Biog
Nikki Brooker was born in Maidstone, Kent, in September 1982. She became interested in Children’s Rights issues at the age of 13, and was trained by Kent County Council’s Youth Service to become active in youth participation. Using the confidence she had gained from her training, Nikki and her friends made it their mission to establish a local youth council. Nikki worked tirelessly to engage a wide cross section of the town’s youth population to create a youth council that was representative of the young people in the area. The youth council ran many campaigns and achieved:
- an annual music festival that promotes the UN International Day of Global-Ceasefire and non-violence,
- a skate park;
- and a youth cafe
This, despite facing opposition from many adults within the town and continued negative media coverage of young people.
Based on her success locally, Nikki continued to work with Kent Youth Service to establish a county wide youth council, with the support of youth workers and other young people.
At the age of 14, Nikki became involved in a campaign to establish a UK Youth Parliament (UKYP), to give young people a democratic and representative voice, which would be heard and listened to by Government and other organisations interested in young people’s issues. Nikki was the first young person in the UK to be involved with the campaign and her passion for the organisation led to other young people joining the steering group. During the four years it took to establish UKYP, Nikki ran various consultation exercises across the UK to engage young people in the process of creating UKYP, whilst also regularly attending meetings with MPs and Government Ministers to obtain their support for the organisation.
During this time Nikki continued to work locally in Kent and trained as a Peer Educator in Sexual Health and Relationships, developing a series of workshops to be delivered in youth clubs and schools based on consultation with young people, in order to ensure that they had access to relevant and appropriate sexual health information.
In 1999 Nikki also became the first young person in the UK to be actively involved in the development of Peace One Day, an organisation set up to create a day when there is the cessation of violence in countries of conflict and for others to acknowledge and lead by example, at a strategic level. Nikki provided help and advice to Jeremy Gilley, the founder of Peace One Day, on appropriate ways in which to engage young people. Nikki’s involvement with Peace One Day culminated in her co-ordinating 43 youth events across the UK, to celebrate the first UN International Day of Global Cease-Fire and non-violence.
At the age of 17 Nikki found herself homeless, but despite this continued the work she had started to raise awareness of children’s rights, supported by a network of youth workers she had contact with through her campaign work.
In 2000 at the age of 18, Nikki became a Trustee and Company Director for Democracy for Young People, trading as the UK Youth Parliament. She held this post for 3 years, developing policies ranging from child protection to engagement strategies, all the time ensuring that it was in line with the wishes of the young people involved with UKYP at a grass-roots level. Nikki resigned from UKYP’s Board at the age of 21 in order to concentrate on local youth work in the area of London that she was living in, working to support young people with disabilities and develop local youth councils for surrounding Boroughs.
Between 2001 and 2004 Nikki completed a BSc in Social Policy and Administration; as a result of this course she gained knowledge in a variety of areas: including the welfare state, governance (both local, national and international), human rights and children’s rights. Nikki achieved an upper class honours.
Following her resignation from UKYP’s Board of Trustees, Nikki was approached by young people from UKYP’s London region for help with the running of their training residential. Following this residential, UKYP and the young people agreed to appoint Nikki to the post of London Regional Co-ordinator for 3 -4 months as they felt that she would be able to assist them with the development of a national event that was scheduled for July that year. Needless to say, Nikki ended up working for two and a half years with UKYP’s London Region, taking participation in the region from 7 Borough’s when she started to 27 at the time of her departure.
Whilst working as UKYP’s London Regional Co-ordinator Nikki supported young people in:
- Re-writing the Metropolitan Police Standard Operating Procedures in relation to Stop and Search;
- Organising high profile publicity and consultation events;
- Working on an anti-gun and knife project which spanned two years and included 2,000 young people in the process through consultation and the production of a film to be used in schools and youth clubs across the capital. In 2007, the film won a Children and Young People Now award for portraying young people positively.
In addition to working for UKYP, Nikki also undertook other work with local youth services in London to develop youth participation within these localities, developing training packages for young people, conference’s and many camps/residentials for young people. Nikki has been involved with over 30 youth camps with an attendance of young people ranging from 12 – 450 all within the age range of 10 – 20.
In 2002 Nikki was invited to attend the Queen’s garden party at Buckingham Palace in recognition of her outstanding commitment to youth affairs.
In October 2006 Nikki travelled to Australia but remained dedicated to Children’s Rights, undertaking youth work in many of the cities she has travelled to. In early 2008, Nikki worked for the Australian Red Cross, to provide services to young people in an Aboriginal Community in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory (NT), Australia, this experience enabled Nikki to learn about Aboriginal Rights, the degradation of Aboriginal Communities through policies of oppression, and as a result of this Nikki will continue to work to raise awareness of this issue on return to the UK.
Nikki worked in Darwin, NT from 2007 until 2008, to develop a Multicultural Youth Council, after establishing that there was a need for this being driven by young people. She worked with a group of young people and provided training and support to ensure that they were able to develop this organisation. At the end of 2007, the Multicultural Youth NT (Mynt) were recognised with an award for Multiculturalism and in 2008 they became the only youth organisation to win a grant of $250,000 from a national Australian youth charity.
Since returning to the UK, Nikki has worked as a consultant for the UK Youth Parliament, organising events to enable young people to talk directly to government:
- The first being a debate to discuss whether the UK should have a National Youth Week;
- The second being a high profile debate with senior politicians to debate whether the UK should have a written constitution, which was held at the British Library.
Nikki continues to provide consultancy services to organisation’s that she feels passionate about and will continue to do so despite recently being diagnosed with Bipolar.
In autumn, 2009 Nikki is starting an MA in Anthropology, Community and Youth Work at Goldsmiths University, in South East London. This is in order to develop her youth work skills and provide her with a greater understanding of community structures, specifically Indigenous peoples across the world and the impact colonisation has had on them.
