Lola Ray has worked at Make (Good) Trouble for the past five years – since she was 17 – first as a volunteer, and in the last few years as a young reporter and producer. This week we’re saying au revoir to her as she jets off on her travels for the next year or so.
Before she went, we sat down for a chat about her time with us, and her hopes for the future.
Can you describe what it was like when you first started working with Make (Good) Trouble – what was your first day like?
It’s been five years since I started working at Make (Good) Trouble (MGT). It’s been two years since I’ve been working on a daily basis. I remember the first day. We were in [MGT co-founder] Daisy’s kitchen, and I didn’t really know anyone apart from Lotti [who is now a Project Manager at MGT], and we had such a fun day. I can’t even remember what we did, but I just remember going home to my mum and I was really buzzing and I said, I’ve just had the most amazing day ever! It’s so cool and we’re doing this and they’ve got all these cool gadgets and stuff. And I was like, oh this feels really right. I knew it wasn’t going to be a job at the time but then whenever there was something happening, I was like, I’m there. I’m doing it. I’m going to be a part of that because it just felt like, first, a thing that was giving back and it felt really good to do that. But also, it was done in such a nice friendly way and it didn’t really feel like work.
Lola filming with Make (Good) Trouble back in 2018, when we were known as Brighton5.
And then when I started working properly, it was back at Daisy’s house with Lotti, making a film about the Holiday Activity and Food programme for East Sussex County Council. And then we moved to the office and that was like another first day. I feel like I’ve had quite a few first days with MGT because there have been so many iterations of it. It’s been great.
What is the best part of your job?
I think it’s the people. I think us as a team has been amazing. And I think our BBC Raising Teens radio show has to be one of my favourite projects. I mean, there aren’t any negatives to that project at all. I feel like it has some of the biggest outreach as well for us. One of the most powerful interviews I did was for Series 2, with a group of teens and they spoke to me about loneliness, depression and grief. It was really moving.
Lola with Raising Teens presenter, Guy Lloyd at BBC Radio Sussex
How do you feel you’ve grown within the company?
So much! Because when I started working with MGT properly, I hadn’t really done much, to be honest. I’d had a couple of jobs, I’d done lots of tele-sales work, but I’ve literally learned everything I know from you guys – from how to do a spreadsheet to what all the acronyms in this industry are! I really feel like I’ve learned about people and the relationships that you have with different organisations or working directly with young people.
I feel like I’ve been able to do a bit of everything, which is really nice, and it’s definitely what I needed to help me to know what I wanted and what I enjoy doing, to be able to have a go at everything to see what works for me, and also getting knowledge in all those areas. I don’t think many people get to do stuff like that. Here, every day is different.
What next for Lola Ray?
I’ve learnt so much being here for the last two years, but I had delayed my travel plans because of Covid – and I just happened to fall into Make (Good) Trouble after that, which has been amazing – but it’s time for me to go and just not live in Brighton anymore and do something else.
In the future, I don’t know if I’ll go more into production or into mental health. We’ll have to wait and see. I might have high expectations of everyone else compared to MGT!
And I’m not leaving, I’m just changing direction. It’s been so special to be part of this. And that it is something that has completely changed my life. And I don’t think I would be where I am today without it because I’ve learned so much. It’s so enriching, and the next person to come and work here is going to be very lucky to be a part of a team.
All we’ve accomplished, from starting in Daisy’s kitchen, not really knowing any of you, to five years later, it’s started me off in life, really. And I think if I’d worked anywhere else, I wouldn’t have been so enriched as I’ve been with Make (Good) Trouble.
Lola has been invited to join our Advisory Group, so she’ll continue to help shape the direction of Make (Good) Trouble in the years to come. Thank you, Lola! You’ve been amazing. Enjoy your travels x
Where did the summer go? This week, we’re out in our wet weather gear in the beautiful South Downs National Park for our summer holiday club. That’s a soggy Team MGT in the above pic on day 1. Over the next couple of days we’ll be exploring the countryside and paddle-boarding so keep an eye on our socials to see what else we get up to!
BBC Raising Teens to look into access to services
As part of our research for the new series of BBC Raising Teens (coming later this autumn!) we’ve been looking into the issues young people have in accessing services and support around mental health and neurodiversity.
