From setting up her own anti-bullying campaign in the wake of her brother\u2019s diagnosis with Anorexia Nervosa to her near death experience whilst on a volunteer placement with Virgin Atlantic in India, it\u2019s safe to say that former GIFHE student and Diana Award Holder, Molly Dixon has crammed more into her 18-short-years than most people do in a lifetime. Last week she dropped into the VANEL office to tell us about her latest success.<\/p>\n
Back in December Molly, a first year Business Management student at Coventry University, was contacted \u201cout of the blue\u201d by the Chief Executive of the Queen\u2019s Trust and invited to become an Associate Fellow with the Royal Commonwealth Society in partnership with The Queen\u2019s Young Leader\u2019s p<\/a>rogramme. The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS)<\/a> is a network of individuals and organisations committed to improving the lives and prospects of Commonwealth Citizens, and with an Associate Fellowship, Molly will be able to engage directly in the future of the Commonwealth and meet others who share her desire to help their communities to prosper.<\/p>\n The invitation came as a complete shock to Molly, who, four months earlier had submitted an application to The Queen\u2019s Young Leader\u2019s after seeing the opportunity advertised on social media. The programme which has run since 2014, gives 60 inspirational young people aged 18 – 25 from across the Commonwealth \u2013 one for every year that the Queen has served as Head of the Common Wealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee \u2013 the opportunity to take part in a year-long mentoring programme, enjoy a week\u2019s residency at Buckingham Palace to network with other inspirational young people and international businesses, and receive an award from the Queen. Molly was surprised to receive an email from The Queen\u2019s Trust, informing that her that her application to the Queen\u2019s Young Leaders programme, although unsuccessful, had made it to the final stage, and that she had instead been invited to become an Associate Fellow with the Royal Commonwealth Society. The prestigious title comes after years of community service and involvement with social action projects.<\/p>\n Whilst at Oasis Academy Wintringham, Molly\u2019s older brother was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa, a potentially life-threatening eating disorder and mental health condition. Her brother\u2019s condition deteriorated and he was subsequently admitted to hospital, putting enormous emotional strain on Molly and her family. Describing it as \u201cone of the worst times\u201d in her and her brother\u2019s lives, Molly said how she dreaded going home because of everything that was happening, and went on to develop anxiety. She said: I spent most of my time at school because I didn\u2019t want to be anywhere else. I didn\u2019t want to go home and deal with everything that was going on so I dived into anything that I could get my hands on at school. I remember saying to one of my teachers when it was coming up to the summer holidays that I wasn\u2019t even looking forward to it because it meant that I would have nowhere else to be\u201d.<\/p>\n It was then that Molly\u2019s school teacher suggested that she get involved with the school\u2019s Leadership programme over the summer holidays. Seeing this opportunity as a way of concentrating her efforts on something more positive, Molly jumped at the chance to get involved. It was here that her passion for social action and community engagement began. From there, and whilst in year 10, Molly approached her school with the idea of starting an anti-bullying programme, her inspiration being her much loved older brother who Molly said had been bullied throughout his “entire secondary school career”. Wanting to ensure that no other pupil would have to face being bullied alone, Molly’s Bully Buddy programme was born. The programme brought about the introduction of Bully Buddy Champions \u2013 students from different year groups who were appointed to offer help and support to students who were being bullied. The programme was well received, and made a welcome addition to the handful of anti-bullying posters that were dotted around the school in a meagre attempt to imply the issue of bullying was being addressed.<\/p>\n In her last year of secondary school, Molly went on to become Head Girl, and as part of Oasis Academy’s work with WE Schools<\/a>, in partnership with Free the Children, became an advocate for the programme. WE Schools is a unique five step programme that challenges young people to identify local and global issues that matter to them, and equips them with the tools to enable them to take action. In 2015, Molly\u2019s secondary school was one of only two schools in the area to be invited to the UK\u2019s second WE Day event in London. It was here that Molly and her friends got their first taste of the WE Day programme. She said: \u201cThe whole thing just completely blew me away, there were so many young people, much younger than I was, talking about the differences that they had made to their communities through social action, and I just thought, if they can do it, I can do it\u201d.