We catch up with Julia of Fairtrade Wolverhampton at the end of there annual meeting at the Change Makers Hub next to Wolverhampton Train Station. This year there has been a special award for a young person doing good work in the community. We meet that young lady an find out more.
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00:00So we're here at the hub in Wolverhampton by the train station and Julia, you're from Wolverhampton City Fair Trade?
00:07That's correct, yes.
00:08The chairlady?
00:09I'm the chairlady for my sins.
00:10What's been happening here today then Julia?
00:12Well we've had our 20th Fair Trade AGM, it's been a great success.
00:16We've had wonderful support from across the city here today, good turnout and we've had our new MPs come and support us,
00:24there were newly elected councillors, people across the city representing various businesses, foundations and friends and campaigners.
00:34What does Wolverhampton City Fair Trade do then, what's their mission, what's their goal?
00:38It is to promote fair trade in the city, we've been a fair trade certified city for 20 years and we promote what fair trade stands for,
00:46encourage everyone to buy fair trade and get a fairer deal for the producers and the farmers who we grow the things that we consume.
00:56And there's a couple of bods in the background, introduce us Jules, come and take us over.
01:00We've got the wonderful Layla Perry from Ormiston SWB Academy and Sue Watson who's Governor at SWB Academy.
01:09Now she's holding a bit of an award there, what's going on there Jules?
01:12Well we are proud to say for the first time ever Layla is a recipient of a new award that we have bought in and it's Wolverhampton Fair Trade Young Campaigner of the Year.
01:22She goes above and beyond on her own time, with her own money, with her own time to support fair trade.
01:29Alright let's go and call her then.
01:31How you doing Layla, you okay?
01:33Yeah I'm doing good thank you.
01:34So you're the first one to get this award, that's quite a privilege isn't it?
01:37Yeah.
01:38And you're only a young lady aren't you, how old are you?
01:40I'm 12.
01:41So what sort of stuff do you do that's kind of linked to fair trade then?
01:45Well I make jewellery and I have my own jewellery business but I work with council to help people with special needs and that.
01:52I do sessions where I can help them make jewellery and that and it's therapeutic for sensory kids.
01:59Ah yeah.
02:00And recently I've done one with people who don't have parents and it was really good because we did a craft session and I got to connect with a few children.
02:09That's fantastic, so you're a governor at the school aren't you?
02:12Yes I've been a governor for quite a long time.
02:14And it's almost an SWB?
02:17Almost an SWB academy.
02:19You must be very proud of Layla here.
02:21Oh absolutely, it's a delight when we see students such as Layla who not only have worked extremely hard at school and are doing very well academically,
02:31but also have given so much of their time to raise money and to do things for people without any expectation of any reward or anything.
02:43And so we're really really proud of Layla.
02:45Where does this come from then Layla, where's this kind of ethos, this spirit you've got to kind of help others?
02:50Where do you think it started?
02:52When I was in primary school I was bullied and I asked my mum to buy me a bracelet set off Amazon and from there I found it really therapeutic.
03:01And it's actually helped me as well in school and that because from there I went from the school thinking I was dyslexic to being in top state in all my lessons.
03:09So it's really good because it's just a really nice way to help the community and help people that struggle.
03:17And what would you like to do, and you're only 12 years old, believe it or not, I've got a 12 year old boys but I'm not sure they could stand here and speak quite as eloquently as yourself.
03:26What would you like to do with your kind of going on, what do you see work wise when you're an old one like me?
03:32My main goal is to just do more sessions and help people who are struggling and hopefully make more people be inspired in that and more kids so they can do something like this in the future when they're older.
03:43So you'd like to kind of continue that in a job role, that kind of helping people?
03:47Yeah.
03:48Well your parents must be very proud of you as well.
03:51Yeah.
03:52Fantastic work Layla, awesome, well done.
03:54Jo, she's fantastic isn't she?
03:56She's brilliant and obviously coming from Bilson I'm especially proud.
03:59Yeah.
04:01Even today when she came in she set up her own little TikTok page and she shared the Fairtrade keyrings that she's made out of her own time and money to give out to everyone today and she said we've already had up to 500 likes.
04:14Fantastic.
04:15So she's hit more people than I could do sitting at a laptop with emails or Facebook so she's a little pioneer and I think she deserves every credit, she's an amazing inspiration.
04:27I think the message is let's all be a bit more Layla.
04:30Yes, I like that, that's a good tag line.
04:33Well done folks, cheers guys.