The Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC) Counter Speech Fellowship through Instagram engages creative teens to use the power of visual storytelling to start meaningful conversations on themes important to young citizens around the world. Hinged on using arts for advocacy, the fellowship was first launched in 2017, and now is being taken to four cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
The fellowship is a platform for teenagers to talk about issues that affect them. As an incubator for the future generation of leaders and activists, the fellowship is built around three pillars — awareness, support and advocacy. The fellows are mentored and encouraged to build powerful visual content on the identified themes and the most inspiring content is promoted on Instagram. The themes for the 2018 fellowship are: Bullying, Diversity, Mental Wellbeing, Body Positivity, Gender Equality and Sustainability.
The fellowship is designed as a fully funded engagement wherein fellows meet every alternate weekend for a period of 3-4 hours in their city. The overall duration of the fellowship is two months and the schedule is easy to accommodate alongside regular school work and examinations. For additional information of becoming a fellow log on to: ylacindia.com/index.php/counter-speech-fellowship/
Meanwhile, a few of the fellows, who participated in Mumbai Instawalk which took place over the weekend, share their experiences:
‘We live in an age full of greed and selfishness, where we have shifted from peace and brotherhood to nuclear wars and families. Day by day we see increasing rage, anger and frustration in people, which they mostly overcome by using their strength/ power to hurt or frighten someone weaker. Through experience I personally felt that victims of bullying carry with themselves the scars of trauma. Which is what motivated me to participate in this fellowship. It was a meaningful experience where I learnt how I could create a positive impact on the communities that I live in.
— Krtin Kodukula
The Instawalk was a learning experience for me in terms of understanding the audience we cater to. In the process of creating social change, it’s tough to incorporate every perspective given the fact that we tend to have limited social circles. Through this walk my understanding of the public view point has been enhanced greatly. I observed how common misconceptions give way to bigger issues in dealing with a crisis and also how we, ourselves, overlook major factors to the causes we take up. Essentially, YLAC, to me, is a platform wherein I can educate myself about important issues in every way possible and use that knowledge to create perceivable change. This walk was a major milestone in bridging the two facets of that process.
— Aira Shetty
The Instawalk was truly an enriching experience for all of us as it gave us an exposure to people belonging to different classes in society and having different mindsets and varying opinions. While the responses that we received were certainly profound and insightful, it was the rejections that we faced while trying to engage with people that taught us the most. I soon realised that a lot of people were hesitant to talk to us because they were fearful of expressing their opinion on issues like diversity, gender equality and mental wellbeing and did not want to publicly take a stance. Initially, I felt a little disheartened, but eventually it made me realise how arduous the road is to bring about social change and how crucial it becomes to find and implement ways to mobilise conversation and opinions.
— Akanksha Das
We believe that active citizenship is about raising concerns that are important to you. For teens, some of the biggest issues affecting them are mental health, bullying, sustainability, gender identity and online safety. The Counter Speech Fellowship gives an opportunity to teens to explore the roots of these problems and create awareness among others who may be facing similar challenges. The fellowship leverages Instagram as a tool for advocacy, giving teens a platform to use arts and visual storytelling as a means to change the conversation around some of these issues and create support for one another.
— Rohit Kumar, co-founder, Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC)