<\/p>\n Inspired by the amazing stories that she had heard, Molly and her friends felt compelled to start up their own \u2018mini\u2019 WE Day event. After leaving secondary school, Molly and her friends returned to their former school and asked for their support in organising a WE Day event which all local Oasis schools could attend. The school had organised WE Day events in the past, but only in the form of a special assembly. In the months that followed, Molly, with the support of her former school and other young people, planned the school’s first\u00a0ever WE Day event, creating timetables, writing risk assessments and inviting guest speakers. The event, which was over a year in the making, was home to performances from local singer Chloe Rose and guest lectures from the founder of the Oasis Foundation, Steve Chalke, and the Deputy of the Lord Lieutenant on behalf of the Royal Family. Also in attendance were representatives from the WE Schools programme who engaged the children in activities surrounding social action and campaign ideas. Over the course of the event, the children were invited to examine the barriers preventing issues that they cared about from being resolved, and asked to come up with ideas to overcome them. The response from the young people who took part in the event was so positive that Molly, with the help of her friend and founder of Counting Hope, Andy Green, organised a second WE Day event in 2016. The event took place at the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education <\/a>and was open to all primary and secondary schools from across North East Lincolnshire. The event was funded and also supported by the team from O2 Think Big.<\/a><\/p>\n Molly\u2019s commitment to social action projects spans continents, and in the summer of 2015, she embarked on the trip of a lifetime to India with Virgin Atlantic\u2019s annual \u2018Be the Change<\/a>\u2019 Volunteer Scholarship. The scholarship which is run by ME to WE<\/a> gives young people aged between 12 and 18 the opportunity to travel to other countries and volunteer. Molly travelled to India as a volunteer in a rural village and was helping to build a school for disadvantaged children. However, the trip did not go quite to plan and Molly found herself being admitted to hospital on three separate occasions. The most serious of which being when she was admitted and wrongly treated for suspected tetanus, causing her heart to stop. Thankfully the doctors at the hospital were able to resuscitate her and her worried family were able to meet her in India before she returned to the UK for further treatment.<\/p>\n Despite her many successes and charitable efforts, Molly continues to be humble and endearingly unaware as to the magnitude of her achievements. So humble in fact that whilst at the 2016 Diana Awards <\/a>in 2016 as a \u2018guest\u2019 she remained blissfully unaware that she was about to be awarded a Diana Award until seconds before her name was announced. \u201cI literally had no clue whatsoever, it wasn\u2019t until they started reading off the list of all the things that I had done that I clicked and realised they were talking about me, \u201cshe said.\u00a0 Molly had been nominated by her friend and mini WE DAY co-organiser Andy Green. With the help of Youth of VANEL’s IGNITE<\/a> Youth Leadership Worker Jenny Hodson, Andy contacted everyone that Molly had ever worked with and put together a compilation of all the things Molly had done to deserve the honour.<\/p>\n Andy said: “It was very difficult to keep the nomination a secret and organising the second WE Day event with Molly made it even harder as we spent so much time together. I had to figure out who I could trust and who wouldn’t tell Molly, so it meant hiding a lot. It was definitely worth it though, and I know that she appreciates it and is really proud. It was really funny because before they said her name, the list of things that she had done was being read out and all the way through she genuinely never expected that they were talking about her – instead she wanted to meet the person that had done all the same things as her!”<\/p>\n Molly is currently studying Business Management at Coventry University and has been working with the university to develop her own youth leadership programme called ‘Empowerment Leaders\u2019. Molly came up with the idea to create the programme after having a negative experience when she visited the universities volunteer centre. The programme aims to motivate and inspire young people to get involved in volunteering and social action by setting up their own projects, campaigns and events. The programme has generated so much interest that it is being developed into an Advantage Module which students can choose as part of their degree. The programme is being introduced later in the year.<\/p>\n We look forward to bringing you more news about Molly’s work in the future and would like to congratulate her on her invitation to become an Associate Fellow with The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS).<\/p>\n This years’ WE Day event “WE Day Social Action Club 2017” is being organised by Andy Green and will take place on Thursday 6th April at the Grimsby Institute. All schools within Yorkshire & Humber are welcome to attend free of charge and can confirm their attendance on the website by clicking here,<\/a> or by contacting Andy Green. Representatives from WE Charity, Diana Award, and O2 Think Big will be at the event, as well as performers and inspirational speakers. We will update you with more information about the event as an when we can. You can view the brochure that is being sent out to local schools about the event by clicking here. <\/a><\/p>\n