Waits of up to seven years have been reported in some parts of the UK for those wanting assessments for Autism and ADHD. And it can be complex if frustrated parents opt for a private assessment, as this letter to the Guardian shows: “We reluctantly sought a private diagnosis, at considerable cost, and our child is now medicated, with improved behaviour. But we have now encountered another problem: our request for a shared care agreement with our GP – where the GP assumes responsibility for prescribing – has been refused. We are told that it is the policy of our GP consortium never to enter into shared care arrangements when diagnosis was initiated in the private healthcare sector.”
We’d love to hear from you if you have an experience to share. We’ll be asking experts for their tips and insights on the programme, so if you have a question or story, find out how to get involved here.
We’ll be looking into the following topics over the series:
Mental health and wellbeing services – how young people get access to help and support and what are the issues they’ve encountered along the way?
Trauma and complex needs – how can we better understand young people who have experienced trauma or who have complex needs?
Eating disorders – what can we do to help those who need help?
From teenager to adulthood – the challenges of having a teenage brain! This episode will cover drugs, alcohol, sexuality and sexual health.
ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) – what’s it like at school for young people with ADHD and ASD? What support is out there and how easy is it to access?
Support at school and social prescribing – what is your experience of mental health support in school? Social prescribing is increasingly being offered to young people who have mental health challenges. How does it work and what difference does it make?
#NoStoppingMe
Our friends at charity Sound Waves Foundation (SWF) are running a brilliant campaign called #NoStoppingMe, which aims to “dispel the myths and break stereotypes surrounding disability and in particular deafness”.
Their wonderful video features keen 11-year-old surfer Elyana who is profoundly deaf, talking about why she’s deaf and proud. Do give SWF a follow on their socials!
It’s a year today since the Lionesses won the Euros (I was at Wembley for that unforgettable match) and we’d just finished a fabulous project, Goal Power, working with artist Lindsey Smith and Brighton Museum. We created a series of podcasts, co-produced with a group of footballing girls who discussed their experiences and hopes for the future. They also got the chance to interview some legends and professionals of the women’s game. Their conversations were both enlightening and inspiring and I thought, with all the excitement around the World Cup, it would be a great time to re-share their wonderful podcasts which show just how far the women’s game has come in the past few decades – and how far it still has to go. Enjoy!
We hope you enjoy Make (Good) News
If you have any suggestions or news you think we should cover next month, send us a line!
Each month, we look at the issues affecting young people that make the news, with an emphasis on making good – so we add practical tips and advice for young people and families.
In this month’s post:
A round up of the latest reports showing that the mental health crisis in young people is growing – and where to get help.
The cost-of-living crisis is stopping young people going out, causing greater loneliness – we’ve some great resources to help.
Why getting out into nature is great for our mental health.
We’ve rewarded young people for their amazing work on The Catalyst programme.
And lastly, listen to MGT co-founder, Daisy Cresswell, on the EdTech podcast, focusing on how tech can be used to promote diversity, inclusivity and equality in education.
Mental health crisis – latest reports
This month, mental health is making the headlines. The charity Mind released new research which reveals that “young adults are struggling with their mental health with 95 per cent feeling anxious in the last 12 months and over a fifth (21 per cent) experiencing these feelings all the time.” This comes hot on the heels of a report by The House magazine that 1 in 3 young people referred to the NHS for mental health issues are being denied help.
The report has “uncovered a postcode lottery in child and adolescent mental health care, with some desperate young people waiting up to four years for help.” It also stated: “We hear about parents sleeping on their children’s floors to keep them safe, children out of education for months and years while they wait for help.”
We wanted to give a shout out to Ben West, who lost his brother to suicide and has been campaigning for the government to legislate that Universities have a duty of care towards their students. On Tuesday, he gave a speech in parliament to call for “clarity, parity and accountability. In other words, for the government to say “this is what needs to happen, this is the same legal standard across the sector and it is a statutory requirement to provide this minimum standard of support.”
UK Youth’s latest poll reveals that 36% of young people say they feel lonelier because they’re staying in to save money, curbing their social life. We looked into the effects of loneliness on young people during the pandemic. If you’re worried about someone close to you, check out these resources:
This Easter, we took young people out to the South Downs National Park for our holiday club. It’s part of the ESCC Holiday Activities and Food programme which offers free activities to young people in receipt of benefits-related free school meals. We spent four days outside in the gorgeous South Downs National Park (SDNP) – if you follow us on social media, you’ll have seen us on wildlife walks, beach combing, litter picking (so much plastic on our beaches!) and learning about conservation. We’ll be back with another club in the summer, so watch this space. Big thanks to Dragon Drama and the SDNP team who ran our workshops for the club.
