my name is Lynn I am a 65 year old white woman with short brown hair very large glasses and I'm currently wearing a red and cream floral number uh kind of dress thing and my pronouns are she her and I am very privileged today to be joined by some fantastic panelists without further Ado I'm going to ask them to introduce themselves and I'm going to start off with Jody good morning everyone uh my name is Jody my sign name is you take your left hand and flick it back over your left shoulder do the
same with your right like you're flicking your long locks back um I am a mid-40s white woman with long strawberry blonde hair I'm wearing a green top with green wooden beads I have a few freckles and my left eye is usually closed and sometimes it opens when I'm surprised or excited um I am the Creative Learning director oh sorry that's it just that no no because when I'd like to know Jody is how do you spend your days um so I am the Creative Learning director at gray eye Theater Company um gray
eye is a deaf and disabled ledge touring theater company and human rights organization and I oversee a lot of the artist development and all our work with children and young people um and I have academic activism running through my veins through my work and through my personal life as well thank you so much uh and also joining us today uh we have Isa so hello Isa tell us about yourself and how you spend your days hi everyone I'm Liza my sign language you put two videos together like this like a
paintbrush they go up and down because I like to be creative um uh an audio description of myself would be I I wear glasses I have brown eyes I have tone skin and I really they're very colorful dress for me today it has lots of different colors and uh oh yeah and my problem and my pronouns I see her thank you very much and and how do you spend your days Isa oh uh I've I spend my days well um I I'm a poet I write poems sometimes and I also work alongside Jody at gray eyes too so yeah like so I do
n't I don't really know how to describe it so basically I write poems I work alongside 30 I read to and we just left we do like a lot of things based on activism and I I just love being a part of all of it so I'm very happy to be here thanks Isa I saw you in a fantastic show not so long ago which was highlighting young people's rights and uh and you were a great performer in that so thank you um thank you we're also joined today by Joe hello Joe tell us about yourself and how you spend your days
hello everyone it's lovely to be here um yes my name is Joe I am a 51 year old woman um I have got blonde straight hair it's tied up in a couple of Clips up a minute and I'm wearing a brine um cotton top from Sainsbury's don't you know um and yes I'm five foot four and um uh what I do every day is I come I travel in my car every day to work and I work for the national autistic Society in a school called the Civil Elgar school and that is based in Scyther in London and here I teach art and I als
o help with management so that is my job bro thank you Joe and we're also joined today by Miss Jackie hello Miss Jackie welcome tell us about yourself and how you spend your days hey um I'm Miss Jackie um my uh sign name is you take your two index fingers you put them on your cheeks then you kind of just Jackie it's because I'm always giggling or laughing or smiling you'll see a lot of that today um audio description I am a fabulous black woman um I have really long uh twist Black Twist in my ha
ir I'm currently wearing uh clear glasses and a stripy shirt with a white vest because it's um and I have a blurry background um and uh how do I spend my days yeah laughing giggling um being creative um I love my young people um some Workshop facilitator as well as a musician songwriter and poet so yeah look at you thank you um you will see is activism I think we are all familiar with that now uh this came out of conversations with some of the teachers in our I am Network it seems to be quite a
rich scene to mine and we started to look at activism last year particularly looking at uh terminology the ways we Define ourselves but I wonder uh what activism means for you what is it what does it look like those of you on our panel and and also if you're working with young people what does it look like for them um Miss Jackie can I can I come back to you here uh can you tell us what activism looks like for you yeah activism for me is like it's a couple of things I think it's the big things t
he big changes but it's also like the small changes the things that people don't often see or it doesn't often like come up on people's Radars um and I think that there's no wrong way to be activist or to celebrate or Champion activism um but yeah I think it's how we direct like Define it as individuals um and nobody can tell you that you're doing activism wrong um working in an education setting Joe uh how how do you make activism meaningful uh within this festival for your students and and wha
t does it mean to you personally um so um the the school that I teach at um like I said before the children have got high levels of autism quite a lot of the children um are non-verbal um so the theme of activism is is important because um it's it's giving them how do we give these children the voice so and we do have a student council student committee that happens on a regular basis um in the school we've got um a set number of students from across the school who get together you know and they
and they talk about different issues that that they feel are important um and that is a great way for them to to um put their points across and we will help them with if they are non-viable we will help them with symbols and and different um things like that to express themselves but um I just yeah I think it's important especially for the students who who are unable to express themselves um it's up to us to enable them and to help them to to get give them that voice and what kinds of themes co
