Introduction

Commencing my career as a children's participation worker, I engaged in numerous local social action projects with children and young people, striving to develop their skills while seeking to enable them to catalyse meaningful change within local communities on issues they cared about. This practical experience fuelled my commitment to children's voice and participation, a theme central to my academic research since entering academia in 2013. A pivotal moment occurred in 2018 when my colleague Eddy Hogg and I revisited a project I’d been involved in a decade earlier, exploring its lasting impact on participants (see Body and Hogg, 2019). The findings revealed that engagement in local social action projects had a ‘transformative’ effect, shaping participants’ present-day citizenship. Relationships with supportive adults, a key factor in facilitating their role as change makers, a sense of achievement and the ability to effect change were defining aspects of their experiences. Over 90 per cent of these participants, now adults, remain actively involved in voluntary action within their communities (Body and Hogg, 2019), a common feature in individuals’ civic journeys when engaging from a young age (McFarland and Thomas, 2006; Musick and Wilson, 2007; Flanagan, 2009), and two thirds of the participants were actively working with the younger generation in order to enable them to have a voice and empower them within their community.

Throughout this book, I’ve critically examined how children are socialised into our philanthropic ecosystem, emphasising its impact on achieving a fairer, more just and equitable society, particularly for children and young people. This concluding part delves into key components for fostering a more transformational approach to philanthropy, aligning it with justice and activist orientations (Johnson and Morris, 2010). Drawing upon insights from 40 leaders actively engaged in the philanthropic ecosystem, including educators, practitioners, leaders of charities and funders dedicated to supporting children as change makers, this chapter synthesises extensive interviews conducted for this book. Six interviewees represented leading philanthropic foundations and funders, 18 were leaders of organisations focused on children's citizenship and empowerment, while 16 were practitioners within the philanthropic ecosystem.