West Yorkshire Mayor’s Big Ideas Challenge competition asked us to create an interactive street art installation in Bradford to engage young people around the competition’s theme, Health and Happiness.
Participants were invited to write and draw on the street art installation about what the theme means to them. On a busy sunny day outside Bradford College, the event was successful with lots of young people accessing the workshop.
See below details of the competition
The big ideas challenge helps selected 16–26-year-olds share their opinions and turn their ideas into solutions that will help other young people in our region.
At a glance:
- £100 voucher for people who complete the challenge, with up to £625 in extra prizes for each team that has a top idea
- Get the opportunity to learn about research, design and problem solving
- Make a difference in local communities
- 35 spaces for teams of one to three people, selected from three age groups
- Session dates from 26 April to 26 June, with a mix of in-person and online
- All applicants can come to the introductory session, whether successful or not
Why health and happiness is the focus
A growing number of young people aged 15–24 are less happy compared to older generations (1), while 16 to 25-year-olds’ happiness with work, education, qualifications and money is at its lowest point since 2009 (2). In West Yorkshire, this has the potential to affect young people’s goals, mental health and future plans. We want our region to be a happy place, putting the wellbeing of our young people first.
Through the challenge, we want to hear your ideas on how to make life better for young people living, working, or studying here. Your ideas could focus on:
- Physical and mental health: 52% of young people feel anxious and 43% struggle with mental health (3). Many feel there aren’t enough resources. How can we make mental health support more accessible and effective?
- Social connection: 44% of young people in the North West said they’d experienced high or very high levels of loneliness (4). How can young people use social media positively and build stronger real-life connections?
- Future aspirations: 1 in 4 young people in Yorkshire feel they’ll fail in life (5), often due to the cost of living or lack of opportunities. How can we help young people find and reach opportunities to succeed?
The experience
An experience that works for you
The challenge programme includes three types of sessions. Some you need to attend, while others are optional. You can build your own flexible programme:
- Get started with the strong foundations
There are four must-attend sessions. These are all about giving you the skills you need to shape your idea, from defining a problem to prototyping. They’re interactive, fun and will help you build a solid foundation to get your idea ready to go!
- Increase your skills
Skill-builder sessions are online and focus on specific skills like user research, analysis and creativity. They’re a chance to try out new tools and methods that will take your idea to the next level.
- Meet successful innovators
Change-maker sessions are quick, online talks from experts who’ve been there and done it. They’ll share their insights and experiences to inspire and guide you.
You’ll learn invaluable skills and put them to practice straight away as you develop ideas to improve life for young people in our region.
New ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s important to us that anyone can take part in the big ideas challenge. Here are some of the ways we’ll ensure that everyone’s welcome:
- You can bring another person (18 years or older) along to support you
- We will try to make quiet spaces available at in-person sessions to take a break or participate in another way, let us know if this is something you need.
- We will use different locations to host a range of activities to suit your preferences
