The Power of Peer Education – Tam Baillie at Taking the Lead
16 June 2014
Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, delivered the keynote speech ‘More than listening’.
By Catherine Hunter, Podium.me
Taking drugs, smoking, giving into peer pressure and coping with learning difficulties were just some of the issues addressed at the Edinburgh conference ‘Taking the Lead: Peer led approaches for young people.’
Held on June 6th 2014, the conference celebrated the power that young people have in leading, educating and influencing their peers to make positive decisions, and how this power can be channeled by youth workers, policy makers and senior managers.
Peer education is powerful
Keynote speaker Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, has been a manager and practitioner with children and young people for thirty years. His work focuses on improving children and young people’s lives, the basic rights that they should enjoy, and what makes them vulnerable.
“The world doesn’t change as the result of events [like this] but it does give people affirmation about the kind of work they’re involved in.
“It stimulates creative development, and this is an area of work that I think is overdue in having some kind of recognition, especially when we consider the challenges that we face in terms of response to different ways of getting support to children and young people.
He added: “Peer education is a really powerful way of doing that.”
Healthy habits
Tam also focused on several key aspects that lead to healthy and beneficial lifestyles for children and young people: Firstly, they should experience loving and secure relationships in their families, allowing them to grow in independence and build the confidence to eventually leave home.
Secondly, behavioural boundaries should determine the limits to what they have access to in the media. Social media, for example, can lead to bullying and poor sleeping patterns.
Finally, eating and leisure habits are also important; Children should have opportunities for these from the start. This should continue throughout childhood and into adolescence.
The organisers of the conference hope that by attending the conference workshops and listening to the many speakers including Tam, delegates will have acquired the affirmation, inspiration and new connections needed to continue and better the excellent work they already do.
In Tam’s words; “Children are not the future; they are the here and now.”