me up what are the things that matter to to those young people and your experience well things like you know what's what's what's available in the top shop you know food snacks um playgrounds you know what's what's you know what we got on the playground things that you know are meaningful to them and in on the day-to-day life especially it's you know I'm only looking at a school setting so it's what can help them get through the day um and bring them happiness and comfort and joy through the day
there it is I could see quite a few people nodding at the snacks there Jody tell us activism right there in your introduction tell us what does it look like for you and and for the people that you work with yeah I think what uh Miss Jackie uh has said is right on there is no right or wrong way to be an activist um and to express your rights um I think a lot of a lot of the things that come up um for us um us being a young company and Young Artists we're working with um is is some of the same is
sues that all young people face as young disabled people but I think there's also something in the kind of acknowledgment like thinking about myself I didn't realize that um that I'm the Injustice that was happening for disabled people for example to the even though I am a disabled person it took me a long time because I wasn't around it and no one was flagging up these issues and flagging up this Injustice um and it wasn't until I started uh working alongside young people and then realizing wha
t like on the outset I'm seeing what they're not getting and what they're not getting equal access to and that in turn then made me into an activist um so yeah it seems like we all know like around bullying or not being listened to but it's also some of the positive things of the things that people have have managed to grasp and hold on to and they're desperately clinging on to that so things like having um having choice being able to choose who you work with choose who your support worker is ch
oose how many hours you can spend your day with that support that sort of choice that is being taken away a lot through social care and it is impacting on everyday lives and creative you know arts and culture activities as well yeah there's a big theme coming out there isn't there about choice and voice um which I think is resonating and uh Isa what does actors activism look like for you are there particular themes as well that you feel passionate about or yeah the there's there's many things th
at I feel like I personally feel passionate about that I like talking about a lot especially like on social media stuff like that but and return like like Jackie and Jody said before like activism is like like even the smallest things you can do that makes the biggest difference for example like even if you just like I let go out and like point out the wrong thing that whatever happens that's wrong like even if we pull up things like that just once I can change the law and for me personally beca
use because I'm like I'm like as I got another like in the past years like because I've been through a secondary school I had a primary school and college and all of those years I've experience color taught me one thing that if you want things change sometimes you have to put it into your own hands so sometimes you have to be the person that kind of puts the foot forward and says this leads to change and I'm gonna make a change and you're over and listen to me but not in like an aggressive way o
r something it's just like just like pull up the flag to say hello like we listen to this out like I like Jody said before like because I feel like as the next generation of disabled uh deaf and disabled people grew up they kind of realized what their issues were and then that's that's where the activism spark inside of us I guess so yeah I feel like it's a lot of uh smoking mixed with major feelings because if we don't sew out the small things then because throughout the major things that's int
eresting could you give me an example of a small thing where you think what's what's at you on your journey Isaac can you remember that first thing that made you think nah no that's not that's not good enough I need to make a change here can you recall a specific thing um yeah there there was this actually one thing where uh well I was in school once and uh basically I was I think I was trying to get to lesson or something and then like because I was running a bit late because I had to do someth
ing before and what happened was is that there was these like two double doors like really heavy the fire doors and because I didn't have anyone with me at the time because I was just going to lesson uh I kind of tried to push through the doors myself with without hair and with doing so I managed to pull one door open but as soon as I wanted to go push the other one I got stuck in between so my water kind of got stuck between these two heavy doors and then I was sitting there for about 15 minute
s just waiting for someone to walk by and to help me get out luckily if someone did but I was really late to listen and I was very frustrated and I feel like the best watch Boxing me to go and I took it up to the principal and stuff like that had a meeting with him about the access and in college and schools in general and then unfortunately nothing really happened but I feel like that's the one thing that I still resonates with me because like because that was a big thing because like that's wh
ere I finally woke up and I was like oh this is actually a lot right like someone needs to talk about this yeah yeah it's a spark isn't it and yeah and it evolves from there yeah Miss Jackie how about you where do you think your activism Journey started that's a good question um I think it started by accident I'm gonna be honest um because I like growing up I thought activism was like you have to do marches and you have to do this and you have to like it has to be all of these big gestures of li
ke wanting change and because I didn't see people who looked like me from like the deaf disabled like neurodivergent communities I was just like oh do we even do we that's stupid these days so I think how it started was I just was like I want to see change but I didn't want to call myself an activist um because I thought that it was tied to big protest or like really challenging things um but then when you want to see change you're automatically activist um but then there's this line of like I d
