Hi, I’m Nat and I work for Inspire in the Beanbag team. This means that I have the dream job of visiting all the Beanbag Centres & communities around Australia (we have 15 at the moment in most State Capitals) and running workshops with groups of young people with very different life experiences on how to tell their stories using digital photography and short film-making. These films & images are then showcased around the country in film festivals and exhibitions. You can watch some of the films at our You Tube channel – Beanbag Network.
Previously to deciding that Inspire was the place I wanted to be and moving my life over to Australia, I worked in back home in London for a youth engagement charity called Kikass, which brought together young people to find creative solutions to social issues. Our projects trained and facilitated teams of young people in using the web, SMS, film, photography, flash mobs, viral games and stunts to take action.I’ve also been involved in a variety of youth-driven creative projects involving everything from setting up a youth-run Advertising Agency to fostering creative partnerships between young artists in the UK and Middle East.
I am incredibly passionate about Youth Participation & Engagement and I was also involved in the Russell Commission – the UK’s largest investigation into Youth volunteering, where I worked on advising Gordon Brown on setting up a new framework to allow more young people to contribute to their communities. I’m very excited to be continuing my study in this area by working on a research project here with Inspire & ARACY on youth (dis)engagement.
