You’re Fried: The Realities of Youth Employment in the West Midlands – From talking to acting

A blog by youth co-creators 

June 2025

Intro  

What does it feel like when young people realise they have gone from just talking about problems to actually doing something about them? The conversation below captures the moment when the Inspire youth co-creators reflected on their journey from group discussions to preparing for an actual performance that could influence policy. It is a mix of excitement, nerves, and the realisation that they are creating something that really matters. 

The conversation 

Youth co-creator 1: How did you guys find today's session? I liked it because we actually started doing more things, and it was very friendly. But it wasn't strictly like, “do this, do that”. It was a lot of improvising, like you’ve been flying on the chair! ...What do you think? 

Youth co-creator 2: I think it was nice to know how people now feel so passionate. And then we're starting to do more teamwork. So, I'm getting to meet new people, new people are getting to meet me, and we start to build those connections.  

Youth co-creator 1: The time went really quickly, you know. Another question: if you could change anything about today, what would it be? It's not to be in a negative way. It could be “ohh we could have done more plays, we could have had more time to improvise”... 

Youth co-creator 2: From what I'm thinking now, I don't think I could change anything. Maybe a little bit more time to come back after our performance session and say what's happened, but obviously that's because of the time we’ve got isn’t it? So we can't help that. 

Youth co-creator 1: Performing. Yeah. No, it's like you're scared about it because they're telling you we're gonna perform this. But it's like we haven't even done anything to get ready. But obviously, yeah it's an improvement over time.  

Youth co-creator 3: Exactly, it's improving. 

Youth co-creator 1: Like 3 weeks ago, we didn't do scenes. We were just talking about it. 

Youth co-creator 2: That's so real. 

Youth co-creator 1: Now we know how. Now look at us. Look how we're making scenes, laughing about it and stuff, like we have the story.  

Youth co-creator 2: Yeah, exactly. So, we just need to build upon it and stuff. 

Youth co-creator 1: But I'm also scared, like obviously it’s going to be a play, but we also really need to think about the people watching, the policymakers, maybe our family, our friends, so we can get… 

Youth co-creator 3: The message across, exactly. 

Youth co-creator 1: As much as it is fun for us to do the play, we also need to think about the seriousness of what we're doing. Obviously talking about youth employment and jobs and stuff, we need to get that across. Also how they can actually start changing stuff for people like down the generations, or even us. We want to make a good impact. Obviously, it's going to be fun. Obviously, we’re going to have fun and everything. But we also make sure wherever we do it, the message gets across. So we can make change.