We were chuffed to get this feedback from a parent, which illustrates the benefits perfectly:
“I would love this to be a permanent thing. Getting kids outside, getting them active, muddy, rolling round, running about, is so good for them. Then of course they were ravenous, and it was great that there was varied, healthy food. Best holiday club ever!”
Rewarding young people
We’ve awarded 17 Digital Badges this month to participants of The Catalyst programme. That means, to-date, we have awarded 119 badges to young people who’ve taken part in our projects and programmes. This badging scheme is led by Real Ideas and Future Creators, and badges are issued by Badge Nation. written using the Cities of learning badging standard, endorsed by City and Guilds and the RSA.
After last month’s Catalyst graffiti workshops, we wanted to say a big thanks to Brewers who supported the project by supplying surplus paint, paint brushes, and a discount on exterior paint. They also featured the brilliant artwork the young participants produced in a blog post on the Brewers website.
Making EdTech more inclusive
Lastly, our co-founder, Daisy Cresswell, featured on the latest edition of The EdTech Podcast: Making EdTech more inclusive to discuss our work with Soundwaves Foundation, a charity that supports deaf children and young adults. We are working together to look into how we can help all young people learn better in the classroom.
That’s all for April. See you next month!
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Hello! This is the first in a series of monthly blog posts called Make Good News. It looks at the issues affecting young people that make the news, with an emphasis on making good – so we’ll add practical tips and advice for young people and families.
This month we cover:
A brilliant way to understand autism
A worrying rise in pupil absences
Issues with mental health provision
Oversubscribed SEND schools
What you can do to counter toxic hate speech
The great news that in London, every primary school child is to get free school meals from September
The Power of Courage: Women in Leadership conference – Make (Good) Trouble’s Lola speaks about young people, safety, trauma, and the police
But I’ll start with Chris Packham’s brilliant new series about autism, Inside Our Autistic Minds on BBC Two and iPlayer.
Inside our Autistic Minds
I watched the first episode of this incredibly moving documentary last night. It helps us to understand the experiences of autistic people, and how they see the world.
If you want to understand more about autism, there are a couple of great books I can recommend. Journalist and author Steve Silberman’s Neuro Tribes is a real page-turner and gives us a historical view of research into autism and how parents of autistic children fought to get help for their kids. And Temple Grandin, who has autism, has written The Autistic Brain which shows us how her brain is wired differently (with her incredible brain scans!), and talks about the impact that her autism has had on her life and career.
170,000 pupils missed more than half of their sessions last term
Persistent absence from school is becoming a huge problem, and more so for disadvantaged children. It’s possible that this issue has been exacerbated since the pandemic.
Persistent absence is still an issue in schools.
Our analysis suggests that 170,000 pupils missed more than half of their sessions last term.https://t.co/dzf4eFS91p
Rise in demand for mental health services “under increasing pressure”
The huge rise in demand for mental health services (up by 44%) isn’t being met by the 22% rise in NHS staff being employed to deal with it. The National Audit Office’s report says that 8m people with mental health needs are not in contact with NHS mental health services.
The Department for Health & Social Care and NHS England “acknowledge thatit will now take longer to achieve some of the existing commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic, amid signs of a large rise in mental health conditions, particularly among young people. Over the next few years, demand for mental health services will continue to significantly outstrip provision, putting pressures on patients, staff and people trying to access services”
The number of 17-19 year olds with a probable mental health disorder has risen from 10% in 2017 to 26% in 2022.
The report goes on to say that “NHS mental health services are under continued and increasing pressure and many people using services are reporting poor experiences. The Care Quality Commission has raised concerns about the ‘gridlocked’ health and care system, and particularly about children and young people’s mental health services … Our interviews with stakeholders highlighted that some groups had poorer experiences accessing or using services, including children and young people, people from minority ethnic groups, LGBT people, and people with more complex needs or more than one diagnosis.”
Where to get help:
It seems that charities and community organisations will be needed to step in to help plug the growing gap in provision. You can find a list in our Help and Advice pages. If we’re missing any useful links or subjects, please let us know and we’ll add them in!
Over half of SEND schools oversubscribed
New BBC research has found that 52% of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) schools are oversubscribed. It’s putting huge pressures on already stressed parents trying to find a place for their child in a SEND school.
A new BBC documentary called SEND Help (23 mins) tells their stories. The amount of time, paperwork, administration and costs parents are having to deal with is unacceptable.
