Young Coneys Training Programme

A Coney facilitator and a group of Young Coneys are standing in a group, with big smiles towards the camera.

Playful activism for Year 5s

The Young Coneys Training Programme is our local youth programme in partnership with primary schools across Tower Hamlets. A free workshop series for Year 5 classes, focusing on youth empowerment and social change.

Who are the Young Coneys?

A definition, created with members of the Young Coneys…

Young Coneys are Agents.
They are Agents of Change.
They run missions with Coney.
Missions to spark change.
They are someone who on their own, or as part of a team, try to inspire others with creativity, energy, determination and play to make the world a lovelier place.
(P.S. they can’t be over 30).

The three levels

In 2021, as the pandemic impacted our method of delivery, we piloted our new offer to make sure our work was more accessible and reached more young people in the borough than ever before. We moved to an in-school delivery method that introduces young people to Coneys’ innovative practice, Playful Activism. Our model is built to land in schools over three levels:

Level 1 – a one-off workshop in class for students to introduce Young Coneys and give them a taste of what the Young Coneys Training Programme is.
Level 2 – 6 workshops with Coney Artists after school to introduce change making tools and running a mission to make a ‘gift’ for their school.
Level 3 – Bringing young people from all six schools together to run a mission in their local community, exploring how we can use creativity to spark change in Tower Hamlets.

Recent operations

Codename: Violet

A special project in collaboration with Greenpeace to create a playful intervention at a car industry gala. Created with the Young Coneys, we turned up as Junior Junior Doctors who played a series of games with guests, to spark a conversation on air pollution in the UK.

Codename: Pancake

A phone adventure for families to play on their walk home from school, exploring what the neighbourhood looks like to 10-year-olds. The project connected two primary schools and explored the changes the young people wanted to see.

Codename: Paddington

An adventure map where families head out to explore the green space of Weavers Fields, to find signals coming through from 2050, from people who were 10 in 2022. These were messages about the changes they have seen in the future, and how we can act now to stop them happening.

Credits

The Young Coneys is delivered by a team of Coney artists & facilitators. Currently, the team is: Maryam Shaharuddin, Zoe Callow, Germma Orleans-Thompson, Lexine Lee, Olivia Catchpole, Janisé Sadik, Omar Bynon and Brent Grihalva.

The Young Coneys has been developed thanks to funding from The Backstage Trust.

Blog

Photograph of children crowded round a large red gift wrapped box.

The Young Coneys: Codename Newbee

We wanted to share the story of a particularly lovely project the Young Coneys took on recently: Codename Newbee.

Screenshot from the video 'The Young Coneys News Network: Episode 7'.

The Young Coneys News Network: Episode 7 (the last one!)

We are thrilled to release Episode 7 – the last episode of this season of the Young Coneys News Network. As it’s our last episode, our “roaming reporters” have made sure we’re going out with a bang.

Photograph of children dressed up as doctors and nurses round a wooden table.

Codename Violet – a project with Greenpeace and the Young Coneys

In this week’s blog we finally get to reveal something we’ve been keeping a secret – Codename: Violet. Made by the Young Coneys with Greenpeace.

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