologetically progressive perspective of current, hot-button political, human, civil issues—both foreign and domestic—as well as longer term issues affecting society (healthcare, education, the environment). All mixed together with diverse playlist, the show is designed to stimulate and challenge the listeners. With the intention that the Grey Matters radio show, will become the debating, discussion and thought provoking platform through which listeners will be drawn into the multiplatform campaigning wiki, R U Bothered?

To create sustainability and longevity, the campaigning ‘tool kit’ will be developed to enable students’ skills, knowledge and passion for campaigning to be nurtured. It will be innovative and appealing to students, using the Grey Matters radio show on Fresh Air effectively as the paper between the above chapters if this was a conventional, documented tool kit.

The need for the ‘tool kit’ to be a living ‘document’ became apparent, with a focus on varying the formats in order to motivate and inspire the students to participate in campaigning:
• Projects to work on
• Existing ‘campaigns’ that you can get involved in
• Project support (NGO development)
• Training and seminar opportunities
• Forming a lobby
• Events

Through the wiki, available internally on http://moodle.roehampton.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3655 and linked to a number of multimedia platforms, initially the following elements will be available for students to participate in.

Projects to work on: Experience It
Students have been given the opportunity to learn about 2 existing projects that are still in the very early stages of development and work. Eliminating part of the decision making process at the heart of the campaigning process, students that work on these projects will shape the way that they take place and contribute to their success. One is a youth initiative and the other a youth democracy project which will be funded and supported by the European Commission’s Life Long Learning program.
Students’ involvement in the above projects will involve them working on developing existing campaigns which are in their infancy. Through the youth initiative students will have the opportunity to liaise with the Nepali partner organisation, promote the trip and organise events. Within the youth democracy project students will work closely with the steering group, identify a European University to work with and organise at least 3 seminars at local schools or colleges on global democracy.

Existing campaigns: Do It
In order for the students to see the wealth of opportunities available to them and make their own very personal decisions about how they want to direct their energies in changing the world; ways and information surrounding the opportunities that exist already. Students will be shown ways in which they can contribute to society including promoting things that even the busiest of people can fit into their schedules.
Logistically this element of the toolkit relies on the student development volunteering database being up dated and utilised by the students, the volunteering pages on the Roehampton website have been linked to on the moodle site in order to ensure that that tool kit requires no staff input to maintain it.

Project Support (NGO Development): Make It
Workshop sessions by external organisations that focus on how to create a social enterprise to tackle something that you feel passionate about will be promoted to students via the Grey Matters facebook group; from the basic, what do you care about, through to the making it happen stages students will learn from their experience how they can impact upon the world, and see whether they have the stamina and passion to create something sustainable.

Training and Seminar Opportunities: Speak It
Information will be disseminated amongst students, via the radio show and the student development service to enable the students to access existing and upcoming training and seminar opportunities that they can attend to stimulate and inform them on social justice, human rights, societal and campaigning topics. In addition to opening up their minds to the issues from diverse perspectives and training students on these matters, these activities will be useful networking opportunities.

Forming a lobby: Change It
Students will be given the opportunity to form a lobby group, to create a policy change in a field that they feel passionate in. This issue will be decided through consultation and voting. It will provide students with an experience of another platform through which social change takes place.
Through the Grey Matters radio show and the facebook group, students will identify an issue that they want to lobby for change on within the university.

Events: Enjoy It

Students and I organised a selection of pilot ‘events’ which took place in February and March, designed to encapsulate a range of participants from a cross section of the student population, and enable some lively discussions and debates to take place.

These events comprised of:
• Say Something Sunday, 20th February, an informal discussion session with snacks provided that took place in the Senior Common Room, it had a focus on Social Justice and information about personal rights and common law, attendees discussed the future organisation of events.
This took place on Sunday 20th February with a lower than hoped for turnout of students; however those that attended provided stimulating discussion and were passionate about developing these events at a different location, on a different day and time. The students suggested using a more central location on campus and holding these events during the week.