idn't want my life to be a political statement so when I did things I didn't want it to be like yeah you speak for all of these communities and it's like no but this will help these communities if this one thing changes so I think for me it was in school I was always the kid that um don't tell my mum that got into a lot of trouble um because I was forcing change that is the best way to to say that yeah no that's that burden of responsibility it's true and why does it have to fall on on one set o
f shoulders it's absolutely true uh Jody what about what about you how did your can you think of kind of specific moments or when did when did it start and how did it evolve I think I started being an activist for a very like not related to disability um but um veganism I became a vegan um all experimenting a vegan when I was like 14. um and just reading lots of information I was like into climate change and what was happening with greenhouse gases and what was happening to the world and I cared
about it and I cared about human beings who I saw weren't getting the justice and you know shelter food and I just yeah I took it away from myself and what was happening in my sphere and just started to care about and be grateful for everything beyond that um and I was uh very much not wanting to be an activist like out and proud about being an activist I wanted to like slow change like letting people know about little things about oh I made this nice dish why didn't you try some you know and I
think I'm using that as a bit of a metaphor of um sometimes there are these you know this fire I mean you know last week within the gray eye stuff this fire in our bellies of this all these things we wanted to change and we're shouting about it and we're thinking about what is going to be the campaign and then there's also this kind of other way of just how you bring people along for the change and get them to care um because that's how I started my activism by just suddenly caring about someth
ing and then I was off and running um yeah yeah I'd say that there are two things in now that that personal journey and the personal decisions that you make and then there's also that thing about bringing people in in with you you know that it's not always about confrontation that's that's been that's been true for for quite a lot of what we've heard so far no I don't know would you call yourself an activist uh uh I don't know is that a word that you Embrace easily uh and if so um how how do you
think your journey might have started yeah I'm just listening to what everyone's got to say and I'm thinking about myself and thinking well I must be I think I am because I think you know I've always worked um I've always taught or in Special Needs schools you know and I've always um you know the students that I've taught are just you know remarkable you know and they're so interesting and they've got they've got so much to say and so much to give and so much to communicate and just because um
you know there may be non-verbal or you know they've got whatever their disability might be it's it I think it's with me it's like trying to like what Judy was saying just trying to to see them all as individual people and and giving them the voice and giving them the opportunity to communicate and to express their needs you know for example in in where I work we use a lot of symbols and a lot of them um objects of reference so that so that they can make a choice you know so I think for me it's
kind of in a different way it's it's maybe it's just you know yeah movies like that yeah can you say a bit more about objects of reference for people who might not be familiar with that what what does that look like yeah so you know well we've got like some software where you can you type in for example pencil and the word pencil will come up and then the symbol pencil will come up and then and you have you you'll cut that out and laminate that and so for example you might if in my art lessons I
might have a pencil laminated on a paintbrush laminated and the student will get to choose what object they want to use with an object of reference you've actually got the actual paintbrush attached to the symbol as well so it's it's a bit more kind of um it's not so abstract it's a bit more obvious um for some students who actually need the actual object of reference okay um so we're looking at obviously within our Festival looking at helping uh to support young people access activism in a cre
ative way um can you think of other examples that you've seen or maybe been part of Joe either within uh I am festival or in your kind of general practice uh day to day what's up for me yeah thinking about creativity in particular because yes we talked about it doesn't have to be about protest it doesn't have to be about shouting and marching we are all creatives here so what is it about the creative activity that could actually be a a useful pathway towards that uh expressing our activism well
for um in my experience it's it's about coming together working together you know so for example we are working on the uh the sensory banners in in my in art lessons at the minute so it's a great way to you know get everyone together in the classroom everyone working together everyone making their own Mark and and and it's really important that everyone does make them more and it's not you know everyone's got there is able to express themselves in some way and it's not just all of one person or
not so it's giving everyone a choice and but also being able to work together and to take time and that's really important and and to be able to wait until someone else has had a go before you so it's kind of it's it's it's teaching um young people lots of different techniques as well as because like I say my my um experience as autism so a lot of the time um autistic students are prefer to work on their own for example and so working together in a group is is a really big thing for for some of
