We are a group of 14/15 year olds at the Godolphin and Latymer School creating and running this project for both the Future Problem Solving competition and as a community impact project where we make a positive and lasting change in our community.
Our project proposal is attached below if you would like to read through it, and our website will be updated at least weekly so all information on here is up to date!
PROJECT PROPOSAL
West London Travel Program
Area of Concern
Safety is something that is an increasingly prominent issue in London and has impacted us personally. We want to raise awareness of challenges people are facing and our personal experiences (the following incidents are real examples of things we have experienced and we have reported them as true to the story as possible):
1. (Date: October 2024) We were cycling down the main road, coming back from rowing, before being circled by two men on lime-bikes with balaclavas, trying to steal our bikes and phones. Unprepared, we were unsure what we should do and what would happen to us so we ran and stopped a trusted adult in the street and waited for help.
2. (Date: October 2024, 1 week later) I was coming home from school with a friend and waiting at the bus stop. Having just missed the bus, after running to try to catch it, we were tired, alone and unfocused. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise behind us. Before we could move, we were surrounded by young men with fireworks and sparklers, which they proceeded to throw at shop-fronts and onto roads. Scared, we ran into a nearby office and waited until our parents came to pick us up.
We have already begun to share our story, by organising assemblies, telling fellow peers, and spreading valuable information on what to do in these situations. But this is not enough to solve the problem. After sharing our experiences, and listening to our classmates’, it became clear that these were not rare occurrences (definitive survey data below). Many have come forward with similar stories to ours, almost all taking place around the area of Hammersmith and Fulham, where both our incidents happened and where we are planning to help combat the issue. Through discussions, we have seen many people ignore experiences, claiming ‘it’s normal’ and something we ‘have to deal with’ when living in London. However, in our opinion, we should all have the right to feel safe in our own area, and our safety should never be something being ignored.
Furthermore, through additional research, we found out that 44%(girls) and 24%(boys) of teenagers, in London, according to BBC News, feel regularly unsafe on the streets. Whilst this percentage is not as high as the one we collected, it shows how there are many people in similar positions all over London, not just in local schools and areas. We also discovered there were no charities focussed towards this safety issue, the nearest ones being Streets of Growth, and Brake, which are based on crashes rather than street safety. We want to tackle this issue because it is important for it to be addressed and for measures taken to help prevent further incidents so that students gain confidence when on their own. Through a separate survey we sent out, focussed on the issue of a lack of interactions between schools (in which 145 students responded), only 9% felt that they interacted sufficiently with a mixture of students from different schools. Feeling unable to forge new relationships as they are not provided with the opportunities is the unfortunate reality for many secondary school students in London, but feeling unsafe and at risk when on the streets in London is an even more prominent issue that we felt needs addressing. Both these issues stem from a lack of student confidence, so our aim is to provide secure and fun opportunities for students to develop their confidence, both in going home, and making new friendships, whilst learning about possible risks and preparing them to travel safely and confidently.
Survey 1 – Safety Concerns
Survey 2 – Interschool Relationships
https://forms.gle/3NkRruN6EPD798DCA
| Possible Challenges: Creating an app or program – safety : ensuring all students are legitimate and that they behave respectfully – some schools may not want to sign up Workshops – may not be much attendance – getting permission from teacher may be difficult – need to find useful yet engaging and interesting topics to talk about Price – could end up being quite expensive : where will we raise the money from? Time – is quite time consuming to create an app and to organise the whole program : will we have enough time? Underlying Problem: We intend to prevent students feeling uncomfortable in their own areas as we believe everyone has the right to feel safe. Our team will send out surveys through our project in order to see whether we are making a positive impact. We believe we have made a difference when 90% of students answer ‘Yes’ to these questions: “Has the project helped you feel more safe when walking home alone or in small groups?”, “Do you feel that you have gained confidence in building relationships, and have made new positive connections?” Solution ideas: Our team will set up workshops in local schools teaching students about our experiences and what to do. This will help students have a greater understanding of threats around them, whilst building connections with others in their groups and coming up with joint strategies to stay safe. Our team will create a video which can be distributed around local schools, teaching students how to stay safe when coming home from school. Our team will create a ‘travel buddy’ program in order to match students to others who live near them, to make sure that nobody is coming home alone, and boost confidence as they will be travelling in groups. This will also aid students in building lifelong friendships amongst local communities. Our team will work with our schools to arrange for volunteers to stay near stations local to schools in order to provide students with support if necessary To evaluate each idea, we created a criteria and gave each idea a score