From The Mayor

Life is all about listening and learning!   

It is so easy to think that’s all about the young learning from the old, or beginners learning from those more experienced, but if we stop to listen, and actually hear, from those who are beginning their journey, it’s surprising what we can learn from an innocent perspective. 

Often, we assume that the way we’ve always done things is the ‘tried and tested’ best approach, but on my rounds recently, I’ve come across some interesting examples that have challenged that thinking.

At Frome Town Council we begin the year with a pot of grant money, inviting applicants to apply for funding to help them grow. This year, we decided to shake things up a little. We asked students if they would like to create a youth grant panel to look specifically at applications from groups aimed at young people. They approached the task with vigour and excitement and were keen to apply rigorous standards to each submission, ensuring it was fit for purpose, well thought through, and appealed to a broad section of the community. It was certainly an example of great work and has already given us some ideas for the next major grants round. In fact, it was so successful, it’s going to be an annual occurrence.

It’s good to be challenged and it’s something we encourage at the council. Another recent example was the conversations we had with residents during a recent engagement campaign, asking people what they liked about Frome, what didn’t work for them and what they felt could be improved.

Many people talked about needing more in the town for young people but rather than just listing their suggestions, we decided to go out to talk to the children themselves and the results were often surprising. Many of them were concerned for fellow pupils who were struggling with poverty, illness, or mental health. They wanted places to meet with one another and chat, under cover and in safe places. They wanted to learn practical skills. In all cases, having spoken to several schools, their thinking showed compassion, maturity, and a desire to make a difference. It was great learning for us and will feed into all our future activity.

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, “When the student is ready the master appears”.  We just need to be open enough to accept and respond to the teaching.

As the saying goes, we’re never too old to learn!

Anita Collier

Pictured l-r; Ella, Matilda and Esosa from the Young Opinions Unite grants panel, with Mayor Anita Collier and Children and Young People’s Officer Melody Hunter-Evans