Rekindle at the House of Lords: Speaking up for young people’s agency

Our founder, Ruth Ibegbuna and Cara Kennedy, one of Rekindle’s original Youth Pioneers and now our Community and Corporate Partnerships Lead, were pleased to be invited to speak at the House of Lords for the launch of The Disengaged Teen – a new book by Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop exploring how to better support young people’s agency and wellbeing during uncertain times.

The event was hosted by Big Change in partnership with The Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. It brought together educators, youth advocates and changemakers working across education and civil society to consider how we can better support young people to feel seen, heard and empowered.

We were grateful to Big Change for the invitation and for creating space for our voices in the room.

After the event, Cara reflected on the deeper meaning of agency:

Having agency over your own life means being in control of what you’re doing now and who you want to be.

Ruth shared how easily that sense of direction can be lost as young people grow older:

We want well-rounded adults who are critical thinkers who feel they’ve got direction and can contribute to civil society. But young people’s agency is often ground out of them. We need to re-spark their love of learning and of their own lives.

Rekindle was proud to take part in this important national conversation and to stand alongside others committed to reimagining education and shifting power toward young people. We believe agency is more than a policy goal for young people – it’s an essential human need. The sooner we trust young people with it, the stronger our communities will be.

Big Change also shared reflections on the wider conversation sparked by the event, which explored how to support youth-led change in education and society.