Name: David Adesanya
Age: 23
Why did you want to join the PYL youth Board?
I want to be on the board because my experience has shown me that not only do you need to gather the insights and struggles of young people but also allow this to drive change delivered. I believe this platform has such an opportunity as this where the voices gathered can be attended too forming localised specific initiatives.
What would you like to change about the lives of youth people in London?
I guess the change I would like to see comes from less of an addition but, rather a discovery. An understanding that they have everything they need to succeed in whatever environment they see themselves.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently working on an initiative called Behind Home – collating the stories and struggles of residents in London, deriving key localised causes and developing bridges to resolution. This project works to provide transparency to neighbourhood concerns and implement opportunities for strategically targeted solutions in matters that leave our communities, neighbourhoods, families and kids letting go of their hopes and feeling alien in the place they once called home. Solutions can vary from examples like implementing homework clubs, building community centres to lone-parent team sport and child support.
Using mixed mediums and mixed reality I allow this process and journey to be embarked on by the general public surpassing just London. Challenging the scope of how we consider empathy being achieved and widening the scope of international support.
I am working with several organisations, businesses and councils to galvanise a Top-down and Bottom-up scalable shift in Community culture like; UsTwo, Airbnb, Peabody and LLDC etc. investing in the localised neighbourhood development offered by my initiative.
How would your country change if everyone, regardless of age, could vote?
I don’t think this question is complete.
What ran through my mind couldn’t isolate age as the pivotal factor for example; if everyone could vote are our decisions informed by analysis, emotion or…? Is there a party who communicates clearly their intentions and is representative of its people of ‘all’ ages? Do we have the understanding that leadership doesn’t start from parliament but, within each and every one of us. The role and influence we play in our communities is as important in shaping London etc. as our reliance on government. But, let me come back to the question (lol) and say it may change but, you would not be able to reliably scale and therefore, replicate such a result by your measuring unit of just age. essay done adios mi amigo suspiro.
Where do you get your news?
I follow councilmen/political members and have friends within political realms who keep me updated either through messages, articles, twitter.
What was the last photo you took?
I’ll use this to shout about my last exhibition haha. Had a great opportunity to exhibit some of the stories from Behind Home at the Protein Gallery which opened up the discussions for partnerships.