• Bugger it, on the 22nd March, was an informal opportunity for students and lecturers to interact and have the opportunity to have informed discussions in a social environment. Cards were used to provide issues through which to get the conversation going if needed, and all those that participated were given a free drink. Lecturers were hosted at Southlands bar in order to have small group or one on one chilled out conversations about their area of expertise.
• Saturday 26th March at the Southlands Saturday, I held an intergenerational discussion on learning and the changes to education to enable current students to ask members of the 50th Anniversary group questions about their life at uni.
• Monday 28th March, in Duschense I screened an Aboriginal Rights film, to enable participants to learn about a contemporary social justice issue, in a society that is very similar to our own; this had the opportunity for discussion and debate at the end of it.
• Finally in terms of activities, on 31st March I held a Hip Hop (for Human Rights) Night to raise money for Japan. This featured a number of Mc’s from London performing, along with a couple of dj’s, an acoustic set and a speech by a Japanese student. The feedback from participants of these events was positive, and has enabled students to express interested and conceptualise their own ideas.

Conscious consumerism: Give It
This project enables students to think about their consumption habits and recycle there clothes and books, through a variety of ways from a straight forward swap shop that has been established during the allotment days, to encouraging sales for charity and donation giving schemes.

Why Not?
There are many reasons that this will be beneficial to the stakeholders involved (Methodist Trust, Southlands, Students) these include:
• Students will be better equipped to enter the work place after graduation by being experienced in a number of transferable skills
• Developing a more holistic approach to ‘learning’ in the university environment
• University, will gain promotion to young people in the wider community
• SMT, will have a campaigning model and tool kit that can be used throughout the Methodist Trust network to increase active citizenship

Internally within Roehampton University, there are a number of stakeholders, which could continue to work with the students to develop this resource and increase student participation in campaigning:

• Student services
• RSU
• Student Welfare
• Business Studies Department
• Social Sciences Department
• Southlands Chapel

The ‘tool kit’ in action:
In order for an increase in student participation and activism, students need to become aware that these opportunities exist.

Marketing avenues/channels:
• RSU Radio Fresh Air: Grey Matters
• Facebook and social networking
• Via lectures: social sciences, business, media, culture and languages
• Events
• Word of mouth

RSU Radio Fresh Air: Grey Matters
Grey Matter a weekly progressive radio show.
The content of the weekly show will be discussion from an unapologetically progressive perspective of current, hot-button political, human, civil issues—both foreign and domestic—as well as longer term issues affecting society (healthcare, education, the environment) The format of the weekly show will include not only impassioned, well-reasoned “rants” but also extensive interviews with NGO activists.
Spontaneity is invaluable in keeping a talk show lively, relevant, and involving; not being too scripted; creating an atmosphere that’s comfortable, like sitting around the family dinner table and talking about politics or other controversial issues. The discussion can be personal, sometimes funny, even heated; but after it’s over, everyone should come away knowing more than they knew going in and have a channel to exercise their passion for activism, in the end the show is about inviting people into the discussion of what’s going on and what we can do to make this a better campus, country and world for us all. Informality and good humour; “rants,” news, and views will be the main thrust of the show; guests and contributors will bring depth and additional perspectives to the hot topics and other issues on the table.

As Grey Matters is the key platform through which the tool kit will be promoted and student participation fostered, the final month saw me working, on ensuring that Grey Matters, had a strong team, with creative, stimulating and well research programmes being produced on a weekly basis, and available through the wiki as podcasts. The vision is that this show will enable to R U Bothered resources to be used and developed further by listeners to the show.

Facebook and social networking
Little needs to be said here besides that as this is a relevant platform for the students to use to communicate, various social networking sites will be used to promote the campaigning platforms that are available for students.
Facebook, will form a key communication aid in the production and development of the Grey Matters show, as it will enable us to reach a wide audience and get people all over the world involved in the discussions. I would also like all of the Grey Matters show to be available from the Facebook group in order to engage students all over the world in the discussion, thus enabling some really global discussions on global issues to take place.

Via Lectures: social sciences, business, media, culture and languages etc
In order to reach a wide number of students’ regular promotion of the activities that are on, and input into the development of these activities, from lecturers will be valuable to ensure that links can be made to their area of expertise increasing the value in the campaigning experience for the student.

Events
Attend/have a presence at student events to informally promote the radio show and social networking sites. Hold promotional events that catch the students’ attention to get involved.

