As Children’s Commissioner, I hear directly from children and young people about the importance their communities play in their lives – providing them with a sense of belonging, support and safety, as well as opportunities to learn, grow, and build meaningful connections with others.
Children tell me how the community they live in can enrich their lives and allow them to feel understood, included and able to express themselves freely. Young people also told me how their communities support them to feel more confident and optimistic about the future.
From my time as a teacher, headteacher and trust leader I have been part of the same community as the pupils in my schools and seen firsthand how their surroundings directly impact everyone’s lives for good and bad.
Over the last few years, I have been aware of events, including the riots last year, that have left me with some concerns about divisions in communities and a growing sense of social disconnection on young people.
That’s why I was so pleased my Youth Ambassadors Tamar, Emmanuel and Zara explored this topic further with the Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, who is also the Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons in England and Wales. They asked her about the role of community in young people’s lives today and how we can build community in a fractured society to ensure that young people feel included and valued.
In the interview, Bishop Rachel spoke about the changing role of community in young people’s lives and how there must be a greater focus on creating safe places where children and young people can meet each other and people from different walks of life.
Given her role as the Bishop for prisons, my Ambassadors were keen to ask Bishop Rachel about the impact of prison on children and young people – both as young people attending Young Offenders Institutions and children with parents in prison, as well as her reaction to young people being involved in the summer riots and ways in which young people could be rehabilitated.
Bishop Rachel said: “I would dare to say at the heart of the brokenness in our society is broken relationships of some sort, it might be broken relationships with family, friends, or even ourselves.
“By locking people away [in prison] on the whole, and this is a general statement, we are reducing the possibility of strengthening relationships, that doesn’t mean to say there isn’t some great work going on in Young Offenders Institutions, but I would say for most young people that is not the right approach.”
Tamar, Emmanuel and Zara went on to ask Bishop Rachel what law she would like to introduce to improve the lives of children and young people, and she stressed the importance of including children and young people in decision making and the need to consider how legislation impacts their lives – something I have long been calling for.
When asked what advice she would give to children and young people she said that children and young people should speak out, share their ideas and be who they are – something I certainly support!
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