Year Here
Jack Graham won a night on board the Room with an idea that challenges bright, ambitious and socially-conscious school leavers to a year of tackling social issues in their own backyard. He was resident in A Room for London on 20 February 2012.
Interview with Jack, 12 January 2012
What's your big idea?
This country desperately needs talented young people to come up with solutions to the problems we face – from our Victorian levels of social inequality to our crisis-ridden care system. My idea is for a new type of gap year based right here in London. I'm calling it Year Here, and thinking of it as a kind of rite of passage for bright, ambitious young Londoners to spend a year tackling social issues in the capital.
When were the first seeds of the idea sown?
In the first part of my career, I worked around the world helping people living in poverty, with disabilities and with AIDS. Then I started a job working in East London, and suddenly realised that I had never tried to tackle social problems in my own backyard. Britain’s faces huge and complex social problems and I want to help create a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators who have the humility to really understand these and the confidence to design ambitious solutions to tackle them.
Who have you invited to dinner in a room for london to help develop the idea?
I’m drafting the list at the moment! I’d love to invite David Cohen, who set up the Evening Standard's Dispossessed campaign, Brett Wigdortz, who set up Teach First, and Jude Kelly who runs the Southbank Centre.
What single thing would you like to happen that evening to help your idea get off the ground?
I want to tuck up in the on-board bed after dinner knowing that Year Here now has seven firm advocates who I can trust to help me push the idea forward.
How would you describe your relationship to London?
Like a lot of graduates, I came to London in search of adventure and opportunity and was shocked to discover so much inequality. I serendipitously stumbled upon the whole idea of social entrepreneurship and that's put the fire in my belly to create opportunities for other young people to make a difference.
How are you feeling about spending the night on board?
It’s a brilliant opportunity to reflect on rite of passage that I hope to create for young Londoners. The fact that it’s a boat feels nicely symbolic – I’m incredibly excited about the journey I'm embarking on.
My time on the boat - on a cold but clear night in February - was magical. With no buildings directly surrounding the vessel, the feeling of being at sea is pretty real. And as if the view wasn't distinctively London enough, the boat is filled with literature relating to the capital - from maps to political memoirs to photography.
For my idea, Year Here, a gap year at home for ambitious and entrepreneurial young people, I wanted to invite guests who could help me build up a detailed picture of leadership for social change in Britain. I chose a diverse range of guests - from Jude Kelly, who directs the Southbank Centre, to Dawn Austwick, who heads the UK's largest independent grant-making foundation, and David Cohen, who led the Evening Standard's Dispossessed campaign.
We reflected on the number of bright, ambitious and idealistic young people that head off overseas during their gap year and agreed that capturing that energy to tackle issues in their own country would be great for them and for our society. Learning about tackling social issues in a home country context could plug young people in to a pathway of rich opportunities for learning about social change - during their gap year, throughout university and beyond. We discussed the country's and the capital's leaders and wondered how different the leadership of David Cameron, Nick Clegg or Boris Johnson might be if they had spent a Year Here. We also recognised that there were many potential leaders who didn't come from the same kind of privilege as David, Nick and Boris - and that Year Here should ensure that these young people are given equal opportunity to take part.
We had a really helpful conversation about when youth volunteering works best. Guests discouraged from setting up a series of contrived volunteering opportunities, urging that Year Here found ways to ensure that participants were really adding value in their placements. I hope to follow up with the guests and maintain a connection to them as we build Year Here up from scratch.
The night finished with a few glasses of wine, taking in the view from the front deck and reflecting on a wonderful evening. I managed to wake up before dawn to watch the sun rising over St Paul's Cathedral before rushing off for another packed day of meetings to get Year Here off the ground.
Jack Graham, February 2012
Jack's dinner was attended by:
Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
David Cohen, Chief Feature Writer at the London Evening Standard and editor of the Dispossessed Campaign
Jon Huggett, Strategy Consultant and Year Here advisor
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre
Charlie Leadbeater, Author
Nick Stanhope, Chief Executive of We Are What We Do