getting young people in the room

this was a conversation around how to "get young people in the room" - what room? how do we reach young people and how do we meet them as people?

with three members of the boundless team present, this conversation came from what boundless theatre do. as a company, boundless theatre focus on working with 15-25 year olds in south london and beyond in accessing theatre and the arts industry. there are big questions for me here about how we make sure young artists know we're here, and how we also make sure they are not being involved in a tokenistic way. we shared similar questions around wanting to listen to what young people want, and that just "getting" them in the room does not fulfil that desire. maybe the question is more about opening doors, than bringing them into the room. we shared an acknowledgement that we cannot speak for them, so how do we reach them and empower young artists to name and ask for the things they want?

the idea of putting posters in schools, or finding a low-cost way of reaching teachers might be a useful strategy of connecting with young people. this also asks the question of how we tell young people not already interested in the arts that they could consider it. is it a better marketing strategy we need? how do we end up on young people's algorithms, and is social media the only way of achieving connection?

something that has stuck with me is the desire for organisations to connect themselves as partners. if organisations are already working with young people, how can we connect and grow that network, and support their work better?

i also believe that the spirit of being young and new can be something that is beneficial to adults working in established career fields. young people are good at asking questions as they learn, can we borrow that behaviour? and does that permission young people to be taken more seriously within the industry?

on a wider note, i'm interested that DandD20 had some young people present, but not many. what would a young person's DandD look like? how can we support that? what sessions would a room of under 30s ask?