SAMI Gichki is not exactly your typical 21-year-old. Not many people his age are a chair, trustee or ambassador for one charitable organisation – but he’s on the board of no fewer than 14.
“I like giving to the community,” he says simply. “I don’t call it ‘giving back’ because I get so much from it. When you see that what you do is making a tangible difference, that gives you a real sense of purpose to do more. So I do!”
Even so, he’s still exceptionally young to do this sort of voluntary work. Board members, whether for a corporate or charitable organisation, are traditionally several decades older than Sami. Indeed, the Charity Commission found the average age of Britain’s charity trustees is 57, as if only people with extensive life experience can make this type of contribution to organisations that potentially benefit us all.
Sami is living proof that is not the case – and says his age is an asset. “When a young person joins a trustee board, of course they don’t have the life and business experience of older members,” he says. “But they do have their own perspective, and they have enthusiasm.”
Bringing together the wisdom of age and the enthusiasm of youth is at the heart of his latest trusteeship at Intergenerational England, an organisation dedicated to bridging the divide between generations by fostering all-age collaboration across diverse organisations and sectors such as health, housing, transport, education, and employment.
“Intergenerational England is a fantastic concept,” he says. “It promotes and works towards people of every generation having an equally respected contribution to society. Far too often we don’t think people capable of action, or even thought, because they are the wrong age – they’re too young, they’re too old. I think it’s very weird that we discriminate based on age. I don’t understand it – because every single person is an individual with their own unique and perspective.”
Bringing all ages into the mix, says Sami, encourages people and organisations to find new, innovative ways of approaching and solving problems. “I think young people can help take things back to the basics, by asking the simplest questions: ‘Why are you doing that? Why are you doing it this way? Why can’t we do it like this?’ The organisations where I think I’ve had the most impact have been where I’ve asked questions that were so simple I’ve felt like an idiot for asking them. But they didn’t think that – I learned that it made them think about the answers.
“Of course a person with experience brings so much to the table,” he adds, “but older people who have seen much of life might risk quickly dismissing something saying ‘we’re not doing this because it’s never worked’. If you add into the mix a young person who’s never seen it not work, they ask why it didn’t work and what can be done to make it work. Such an intergenerational approach opens up the possibilities for thinking and doing differently – and the best way to do that is to create that support network around people of all ages to let them share their ideas and project their voice.”
Many of Sami’s other voluntary roles are with organisations mainly centred around young people – he co-chairs the national #iwill Movement, which seeks to increase 10-25-year-olds’ participation in social action such as volunteering, campaigning or fundraising. His other trusteeships include organisations that support young people’s mental health, help young refugees and give young people a voice on climate change and, for good measure, he’s also a governor of his local secondary school.
But, he says, the most creative thinking does not just come from adding a young person’s perspective, but two-way interaction between all generations.
“I have had a few mentors in my life, all of them older than me. One is 68, I think – any time I need support with anything in my life I basically go to him and he's always there to support me. But he has told me how much our conversations have helped him as well. I hadn’t realised that, because I’m always the one asking the questions – but he said they were questions he’d never thought of. It opened up a whole new perspective for him. Intergenerational connection really is a shared experience, helping everyone.”
But such an approach only works, says Sami, if an organisation is genuinely committed not just to hearing voices of all ages, but valuing them equally.
“In workplaces, for example, there can be quite a lot of subtle intergenerational disconnection, even hostility. Often that’s passive and unintentional and many people in the organisation might not even realise it’s happening – and even if they do, it’s difficult to pinpoint. Unlike prejudice around, say, race or sexuality, age discrimination is easy to sugar-coat – ‘you don’t have enough experience’ or ‘the right kind of experience’. But ignoring or deliberately overlooking those perspectives blocks innovation and creativity.”
However, even organisations that say all the right things about representation fail because they don’t approach it in the right way, adds Sami.
“Intergenerational activity isn’t a tokenistic tick-box. It’s not achieved by saying ‘we need the opinions of an 80-year-old, a 15-year-old and someone in the middle’. That’s not what true intergenerational activity and perspective is about because it’s not properly valuing people’s opinions – so that sort of space will only last for so long before it falls apart.
“True intergenerational activity is about creating a culture where it’s embedded in its roots that people of all ages can put forward their perspectives and know they will be given the same weight and respect, whatever age they are. Done properly, it creates a boiling pot of ideas, feelings and emotions. That’s where you get the best, most exciting and innovative ideas.”
Although Sami is modest about his own contribution to so many British organisations, his huge enthusiasm for volunteering is even more remarkable because it is the only way he can work. He came to the UK as a 10-year-old when his family’s political ties meant they had to flee Pakistan and 11 years on, the Home Office is still processing his application for asylum. This limbo prevented him from attending university and he is not allowed to do paid work, so he’s given his time to volunteering instead.
“I do feel very much part of a community here,” he says. “I can’t call myself British but I am a very proud Mancunian. And I feel very privileged because so many people have believed in me, which has inspired me to do even more. Knowing you’re making a difference gives you a real sense of purpose, a reason to get up in the morning, and I’m extremely grateful for that. I’ll keep going, and doing as much as I can. I call myself an unemployed workaholic!”
Ironically, he believes his experience ‘outside the system’ has given him more opportunity to gain from intergenerational experiences. “Because I couldn’t do the usual school-university-workplace route, I did an employability course and found myself next to a 40-year-old and a 70-year-old. That has happened a lot. As I’m not part of the established structure, as it were, I’ve found myself regularly floating around similar spaces with people who are not my age group – I’ve not been pigeonholed into a particular bracket of ‘things people my age do’ . That’s actually given me a hugely rich experience of interacting on an equal footing with people of many different ages.
“I’ve learned first-hand just how much is gained from bringing together people with different experiences. I really understand what Intergenerational England is trying to do. Think what a huge difference we could make, right across society, by listening to people of all ages.”