Inspiring the next generation of changemakers
January 29, 2025
Two Childhood and Youth Studies (CYS) classes helped inspire the next generation of changemakers. As part of the Shaking the Movers workshop, students collaborated with 16 youth from London, aged 8-13, at the Boys and Girls Club of London.
The workshop was spearheaded by Dr. Dustin Ciufo’s Facilitating Child Advocacy (CYS 3351) class and Laurel Donison’s Rights-Based Community Engagement with Children and Youth (CYS 3355) class. The findings from the workshop will be presented to policymakers and government officials at the Child Rights Academic Network (CRAN) meeting in Ottawa on April 25-26, 2025. Yet the experience has already left a lasting mark on both students and children.
“This experience really shaped my understanding of how I can create change in the world. Just taking the first step towards change is impactful. An event like Shaking the Movers is that step in changing the world,” says Susy Lugo, fourth-year CYS and Religious Studies student.
“The children were learning through themselves. They just took everything that happened [as part of the workshop] with excitement and adventure. I feel like we left them with a sense of hope that adults are slowly beginning to listen to what they say… as opposed to telling them how to learn,” says Keisha Robinson, third-year CYS and Thanatology student.
“Just by taking the time to show that we’re listening to them and we care about what they have to say is impactful. A lot of the kids were saying they don’t get that often,” says Lugo.
Kimberly Dixon, fourth-year CYS and Psychology student, says taking part in the workshop made her realize “the children are the future and their voices need to be heard. As the adults in their lives, we need to help them realize that their voices are important to become great leaders and be able to make change in the world.”
Now in its fourth year at King’s, Shaking the Movers was introduced in 2021 by Dr. Daniella Bendo, who continues to support its planning and execution. This year’s theme, Building Our Communities of Care, encouraged children to envision supportive, nurturing environments.
King’s students introduced the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and guided youth through activities that emphasized self-expression. In small groups, participants used creative tools like Lego and art to illustrate what a caring community—complete with schools, healthcare, and recreation—looked like to them.
“It makes an impact on our students and it makes an impact on the children,” says Dr. Ciufo.
“We [the students and the children] are working together to find out what’s best for the children,” says Robinson.
A key takeaway for CYS students was mastering the art of facilitation.
“It’s one thing to teach. It’s another thing to do,” says Robinson, who says she is grateful for the opportunity to learn how to gain the knowledge of how to speak to children in a child-friendly manner.
“Instead of standing in front of children, just telling them information for them to learn, I learned how to have a conversation with them and find ways to have them participate in the learning,” says Dixon.
The mentorship that Dr. Ciufo and Donison provided helped the CYS students learn about “how to teach without teaching,” Robinson says. “Both did a really good job of modelling what a facilitator is and not what a teacher is. It helped me perform the activities with the children in a totally different light that I’d never understood before.”
That mentorship also allowed the CYS students to learn about how to take hard concepts and approach them in a child-friendly manner. Creating games and other activities helped the children learn while having fun. “These are things that I will carry with me in my future,” Dixon says.
Dixon says one of the things she knew but had reinforced by the workshop was that children understand a lot more than we think they do. Her group discussed discrimination and the right to rest, relax and play. “They knew what discrimination was and they understood what that topic meant and how it can be seen on the playground and within sports, and they were totally okay with talking about those topics,” she says.
Participation in Shaking the Movers gave students a glimpse of their future roles as educators and advocates.
“Over the four years in CYS, I have learned so much about working with children and not just working for children. It will be what I carry into the classroom as a teacher one day. Participating in Shaking the Movers gave me a taste of what my future is going to look like and the teacher I want to be. I was able to work on my skills to get to where I want to be,” says Dixon.
Lugo, who also wants to be a teacher, says her involvement in the Shaking the Movers event “showed me that my desire to make a difference and listen to the children has gotten even stronger because I want to be a teacher who takes the time to listen to them.”
As the 2024 Shaking the Movers workshop demonstrates, empowering youth and fostering dialogue are critical steps toward building a generation of changemakers—both in the classroom and beyond.
Previous stories
CYS-facilitated workshop to provide decision-makers with young people's insights
Shaking the Movers back for its second year at King's