June 2007

           Empower: [em-pou-er] def.            

1. to give power or authority to.

                                                           2. to enable or permit.

“Empowerment is ultimately driven by the individual’s

belief in their capability to influence events.”

 At Toonspeak, we empower through participation in drama, other creative activities and committees.

By joining in and learning new things, young people become more knowledgeable.  By knowing more, they are able to make more decisions.  By making decisions about their own lives and about projects at Toonspeak, they become more powerful.

The Empowerment Programme is designed to provide lots of different opportunities to try new things, learn new skills and increase knowledge. 

We know that the young people who come to Toonspeak are not all the same.  Some are willing and able to sit on our board of directors, which involves a lot of responsibility and commitment.  Other young people just want to come to drama once a week and be in shows.

All young people who attend should have a say in what we do and how we do it.  The Empowerment Programme has lots of different projects so that we can cater for our broad membership.

What are those things?

Toonspeak Academy

Masterclasses

Sub Committees

Theatre Trips with associated Workshops

Young People focused Board Development

Where does the term Empowerment come from?

Originally it comes from 17th century as a legal term meaning to ‘invest with authority or to authorise’.  The modern usage comes from the civil rights movement which sought political empowerment for their people.  It has also been adopted by the women’s rights movement.  The term has increased in popularity and now all political parties use it to suggest that their way will give citizens greater control over their destiny.  There is also widespread use of the term in the ‘self-help’ arena where the definition is more blurry as it can mean a number of things.

For Toonspeak, the etymology is political and sociological.  It is about gaining greater equality for young people within contemporary society.  It is about giving young people a range of opportunities to become active citizens and lobbying other members of the community to recognise and utilise young people’s potential value to the net worth of society.  Empowerment is also about increasing young people’s power and through this reducing the fear older people have about teenagers (Ephebiphobia – the fear of youth).