Hi everyone, as Chair of Amber’s Youth Board, I’m really proud to share our first piece of work, which is our manifesto!
The manifesto was created by The Amber Trust Youth Board members to share who we are, what we stand for, and how we want to make a difference.
Watch the video below or read on to find out more.
[Video description: Eleanor sits at a desk talking to the camera. Her long, straight hair sits loose hanging over her shoulders and she wears a dark blue t-shirt. On the wall behind her are lots of framed certificates.]
So, what does the Youth Board mean to us?
It means having a voice – being asked for our opinions and sharing what we think about things that affect us and other young people.
It means showing the world what’s possible – proving how important The Amber Trust is, by sharing our experiences and ideas.
Our mission and purpose is:
- To be the bridge between children and adults – working to ensure there is a balance between adults’ and children’s ideas at The Amber Trust.
- To ensure that our conversations, decisions, and actions represent the diverse range of young people’s voices within The Amber Trust, and to make sure that we have active and accessible ways to listen to what they have to say.
- To help more blind and partially sighted young people to access music, grow current skills and gain new ones.
- To lead by example, challenge stereotypes, and raise awareness – sharing our stories and achievements as vision impaired young people.
- To inspire and empower others, especially vision impaired young people.
- To give something back to The Amber Trust, which has supported us.
- To encourage more young people to get involved with The Amber Trust.
- To get feedback and input from other young vision impaired young people, who aren’t currently part of the Youth Board.
Our ambitions are:
- To build a supportive community of young, vision impaired musicians – and make real friendships.
- To get real-world experience that can help us in the future.
- To grow our confidence, speak up for ourselves, and work as a team
- To learn from each other and share skills and knowledge.
As you can probably tell, we are ambitious! And, we have lots of practical ideas on how we can put all this into action. We’re only just getting started and we can’t wait to share more with you – watch this space!