The day I walked in someone else’s shoes!

04/22/2012

0 Comments

 
Yesterday I walked in someone else’s shoes. I won’t tell you his name, and I don’t have a picture of him, but I have a picture of his shoes.

I “walked in the shoes” of a young man (23) who was a refugee from Afghanistan. He told me about how he had been in Indonesia for 3 years before being granted asylum in Australia, that he was here studying English and that he hoped to study Civil Engineering after that. I gave him some advice about studying in the Built Environment and he shared with me what he missed about Afghanistan. He told me he misses the sweet curries from home, made from (very) fresh ingredients. He also told me that he misses snow-boarding and experiencing the four seasons. I had no idea that there was even snow in Afghanistan! Did you!? There’s so much we don’t know about their country. All I imagine when I hear Afghanistan is desert and war. It’s obviously a beautiful place. When it’s more peaceful I’d like to go there and experience the snow in Afghanistan.

Yesterday was the “Walk in our Shoes” event run by Youth Voice and held in Youth Week. It was a concept Danni, Kirralee, Lauren and I came up with at the Queensland Youth Forum 2011 (QYF11). Elise from Youth Voice and QPASTT (with our permission) developed the idea into the event, which was very successful!!

The point of the event is to share your stories through the journey of your shoes. Someone gets a photo of your shoes (below is my photo) and they have to find you and get to know them during a walk. It was particularly suited to the refugees who don’t want their photo taken, but want to tell their story.

I got a lot out of the event and felt the event achieved its aims. I enjoyed meeting my shoe buddy and learning about his experiences. I hope I was able to pass on my story to him too.

Let’s see this event happen again next year! Well done Youth Voice and QPASTT.

My shoe photo from the Walk in Our Shoes event
Add Comment
 

Youth Week Events

03/28/2012

0 Comments

 
I have been asked to assist with two Youth Week events this year and helped develop the concept for a third.  Youth Week is a National Australian celebration of Youth and Youth Culture. This year Brisbane has over 40 events happening!

On 13 April BABI Youth and Family Service will be producing an event called “Celebrating YOUth” which will feature the Giant Games from Games Night @ King George Square.

The other Youth Week event I am directly involved in is one that Vibrant Places is coordinating on 22 April and is called “Fun and Games”.

The Brisbane City Council asked me to produce an event focused on the Giant Games, but also gave me the opportunity to do more. So I contacted Cody Schaeffer from G-Youth who I met at the Queensland Youth Forum in 2011. Cody was influential in the startup of G-Youth. He is responsible for G-Youth’s recent expansion in to the rest of Queensland. G-Youth are a group of young people offering Hip-Hop dancing, singing, rapping and counseling (giving advice on relationships to homework to family troubles). They use Hip-hop as a way of getting young people involved in their communities and talking with mentors. 

At the 'Fun and Games" event G-Youth will combine short Hip-Hop singing and dancing workshops with some short performances. Anyone can just turn up and get involved!

Edit: As the event has evolved, recently Tallulah Grey has come on board and will be facilitating the Photo Hunt! The Photo Hunt will be an opportunity for young people to interact with the Giant Games and Hip-hop dancing happening in King George Square and with the space itself, by taking photos of the activity and having their photos printed and displayed at the event. There will be a prize for the favourite photo of the public and the favourite photo of the Vibrant Places staff and the Youth Week Volunteers. There will be 3 categories for photos: 
1. Photograph someone or a group having a great time playing a giant game.
2. Introduce yourself to a stranger and take a photo of them interacting with one of the lion or kangaroo statues in King George Square.
3. Take a fun photo of anyone hip-hop dancing or singing.

I will be managing the Giant Games to encourage interaction between strangers and will also be putting on some handball games, which through social media research I found out is something children are enjoy playing at school at the moment.

I am really excited to be coordinating “Fun and Games” and feel very privileged to be running this event. Cody,  Tallulah  and I are all young, so I think this event will be particularly successful because it is giving young people the opportunity to run an event for young people!

The third event I am involved with, that I helped develop the concept is “Walk in Our Shoes”. There are 2 events for “Walk in Our Shoes”, one happening in Brisbane and the other at Redcliffe.

“Walk in Our Shoes” came out of the Queensland Youth Forum (QYF11) I participated in, in 2011. It was an idea my group, Danni Brown, Kirralee Parsons and I pitched at the forum. The “Walk in Our Shoes” event is about understanding people’s experiences by walking in their shoes. Once pitched it was picked up by the Youth Voice group, who quite appropriately adapted it for sharing the stories of refugees and will be running the event in Brisbane.

The Redcliffe “Walk in Our Shoes” will be run by be Vocal Be Heard, a group QYF11 attendees Danni Brown works with. She has interpreted the event to be about mental illness and understanding what people experience with a mental illness.

I’m really excited that this simple concept has been able to be developed into 2 great events!

So come and check out these Youth events:

10 March 2012 - Walk in Our Shoes by Be Vocal Be Heard, Redcliffe

13 April 2012 – Celebrating YOUth at the Wynnum Library

21 April 2012 - Walk in Our Shoes by Youth Voice, Roma St Parklands

22 April 2012 – Fun and Games by Vibrant Places, King George Square

See all the other Brisbane Youth Week events on the Brisbane City Council Website.

If you ever want Vibrant Places to work with you, produce or come up with a concept for an event in public space, contact Amy Saunders at a_me.saunders@live.com

Add Comment