Word of mouth
The most efficient and effective way of reaching people, there needs to be a buzz about the ‘campaigns’ amongst students and around the campus, people need to be excited about what they can do and how they can participate within society.

Campaigner in residence – student involvement and sustainability strategy:

In order to ensure sustainability in the use of the tool kit, and keep it relevant to the needs of the students and to increase their activism within society a team of students will need to be involved with the delivery of the tool kit.
This provides immediate volunteering opportunities for both students and members of the wider community in delivery of elements of this ‘tool kit’.
By forming partnerships with local voluntary/third sector organisations with expertise in the various realms of campaigning the tool kit will have external support to maintain continuity after I depart.

Conclusions:
Over the 6 months that I have been in place I have initiated the development of a multimedia campaigning resource guided by students from Southlands, the wiki, which I hope, will be accessible for students across campus to access and add to. I have established the Grey Matter show and using the moodle tool kit,to link up the social networking sites belonging to Grey Matters within this student learning resource, using social networking sites to enable the continued creation of campaigning content is important in keeping the tool kit relevant and not date specific.

I have held student events, ran informal, with ‘training sessions’, provided personal one to one support and project development sessions; and most recently I have consulted with the students that I have been working with recently with regard to developing the training and further resources related to this and the students will therefore be pursuing funding into to be trained to deliver this across the university through a peer participation framework.

At times I have become frustrated with the speed with which I have been able to move projects forward, and with the resistance to experience new opportunities by both students and staff. As with all campaigning work pro-activity is required, and the ability to challenge the status quo. Working with a more formally educated group of young people has enabled me to develop new skills in this area, and learn a lot about the nature of participation in society, as resistance to new ideas, concepts and methodologies for working have been demonstrated. I have found that although a large number of students have ideas that they desire to manifest, they struggle to move from the expectation of someone doing it for them, to actively participating in the realisation of that idea; often as due to what appears to be a difficulty to see how being active in this way can be beneficial to the other elements of their life.

The majority of students that I have built relationships with, have flourished in the development of their ideas taking on board the responsibilities that they have initiated for themselves, and using my support to enable then to grow their ideas and obtain skills to achieve their objectives.

Staff and Student Testimonials:

“The first time i met Nikki was at an organised Hip Hop right here at the university. Throughout my life i have always searched for individuals with an energy to change something because they have the confidence and ability to do it. So Nikki put me on board the whole Grey Matters campaign. Every week we have worked together to hatch this project for the students to mentally stimulated with positive active thoughts.
We recorded our first show and spread the word about this up and coming campaign.
Nikki has the ability to directly approach a subject without coming off too blunt. She has the experience of a known campaigner and as such holds many contacts. Her unique ability to communicate with people has been proven with fast responses from her contacts when she has asked for support.
Nikki retains a drive in what she believes is the right thing to do, wake up minds of the people and push for any change that needs to be done.
I honestly could not of asked for a better colleague to work with, she is determined, passionate, honest and experienced.” Alistair Roustaing student

“Dear Nikki
I would like to say what a privilege it has been working with you over the last 6 months. I thoroughly enjoyed working with you in the Questioning Citizenship module. You clearly demonstrate a passion for campaigning and shared your experiences and knowledge with my workshop group who gained enormously from your input. As a result I believe their presentations were greatly improved. Your level of passion and dedication to a cause is evident. I am aware also of the great efforts you employed to run extra-curricular events with the aim of promoting the importance of a student community. Your energy and enthusiasm will be missed immensely but I wish you all the best and hope to work with you in the near future.” Nicola O’Keefe staff member

“To put it simply, it’s hard to keep up with Nikki’s enthusiasm!
Nikki’s position at Roehampton University as Campaigner in Residence saw her playing a vital role in encouraging and supporting students to organise events on campus to raise funds and/or promote worthy causes.
Nikki has also run events with students that enhanced the interaction between students and staff. For example, at the ‘Bugger It’ event I was able to discuss with Yvonne Guerrier (the Dean of Southlands College) what I felt were important issues that needed to be addressed by the University – everything from catering quality and pricing to the desperate need for an Oyster Card top-up machine and more ATMs on campus.
This kind of interaction with staff regarding non-academic issues was a new experience for me and I enjoyed it as it gave me an opportunity to make my views heard to someone who has the power and influence to effect change. I hope that this event which Nikki worked hard on to organise will become a regular practice at Roehampton.” Ali Hassan student

