Putting young people back in control

Dimple Pau

Dimple, one of Brook's young campaign volunteers, wrote this inspiring piece for one of our latest fundraising event. It gives a young person's view on why Brook and funds raised by the Brook 100 Club are so important to young people.

He's sitting in one of our waiting rooms, thinking about what's happened. She's emailing one of our advisors, wondering what could happen. Sitting next to her is her mate, texting 'Ask Brook', thinking about what hasn't happened.Then there's the couple, phoning 'Ask Brook', wondering how to make it happen.

Through the thinking, anticipating and emotion - young people are able to make initial contact with Brook and put themselves somewhere they never thought they could be when it comes to sexual health. . . Back in control.

When my Gran was growing up, she didn't have any control or any choice. She was made to nurse her pregnant mother and deliver her siblings through to the age of 11, marry a man she met on her wedding day at the age of 12 and give birth to her first child at the age of 13. She has started to be, at the age of 89, a woman who is independent and knows her own mind - a stage she wishes she could have been at in her youth.

When I think about Brook, I feel proud to be a part of a generation that is able to benefit from such an innovative and empowering organisation. An organisation that works hard to give us choice, as well as serving every young person as an individual.

That's why the Brook 100 Club is important for me and other young people. It means Brook can push the boundaries and reach out to more people.

When the Brook 100 Club launched in March of this year they made three promises. I'm going to talk about how these promises will make a difference to young people's lives in the UK

1. Brook promises to roll out successful local education projects, such as the Sexual Bullying Project, to other areas that are in need,

I was talking with one of our outreach workers the other day who was telling me about some work she had been doing with a group of 14-15 year old vulnerable girls. Some of these girls were being sexually exploited by young men, one in particular was being exploited by an older man in exchange for drugs. This particular person was unaware of the exploitative nature of this relationship, but after 6 weekly outreach sessions this girl wrote on her review form "I'm not afraid to be myself and I'm not scared of my sexuality"
The outreach worker also said that education projects are important because they reach out to people that perhaps don't have the confidence, self esteem or knowledge to visit a Brook centre and they provide a safe environment for young people to ask all their burning questions, that they haven't felt comfortable enough to ask anyone else.

2. Brook promises to provide information and advice to more young people and in more innovative ways so that they can make informed choices about their sexual health.

An education worker who told me about a simple session she took on contraception. The group of young people had so many questions and believed so many myths, that the session covered more issues than planned. Some believed you can catch an STI from a toilet seat, that coca cola is a form of contraception. Some had questions about abortion, body image, porn and confidentiality.
Like the recent development of a personal texting service and an online contraceptive decision tool - Brook wants to continue to use technology to involve more young people and give space to air their questions and double check information.

3. We promise to campaign fearlessly on behalf of young people

In the summer, we'll be launching a new campaign to help raise the self esteem and confidence of young people - and it will be led by us.
There's so much to do and so much further that Brook needs to go, in order to reach more people and make more of a difference.

We want Brook 100 Club members to pledge or donate £1000 to Brook over the course of 12 months. For every pound you donate - there's a reason: Whether it's through visiting a brook centre, an email, text or phone call - brook reaches over 1,500 young people everyday, which is more than 1000 reasons for you to support Brook.