Hi! My name’s Chloe and I’m a digital content placement for Shout Out Loud. I attended Shout Out Loud’s 2-day Youth Summit at Wrest Park and was asked to tell you all my thoughts on the event.

If you missed the coverage of the event, the youth summit was held to celebrate all that Shout Out Loud and the 11 other Kick the Dust projects have achieved over the last few years. There were talks, panel discussions, and performances!

One of the things I loved the most about the event was that I got both sides of the experience – I was working the event by doing the social media coverage on our Instagram stories and I got to experience the event/do the activities as a young person interested in heritage!

It was incredible to see how far Shout Out Loud has come and all that has been achieved in the last four years. It was also amazing to see the changes going on in other heritage organisations in terms of youth engagement. It was a really empowering experience as we got to hear how much heritage organisations value the opinions of young people when it comes to our nation’s history and how it should be represented.

Another thing I got to do as part of the event, which was definitely a highlight, was take part in a panel discussion which included talking about my placement here at Shout Out Loud. It was great to reflect on my experiences at Shout Out Loud and talk about the projects I had worked on, such as the #HistoryMakers and the blog I wrote called ‘Decolonizing our Cities’. I talked about how welcoming the whole team was from the moment I started and how accessible the placement was from start to finish, which meant a great deal to me as a disabled person! 

It was exciting to talk about the achievements of the project and what that possibly means for the future of youth engagement in heritage. It was also really encouraging to have questions from other projects who wanted to do their own youth engagement programmes. It made me feel that I was part of a wider collective change!