them so um yeah nice I'm very giving time that that seems to be a an important aspect isn't it it doesn't happen immediately just because we wanted to yeah very much so because sometimes you know you can ask them the student a question and it takes a long time for that to be processed you know um and you might have to give them variable prompts or like I said before the objects of reference to to get them to understand you know and then you will get there in the end but sometimes you sometimes y
ou do have to give them a lot of time and space to to action that yeah okay in in your art form thinking about you know creative activism if you like it's uh is there something you think about your art form that lends itself particularly to this kind of creative expression of activism are there other examples of creative activism you've seen that have impressed you or that you've been part of or maybe both yeah um in my own like art form bubble world I think uh it's it's just about honesty and I
'm uh kind of what Jody said of like I'm not trying to beat you over the head with like you should do this the right way like it's kind of like well these are these audiences and uh what do you think about that and like how do you think you can help with that process of things changing um in terms of like things that I've witnessed and I've Jody and Isa um uh show that the young company did that was all about rights and just having young people create a show about the things they want to see cha
nge but also about their goals and Ambitions and it wasn't like a oh what was me I go through these things and uh it was like no these are things that we want to see change and but these are the things that we're super ambitious about and these are the things that we love and the this is what we want in the future and having the having a space for them to have voices is like incredible because it those spaces aren't often created for young people and there needs to be more spaces like that becau
se we won't we don't know what people want unless we ask them and I feel like we don't often do that so ask ask the young people you work with answer Monday to Friday Saturday if you see them on a Saturday like answer them it might be different it might change um and that's okay too so yeah yeah yeah that's I really like that yeah create some space create some space for something to happen no you don't necessarily always have to be driving um but then how how do you think you can evaluate whethe
r that has been whether it's had an effect how can we do that Jackie what do you think well that's a big question uh my friend I'll put you on the spot button I think there's this thing that happens and adults and people who work for organizations do this and it's not a bad thing but you have to evaluate because you're funded right but actually what does evaluation look like is the question that I would pose because is it if you've worked with a young person for six weeks and at the end of the s
ix weeks they've gained so much confidence about talking about what their needs and wants are that to me is a success um I don't know how I write that in a evaluation document um but I think it's it's about individuals and how much what their journey is because where they started might be different to where they are at that current moment when you finish the project or whatever is working on but also people carry those things with them throughout their lives and even like when we were all speaki
ng about how it started for us I'm a lot older than I look um because thinking about school that stayed with me my whole life and that's why now I'm so confident about going this is an injustice and this is what I want to see change so sometimes you can't evaluate it immediately but that impact stays with people um so yeah yeah thank you Isa I wonder if that resonates with you uh Miss Jackie was talking about the show that you were in and I came to see that show and it was very much about rights
uh and it was it was a very positive show may I say um so definitely a an example of creative activism what did you what did you personally get from that and what did you hope your audience got from it did I ask you that um well that's that's very interesting because I got a lot of dude from doing that for us because uh the whole process of what we came up to do on the day was just very interesting and intriguing to find out because like like was mentioned before in in the show we all took our
old personal experiences and all we did was we took our old personal experiences whatever that may be like for example discrimination or a wanting to find out what you're going to do in the future or what you want for yourself or having the ability to do so you're having the space to choose what you want and we've all kind of put that together and one big performance and I feel like from that whole experience I feel like it told me that it's okay to say what you want and especially for me becaus
e like I only just finished College like four years ago or like about like around about four years ago and um I think since then a lot has changed like obviously um while I was in school I didn't realize how many big issues was happening with me and like the Injustice that like everyone was like the well yeah the society was planning on me and I feel like having like a show like that if I if I started loaders like younger me I watched the show like but I would come up with like these crazy ideas
that would just explode my head like like I cannot tell you like what type of spark that I promise like what we did like as the young family did can help for the younger generation as well and and I just I just think like it had it had a huge impact on me in a way that like like it kind of gave me a taste of what it's like to actually say what you want and then like show people in like a way that they can enjoy it because that's also a form of activism if you think of it that way and I mean yea
h it's just basically it gave like us young people like the space to like say what we want like and then like kind of ask for it but not like in a demanding way and like you said it was put in a very positive way which yes we're explaining to you what our struggles are but at the same time we're doing it in a way that we look we know that we enjoy doing so it was like a bit of both and oh that whole experience I would say like it's like I'll say that is um like I would like to see more things li
