Embedding youth social action at Leeds City College

A case study by Florence Smith-Drayson.

Starting anything new in an organisation is a challenge, let alone embedding it. That’s the task that Leeds City College undertook in 2018. The college saw the benefits of social action and committed to supporting this work. They had started the process by successfully bidding for funding from Sport England to introduce Social Action. In 2021 they were then successful in gaining funding for an AoC social action program. Florence Smith-Drayson started as a Youth Social Action Apprentice in 2021 (for Leeds City College, Leeds Conservatoire, Harrogate College and Leeds College of Building) and, in 2023, took on the role as Social Action Leadership Coordinator for Leeds City College and AoC mentor. The partnership with AoC has enabled social action to be embedded into college life and in 2025 a Social Action Officer role as approved at college as well as a new Student Voice model with social action at its core. Florence’s journey has been outlined below.

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