“Working with Nikki was really amazing because she was doing what i and a few others (at the RLJ BLOG) had thought of which was bridge the gap between staff and student. Though she is only one person she managed to rally the support of key people in helping her bring about the goals she wished to accomplish. She has a lot of drive which I admire and was inspired by. I am glad I met her before I left third year properly. Hopefully she will be here when I do my masters God willing. There is more than a need for the bridge which Nikki has become, covering that void.”
K.O.REUBEN (The Bard)

“It was such a pleasure to have met Nikki at Roehampton’s Interfaith Event, God has truly given you great passion and strong determination in standing for the youth. Your dedication, not just to your work but to your community truly humbles me. Your bubbly character gives me confidence that you have the ability to encourage many more youth to become more active citizens, which in turn with the Guidance of God will benefit the youth community in its development. May God continue to bring you success in this world and the next, Ameen.” Fatema Tayeh – Undergraduate Student of Roehampton Universtiy – BSc in Nutrition and Health

“Nikki Brooker has been a great help with campaigning in the university. She has inspired me to become campaigns officer in Roehampton Students Union next year and has supported me so much. I have learnt a lot of organisational skills from her and being part of the team that she got together for the grey matters program has been really useful. Me and several other students are now involved in a radio show and regularly engage in discussions of campaign topics as well as being a part of ongoing campaigns within the university.
Nikki has set up a program to help the team get to a stage where we are confident enough to continue her good work throughout the University and train others to become active campaigners offering as much support and inspiration as possible for a positive change, however, the time we have had working with her has been fairly short.
I have discussed with her several ideas on what would be useful and practical in the delivery of this program but as I am not yet confident (like other members of the student team) we have all realised that having some more time to work with her would get us up to the standard were we could continue the work that Nikki has started. I feel this would especially help me as one of the two campaign officers to fulfil my role within the SU.” Danie Martin, student

“Working with Nikki over the past few months has been an experience to say the least, she is an inspirational women, full of energy and always works hard. During the past few months I have seen more projects being start and fully carried out + supported than in the whole of my 2 years at Roehampton. Nikki gives everyone the opportunity to get involved, learn new skills, improve your ‘network’ and open up a millions of new + fantastic opportunities. Before meeting Nikki, I had no interest in the university Radio station or radios at all, but now I know how to do ‘ethical broadcast journalism’. With Nikki’s help and support I have been able to lead a campaign/project to get real food, that all students can eat on campus, during this process we wrote a FOI request, met with the Catering Staff at university and through constant lobbying the university now provide a few Wheat and Gluten free cakes at every campus, this is only a small thing but its a huge improvement and wouldn’t have been possible without Nikki’s support and expert knowledge. Not only has Nikki helped with campaigning and making a difference on campus she has also helped myself + several other students on a more personal level, helping us to deal with different situations which are on going in our own personal lives, through her own experience and through her knowledge of the ‘outside world’ and to some extent its like looking into the future and seeing an adult version of me, its really strange how our paths had never crossed before yet we have worked on the same projects since we were both young (although Nikki is older than me!)… The past few months working with Nikki has been a real experience, she is a really inspirational women with an amazing array of skills in so many areas campaigning, volunteering, event/workshop facilitation, project management, communication, networking, life coaching, she is always full of energy and ready to get involved… Thank you Nikki!! ♥” Laura Liz Partoon, Student

“I met Nikki in relation to an event that I was asked to be involved with filming. Nikki had helped provide artists for the Hip Hop night which proved a great success. Consequently she asked me to help with a Human Rights night at which money was raised for the Japan appeal. She had organized the event, venue, more artists, cross campus advertising and supplied food and drink out of her own pocket. Nikki also contacts the Film society about screenings that she has organized and events that she would like to be passed on to students through Facebook pages that she has created. Every time I see her she tells me of a new project and explains how people can get involved, I like her face to face approach and her proactive attitude she has the students interests at heart and I see her working out of hours trying to get them involved.” Eleri Shone, Student

Also if you use the button in the top left hand corner, you can join my mailing list to find out ways to help these groups of young people make a real difference to their communities.