ke this in the future for everyone else as well because I feel like as often than neutral and like a gray eye has been doing that for years but uh from what I can remember this is like my actual first time like actually talking about like different issues but in a fun way and I think that's very important so I'm just excited about the future of what it's gonna look like to be honest thank you yeah so I I think a really great advocate for that kind of creative expression because you could have ju
st shouted about it or written to your MP but uh Jody talk to us about creative activism obviously there's a lot there that is have been saying about gray eye um but maybe other examples um of creative activism that you've seen or been part of yeah and I think I think what's really important too is you know what the um some of the examples that either and Miss Jackie have shared is is we we also gave a choice of like do you want this to be coming from you or do you want that to be a character li
ke do you need a bit of padding to be able to put across what you need and they all said all the young company members were like no we want this to be from us and there was it wasn't just one question we were we were checking in all the time like is this okay um and then what came from that is that actually when we evaluated um sat down in a circle and said how was that um everyone went well now we want to tell other people's stories because there's so many other stories out there so it started
to like the world started to widen and I think that's a really positive thing um other examples um you know we uh I've been involved in campaigns for um access for um you know just train stations for example I worked in a small community in Hertfordshire where um I was I was a drama tutor and we were putting together a campaign to um try and create ramps for the train station so our young people could get to London and get to Cambridge um they currently could only go one way or the other um due
to a lack of access and so we brought in the train companies we got on the radio we brought in the CEOs for um the the head of service um to kind of come in and we set up a TV studio in the drama studio um we had cameras sofas banners and we were inviting people who had power policy makers um people with who were head of the charity the train company and we invited them in and we interviewed them we grilled them and in a way that was Progressive um and and trying to get like some action to happe
n um because I think they thought oh well this is the first time we've heard it and as young people they're saying we live this every day so you'll you know do something about it now um and I think yeah I think that was really um really effective um also being able to listen from young people who perhaps they hadn't before people who were communicating in a way that they hadn't experienced um taking time you know it's not just a quick fire sit down and have a five minute conversation no this is
45 minutes and we've got a lot to say and just we need patience and kindness and generosity and action um and there was some action that happened from that and I think um people started to listen but if you don't continue on if you just it you know with the Festival of Rights the show we've been talking about if we were just to leave that and say there we go it's very unlikely change will happen we have to keep going on and it's boring for us that are doing it that you're just banging on about i
t all the time but we have to because for some people it's the first time that they're hearing it so we just have to make sure everyone can hear our message yeah yes that that does seem I'm hearing a lot of patience and kindness and it doesn't seem very kind of dramatic and you know and yet that seems to be the important thing and I suppose that's what I was trying to say uh with you as well Jackie about that evaluating the effectiveness of it you know evaluation can be very dry and it can also
be quite kind of tick the Box can't it but but we really want to see change otherwise why are we doing it um Miss Jackie what what do you call the barriers to uh disabled young people accessing this kind of work accessing their activist selves if you like I think it's attitudes but like I think it's all the things around the word activism I think that is like one of the biggest barriers because if you are not being an activist like Greta then are you really are you really doing it and it's like
no that is her way of being an activist whereas your way might be posting on social media like because social media makes the world smaller um or is it like you write into your MP it's like all of these things and like even um like an example is when George Floyd was murdered and it was the middle of people who were in lockdown as well and all of these things and it's like me as a black disabled person I want to be out there too screaming my head off but actually it's not that's not safe for me
personally in terms of like isolating and making sure that I was safe so I think it's just about changing the attitudes around what activism looks like and it doesn't have to be I'm gonna march with everyone for 45 minutes on a straight road with crowds it could be actually I'm gonna share information um not share misinformation and kind of keep that conversation going in places and spaces that even when it's not being covered by the news anymore doesn't mean that it disappears it means that we'
re still having these conversations but it's also having uh Grace for people and meeting people where they are because something that you might know in your heart of hearts and you've lived through all different kinds of like experiences it might be the first time that they've ever heard that this was a problem so it's about meeting people where they are but also letting them know like you just got here I've been here so come and hold my hand and let's change the world together rather than oh yo