Anne Longfield, the Chair of the Commission for young Lives told BBC Breakfast that “the system is under resourced and broken.” She later tweeted, “we are writing off the educational chances of some children because the system is broken.”
How do you talk to young people about toxic onlineviews?
I came across this brilliant piece of advice from a 17-year-old about how to talk to your young person about Andrew Tate. If you missed the news, Tate is a self-styled online influencer who peddles hate speech and misogyny. His popularity has worried many teachers and parents who are seeking information about how to talk to young people, and boys in particular, about harmful online content.
The NSPCC’s policy officer, Hannah Rushen said: “Viewing such material at a young age can shape a child’s experiences and attitudes, resulting in further harm to women and girls in and out of school and online.”
In a 2021 review, girls reported “sexual harassment and online sexual abuse, such as being sent unsolicited explicit sexual material and being pressured to send nude pictures (‘nudes’), are much more prevalent than adults realise”and that “the frequency of these harmful sexual behaviours means that some children and young people consider them normal.” (Ofsted’s 2021 review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges)
What you can do
There are quite a few articles out there with advice on how to talk to young people about Andrew Tate, and how to counter his toxic, misogynistic views. By far the best is from 17-year-old Isaac Ohringer who wrote in a letter to The Guardian:
“As a 17-year-old, I can see that my peers who support him often feel attacked if a teacher tries to engage them in a conversation about him... While open conversation is the best way forward, teachers and parents need to have frequent discussions with their sons or students on related topics (such as consent, as stated in the article) before they talk directly about Tate. I have noticed that teachers like to jump straight to the topic after overhearing conversations in corridors. Parents can often do the same at home. This reactive approach means the topic is covered too quickly and too soon. Teachers and parents need to build towards the conversation on Tate incrementally to ease teenagers into feeling able to express themselves. Parents and teachers cannot just say “this is a safe space”, they need to prove that this is true.“
A summary of some of the better advice for parents is:
Be informed – so look at what they’re watching or reading on social media and understand what the debates are.
Choose the right time to talk about the subject (our go-to is to be doing something else at the time like when you’re going somewhere in the car or cooking together).
Ask non-judgemental questions and listen to what they have to say.
And keep it as an open two-way conversation. Opening up dialogue is the key to them feeling listened to, and to getting them
One of the best we’ve found is this one from Votes for Schools which talks about helping disenfranchised young boys and men to find alternative communities to feel welcome in. “You have to remember that the issues that these boys are dealing with are real and that these groups are providing a sense of solace and understanding. Purely demonising them will not help. To remove them from a community, we need to welcome them into another one. Show them that hate and anger aren’t long-term plans.”
Free school meals for every primary school child in London
The news that every primary school child in London is to get free school meals from September and for the next academic year drew a big cheer from us all at Make (Good) Trouble. We’re hoping this is just the start and will be rolled out nationally soon. The inclusion of all pupils means that there won’t be any stigma attached to getting free school meals.
Impact on Urban Health commissioned a study on free school meals which found that “free school meals have long been contributing significant and lasting benefits to individuals and society. The research shows a positive impact on educational attainment, mental and physical health and productivity improvements over the short, medium and long-term.” (2022)
Lola speaks about the teen brain and violence against women and girls at a Police conference
Make (Good) Trouble’s production assistant and young reporter, Lola Ray, visited a The Power of Courage. Women in Leadership Conference last week. Lola spoke alongside senior leaders from Dorset, Avon & Somerset, Cornwall, and Gwent police forces, and a number incredible speakers including Chief Petty Officer Kate Louise Nesbitt MC, Debbie Simpson QPM, and Major Tim Peake.
She told the conference, “teens are more likely to take more risks and have poor impulse control. This can also be heighted if a teen has any childhood trauma. I think it’s so important to understand this. It makes me understand why teens act the way they do.”
Lola Ray at the Women in Leadership Conference
She spoke movingly about her experience of being the victim of a racial attack when she was younger and how that had affected her life. “Even though this happened almost 10 years ago I still find it really hard to talk about but I think it’s important to share my story so people understand the impact trauma can have on a young developing teen,” she said.
Lola showed three animated stories that included the voices of young people talking about trauma, safety, and how young people feel when they interact with the police. She told the conference, “97% of young women in the UK have been sexually harassed.… How safe are our streets for young people? What are the different threats perceived by young women, men & the LGBTQ community? What can services like the police do to help us stay safe?”
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