Empowering Young People to Guide their Future

Empowering Young People to Guide their Future

By Councillor Paul Prescott, portfolio holder for environment

Earlier this month, over 100 young people from schools across Wigan Borough gathered at The Edge for Wigan Council’s third Youth Climate Summit.

It was a real pleasure to open the day, with a theme focused on ‘Empowered Youth, Conscious Consumers: Building a Sustainable Future’, where young people learned about how the things we buy affect our planet and our mental health, in particular – fast fashion.

This was an inspiring day, with an introduction from our Youth Cabinet on why this is such a crucial topic for local young people to take a lead on;  a talk from City of Trees on how trees can help reduce flooding and improve our environment- for the wellbeing of our planet and ourselves; and a beautiful performance by the Bedford High School choir about the impact of climate change on arctic wildlife.

The ‘Fast Fashion Room’ brought the journey of clothes to life, from production to waste, and also looked at solutions to the issues caused by fast fashion. Students and teachers had the chance to get involved with a curated collection of clothing made using upcycled vintage fabric, kindly donated by a Wigan-based sustainable fashion designer, Tallula Vintage, and take part in upcycling activities using fabric. 

Guests were also treated to a spectacular upcycled fashion show by fashion students at Wigan & Leigh College, repurposing old clothes and scraps into new incredible outfits.

Another themed room looked at the value of nature as a solution, where guests took part in various workshops and upcycling activities with Ekhaya Empowerment and explored ideas on how to create space for nature and increase biodiversity.

Across the packed marketplace, there was lots to see and with demonstrations from the Be Well team, Aqualease, Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the council’s Keep It Clean campaign.

This was a superb day, and I would like to say thank you every school that attended. I was inspired by the enthusiasm, the energy and the willingness of our young people to engage with this hard topic and explore ways that they can lead us all into a better future.

I hope everyone who came enjoyed their day as much as I did, and really took away some lessons on the impact of fast fashion- on our planet, and on the people who make these disposable clothes in countries around the world.

A thank you also to FCC Environment and Murphys for sponsoring this year’s event.