u don't know like right and like trying to shame people into not seeing problems that might not be in their Forefront um so I think for young people it's letting them know that there is no like I said earlier like there's no right way or wrong way to be an activist and what suits them and their individual personality because some people are introverts they're definitely not going to go marching um but they might be really good at Tech so they might design an app that you know helps activists con
nect it's about not limiting um young people on how they choose to make change yeah I must say I think your approach is very generous yes Jackie in that you know you're okay quite happy to to be quite patient with people who you know maybe could take a bit more responsibility I think it depends so if it's like young people who really want to get into activism but aren't quite sure I have all of the patients in the world if you are the CEO of the company for the last 55 years that is a part of th
e problem Oh I have no time no no no no patience for you because you've had 55 years to sort it out and you haven't um so I think it again it is in the bubble of young people I have all the space and time and patience but for people who are might be a part of the problem or who are the problem yeah I'm I I I don't have that much patience for yeah thank you uh Jody barriers what are the barriers I mean you talk about having to keep on going and there has to be some barriers right and what are the
y and what can we do and I think someone's just putting a chat about you know writing to your MP and not getting it I mean it's incredibly frustrating it is um some of the uh uh barriers I mean even things like you know if we want to be out in a March and those marches aren't accessible um if if we're organizing um a rally or you know um we're turning up in person thinking about making sure you've always got other options for people to engage whether that's social media and and we're having real
Direction so people do feel they're part of something and it's not like oh well you could just tweet about it's like no no this is this is the kind of message we're going with and something that feels really organized so that we can feel part of something um we were all together during the pandemic online and then suddenly now we've kind of sprinkled off again and I think you know those barriers are still being able to be actively an active participant um just on a basic level is still a barrie
r for young disabled people um there is I think it's for people who who aren't experienced in those worlds to just realize that we need allies and you know if if that's not your experience if seek out seek it out seek out what are the experiences that are facing young disabled people um and how can you be an ally really active Ally in that um I think follow-ups as well making sure that you're following up on things don't just you know tokenism we can spot it a mile away um so we know if there's
tokenism or not um if the I Am Festival just happened once and that was it you know it's not it's every year and there's there's you know a new Direction within that a changing things within the organization and the work that that you do um so you know you start to see that real change um oh there's an endless list of barrier is um I think a lot of it also is thinking about how are young people getting this information accessible information is hard to find Joe has brilliantly brought up about y
ou know alternative communication and other ways to you know using easy read formats and things like that I use easy read formats because that's like I don't know if anyone's read the labor Manifesto or something but I'm reading the easy read version of that because it's so much more interesting um and easy to digest so thinking about the way information is presented if you're putting on an event make sure that you're thinking about access as part of that um you know there has been activism arou
nd um you know other pockets of activism that aren't thinking about access um so it makes it really hard for us to care and be an ally to other movements as well if that access isn't in place um and also just again thinking about what what Young disabled people are would being put through on a daily basis and then having to go out and be an activist just by being um they are an activist on the street we are activists you know in our everyday lives um so just for someone to come along and give us
a community or help us build a community together and I think that's what makes you know some of us stronger you know I I have gray eye for example I have a disability Arts community that listens to me that takes me under their wing um that I can champion and and be an activist activist for um but if we don't have that sense of belonging if we're isolated then oh those issues are so much bigger for people um and yeah I don't know if that answers the question I think I'm still figuring it out as
well Lynn no thank you no there is some some rich points in there and thank you for sharing that uh Joe what do you feel about the barriers as you see there maybe in your setting or or beyond that in your other experiences well unfortunately I I feel that there's a lot of people who don't seem to have much or any empathy um in general you know they can't put themselves in that other person's but you know they don't have people don't seem to have empathy not everyone I'm you know I'm just saying
but there is you because I think you always think that people are going to be like you because that's all you know of isn't it but there's a lot of people out there who just really don't have that empathy you aren't able to put themselves in to what that other person's life is like and what their struggles are like they don't so and and also I think there's a lot of greed there's a lot of greed there's a lot of selfishness unfortunately and and um everyone's in a rush you know and no one's got
any time technology is getting faster and faster you know there's a lot of barriers there's a lot of barriers money you know cost of everything and cuts when it comes to the school setting you know constant cuts um you know so there's a lot of barriers when it comes to to you know trying to do um creative activism um within the school setting and and outside I think and like I said you know the the people who can make a difference not going to mention anyone but the people those people who can't