out of 3 depending on how well it fits that criteria. (3=best) We used the best scoring idea to continue, whilst incorporating parts of other ideas that scored well. Cost – will it be achievable to fund? Time – will we have time to commit to the idea? Safety – will our plans be safe for all involved? Achievement – will the idea help solve our issue? Longinuity – will it be possible to continue throughout the years? Idea Cost Time Safety Achievement Longevity TOTAL 1 3 1 2 2 2 10 2 3 2 3 1 2 11 3 3 2 2 3 3 13 4 2 1 2 3 1 9 Main problems with each idea and how these could be solved: It may not make as much of an impact than others as it gives advice some students may have already heard. The time we have to put in and if we would be able to go to other schools to do this and how we would spread word of them – (maybe by getting a representative of our project at other schools). Ensuring all students on the app are legitimate and who they say they are, and making sure people do not feel pressured to share their location, this could be easily solved with people only sharing the broader area they are travelling from as well as people signing up through their schools. The time coming out of the volunteers day and that many may not need the support. From our evaluating criteria, we have established that the ‘travel buddy program’ is the idea we will implement, especially considering the large proportion of students that not only want to interact with other schools, but also struggle finding people to go home with. Action Plan: It was identified that a lot of students in London have felt unsafe on streets and feeling as though they do not interact with students from other schools. Our team created this project to address both these issues: a multi-step project designed to teach teenagers about how to be more safe when travelling around London and an opportunity for students to create friendships and bonds with other students in similar schools in London. As a result, we decided to join these two problems in a common solution of organising a ‘travel buddy program’ which matches students to others in their local area to ensure everyone has people to travel with. This program will also include activities and workshops that raise money towards funding our project. Target Audience: We want our project to be able to help all secondary school students, between the ages of 11-18, but we need to start small in order to see if it actually is making a difference. To start, we are focussing our project on students that are similar ages to us: between, 13-15 years old, particularly in year 10 but also reaching out to some year 9s. Step 1: We sent out surveys to collect data as to how many people would want to join our program in order to make new relationships and find people to go home with. We will also arrange meetings with local schools and the council (we hope to contact the Hammersmith and Fulham council and are aiming to expand and contact our local government) in order to make sure we can bring about our project and reach as many students as possible. Through talking with the council, we can also raise awareness for the issue to ensure progress is being made. Step 2: We created a website by purchasing a domain and hosting it: www.westlondontravelprogram.site. Our team will later begin creating a program that matches up people who are the same age and travel from schools in the same area (e.g. Hammersmith) to the same area for getting home. This will be helped by experts in the computing field from Premind AI. This program (which depending on its success we hope to develop into an app in the future) will make the students ‘travel buddies’ who they will be introduced to in safety workshops we will organise. It will also have advice and recommended products such as personal safety alarms as well as numbers on hand to call in emergencies. Step 3: We will then organise workshops such as ‘safety in the streets’/‘first-aid’ combining multiple schools, a joint effort to educate young people in essential knowledge and life skills. The program will be promoted, and how to keep safe in the streets will be discussed further whilst students get to enjoy a relaxed environment in which they can make new friends and expand their ‘travel buddy’ circle! Step 4: We are aiming to organise charity events to raise money for our project. This is to be decided but we are considering a dinner for possible benefactors and partners. We hope to in the future organise similar events for students and members of the project, in order to continue our mission of building relationships and connections across schools, whilst continuing to support our project financially. However, these events are likely to take place during the summer: such as our white party which we have already begun organising, so will be held after our project is submitted. Step 5: We will create a video presentation that explains everything we have done to raise awareness about the pressing issue of safety on the streets, and how we have helped decrease the gap between different schools, using data from new/previous surveys. Timeline: September-December: Formed our team; brainstormed ideas; collected data on a google form/conducted surveys January: Created website and Instagram account (@westlondontravelprogram) to spread awareness of project; work on fundraising for money towards our events + workshops; get sponsors (eg: Premind AI who have already agreed) to help us fund; begin the program and let people sign up February: Continue fundraising; continue creating program, match students up with their ‘travel buddies’; organise and go through with the events; create project videos to summarise our efforts; hopefully contact the local (Hammersmith & Fulham) council. March – May: Continue creating project video for competition; work on project presentation; organise more of most successful events; promoting app+website; donate profits to charity and organise final activities including the summer ball/white party (which will hopefully become an annual event!) June: Hopefully, attend the FPS International Competition!! |