Becky’s NewsletterMARCH 2026YOUNG PEOPLE & LEARNING
Young people taking the work into their own academic programmes
From student-led workshops to academic research, young people have been finding their own ways to carry Becky’s Button’s work into learning, leadership and practical action.
From participation to ownership
Becky’s Button’s youth work is strongest when young people are not treated simply as an audience. Across the UK, students and ambassadors have increasingly taken responsibility for shaping and extending the work themselves.
Three founding UK ambassadors took charge of a workshop at Portland College and of fundraising events at Newnham College. These were practical opportunities to move beyond awareness and into communication, organisation and leadership.
Bringing the work into academic study
In March 2026, a Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing team presented an independent feasibility analysis to the Becky’s Button board. Separately, three Newnham College students researched safe scent compounds as part of their own academic work.
Those projects were different in form, but both show how students can take a social issue and explore it through the skills, disciplines and questions they are already developing in education.
Leadership does not have one format
For one person, leadership may mean facilitating a workshop. For another, it may mean research, fundraising, peer communication or challenging assumptions inside their own institution.
The aim is not to prescribe a single form of participation. It is to create opportunities for young people to recognise harmful behaviour, build confidence in responding to it, and find credible ways to contribute within their own communities.