don't you know don't seem to have a lot of the qualities that are needed to to make that those changes you know so yeah but I think what all we can do is keep going like you said Julie just keep going and um you know keep smiling keep going and just keep believing and we'll get there thank you Isaac barriers what do you see are the main barriers for young people getting involved oh I feel like the points that everyone made already are kind of like the way they used that I feel like the first vi
deos.com but then there's also this this sense that if you are gonna go and act to like do a bit of activism and sometimes I think it's important to realize that a lot everyone's gonna listen to your type of activism so it's about how for example like for for me personally like I can't just go out on the street and change myself to a wall and have a band around my legs so I want this to change um well in reality I kind of do want to do that but I know I'll probably end up getting arrested or som
ething's gonna happen so um I feel like it's important me to know like the um like even with things like social media I feel like that opens it a little bit but then it also like it's also very daunting to like say things on social media as well and I feel like one of the main barriers would be like you have to be okay with like people not being very like open at the receiving end so I feel like for young activists because we know what happens like the Injustice that this world's personalized li
ke sometimes it's quite as scary so sometimes it's about how how do we feel safe enough to do what we want to say but without it like coming back onto us you know like comments to attack us saying that oh we're gonna assign see you and we're gonna make sure you never do anything like this again so I feel like one of the main things is that fear that the younger generation verse probably has have no sorry I bet again the generation has um about like they don't know what's gonna happen if we if we
step outside the box a little bit because the the older generation I don't mean any of you guys I just mean like uh like the people that are in power they don't they don't find that Maria appealing so I think it's about how do we feel safe enough to say what we want to say without getting attacked for it I feel like that's one of the barriers and then also accessibility like like we said before like in a rally you can't just go and join already as well like even the route we have the plan where
you're going and how you're going to get there and like with the things like Drop curves and stuff like that so those small things like that are very important to um discuss I feel like it's quite important like if if you think about all of these things that you put them together so that's nice that's enough yeah I'm kind of feel sad that as we move towards the end of our discussion we've kind of dwelt on the barriers and I don't want us to leave with that but then also let's not let's let's no
t kind of try and pretend that everything's all cool and wonderful because clearly there is a lot of work still to do and I think it gives us a lot to think about for our first of all uh as we as we come into the next year if we want to stay with this theme uh many of the things that you've said I think will really resonate with us in our planning um I haven't seen any questions in the chat so far uh which is fine because uh we we are really going to run out of time quite soon but I wonder if I
can just put our panelists on the spot uh for this last minute or so and ask you know what's next what's next for you uh with respect to this theme if you can be really brief that would be fantastic uh can I ask you Jody first of all what's what's next but also it's a real uh obviously supporting our young company um but also um uh there's some campaigning to be done within the education system um in solidarity with teachers and young people um the the cuts and what is happening um long list but
um yeah it's it's really very much having um high level conversations um with uh very clear action points um and kind of getting organized um getting the right people involved and trying to make sure that um the education for young disabled people is inclusive um empowering and gives choice and high ambition fantastic thank you Isa what's next uh for me I think I'm gonna be considering being an activist and trying to saver and yeah I'll be I'll be I'm thinking I'm gonna write a few more posts a
bout all of the the problems that seem to be going on right now and then I don't know we'll take it I'll be alongside the young company too so I think we'll take it from them and see what happens in the future he was informed Joe what's next um I think just continuing with with um um I'm on the the committee of the um I am fest for the um the the committee of getting ideas together so I'd like to stay on that committee uh looking ahead for next year and just continuing with our great work with s
chools and other sen teachers and just continuing them moving forward and seeing what we can do in the world of in the creative world fantastic thank you Miss Jackie what's next um have a good time um yeah I think for me what's next is just continuing talking about different things that uh different communities that I'm from whether that's a deaf disabled or a Divergent Community whether that's black community whether that's women whatever community that is and just kind of championing all of th
e things that those communities do but also the barriers in whatever spaces and places they end up um but yeah also to have a good time yeah thank you Joy let's do that let's have some joy in in the work that we do thank you so much everyone it's been an absolute joy to hear what you've got to say our time is running out so I'm going to hand you back to Beth for our closing remarks many many thanks to all and to you Emma as well thank you
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