Case Study

The Pickled Fried Chickens

Tom, Fiona, Patrick and Barbara

Tom, Fiona, Patrick and Barbara make up the Pickled Fried Chickens. Like their name, these young people truly are unique in the great ideas they have had, the impact they’ve made on their communities and the way they have visibly grown in their personal development.

The group came together two years ago through their work with Leading Link’s Youth Ambassadors, a group of young volunteers who work closely with Leading Link to deliver opportunities, life skills and activities for their younger peers and their families to embrace life.

The group’s first stage project was to hire a graffiti artist to teach them how to paint and to help them decorate their youth room. This was not only a great learning experience, but gave them some real recognition and respect from their peers. In fact their artwork was so well received that they were commissioned to help a family group in Alnwick design their graffiti wall.

For stage two, the Pickled Fried Chickens set up a successful breakfast club at their school. They bought a massive gazebo, a toaster, kettle and other equipment and a starter pack of breakfast foods. They priced their goods and sold them at a small profit to pupils and teachers. Setting up their stall outside in the summer months, they ran the club every morning for six weeks up until their exams and took it in turn to do the ‘early shifts’ starting as early as 7am! They raised over £500 which they donated to the ‘Lodge’, a new community and youth space under construction to provide further opportunities for their peers. They plan to start the club back up again next month when the weather improves outside the new Lodge.

Their third stage project was to organise a team building residential trip to reward their fellow Youth Ambassador volunteers. As this group are so popular (with over 70 members at the moment!), they knew it was impossible to take everyone. They decided to set up criteria to decide which volunteers were the most committed – a skill in itself as this really tested their own judgements and morals. They asked the successful ones to make a small contribution of £30 each to subsidise the trip, but had the sensitivity to keep aside some discrete bursaries for those who couldn’t afford it to ensure the all-inclusive ethos embedded within this group.

Lyn their facilitator at Leading Link was overwhelmed by how far these young people have come. She told us “working with this group and experiencing their enthusiasm helps me to recognise why I do this job. The learning these young people have made during their journey has been phenomenal and the increase in confidence, second to none!”

The young people have themselves recognised their own learning journey through the Keyfund stages guided by the use of Keyfund’s impact tool, the skills wheel. They have acquired so many Key personal and employable skills that they are finding it difficult to put them all on application forms.

All four young people have stayed together, increased their confidence, learned and valued each others strengths and hence formed long term friendships. Each group member has taken on leadership roles within the Youth Ambassadors and sits on the steering group planning the development of the project. They also rotate representation on the Leading Link steering group alongside head teachers, chair governors and senior leaders. They are now in the process of recruiting new Ambassadors to carry on their fantastic work and are planning their Stage 4 for £2,000.

Each member of the group has stories to tell about their personal development but one example really hits home. One of the girls was so shy when she started Keyfund she made phone calls from inside a cupboard. She has now spoken confidently and eloquently in front of all her peers in assembly! Along with this young lady herself, we can all truly recognise her wonderful positive journey!