Carnegie Young People Initiative

In 1997 the Carnegie UK Trust opened its Carnegie Young People Initiative in London. This was the first independent specialist national research and development centre promoting the policy and practice of youth participation across the UK. For ten years Carnegie funded over 150 local youth participation projects, increasingly young-people led, together with research, publications, training, learning exchanges, the creation of national and regional networks for youth participation practitioners, and provided advice to the UK Government departments and the Devolved Administrations.

Carnegie closed CYPI in 2007, having played a leading role convening the consortium that established Participation Works and transferring some of its staff. CYPI has been succeeded by a new Carnegie programme supporting democracy and civil society. As a record of the Trust’s decade of support for youth participation, the Trust has published its final report Empowering Young People. The report reviews the successes and failures over the past decade, together with some ideas for action for the coming years to sustain and strengthen the voice of young people in decision-making. The report will be launched at the Participation Works conference on 20 February, and is available free from the Trust.

CYPI and Freestyle London delivered a workshop on Meaningful Participation at the launch of the LGBT London Youth Council. The workshop, for sixty London based workers, explored the specific barriers for young Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Questioning people in influencing decisions affecting there lives.

The new LGBT London Youth Council will bring together LGBT young people form across London and be a platform for them to influence services across the capital and have there say on issues affecting their lives.

For more information about the council contact Gary Rowland, London LGBT Youth Council Coordintaor on gary@lgbtconsortium.org.uk

PWNE – PALS Conference

The PWNE’s first national health conference held last month in York was a great success with more than 110 delegates attending the Patient Advisory and Liasion Service (PALS) event, focused on children and young people’s involvement in health settings. Delegates came from diverse backgrounds ranging from PALS advisors themselves to Participation Workers and local authority staff. The day began with a panel of experts debating some of the key issues raised in the PALS research, and ended with insights from young people about their own experiences and ideas on health settings. The conference successfully brought together a range of practitioners from across the UK who shared their experiences with the aim of improving practice and raising the profile of children and young people’s participation in health.

Children and young people are being invited to “Shout! turn up the volume!? on the issues that affect them in a new competition that will drive the work of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England (OCC).

The competition – the idea of children and young people working closely with the OCC – encourages children of all ages to create a piece of artwork (picture, film, photo or image) on a subject close to their heart. This could be on any topic from what goes on at school to how young people are portrayed in the media. Entries should include a 30-word description outlining the thoughts and inspiration behind the entry. It’s open to children across England and entries have to be in by Friday 28 July 2006.

For more information access the competition website Shout my entry

The Democracy Coalition begins its series of breakfast meetings.

The Coalition’s inaugural meeting with Justine Greening MP kick started its work on promoting children and young people’s involvement in democracy.

“We need to formulate a water-tight youth policy – not just statements which will continue to switch young people off politics.?
Justine Greening MP on working with the DCCYP, Democracy wake-up call 23 March 2006

The Democracy Coalition is an alliance of non-governmental, voluntary and statutory organisations.

The key messages of the day were:

• Make politics more relevant to young people
• Quality, not quantity of democracy is important – political parties need to be encouraged to inform younger voters as well as older voters.
• The best way to encourage participation is by appealing to children and young people in their own environment – possibility of using TV soaps and magazines.

On Tuesday 23 May the PWNE will host its 1st National Health Conference.
The conference takes place in York, and will look at how children and young
people can be more involved in a health setting.

The conference will launch the latest research about Children and Young
People’s Involvement in the PALS Service and aims to bring together a range
of practitioners from across the UK. Delegates will share their experiences
and work together to improve practice and to raise the profile of children
and young people’s participation in health settings.

The cost for attendance is £75 per person for PWNE members or £90 per
person for non-members. Membership of the PWNE is free.

To book onto the conference visit our booking site:

We are pleased to announce that our first seminar on the future of participation will be held in Edinburgh early this summer.

The Carnegie Young People Initiative is holding a seminar on the future of participation for children and young people in Edinburgh on the 27th June.

All young people deserve to be heard. This is the premise of the British Youth Council’s Every Young Voice Project—a project which equips organisations with the tools needed to recruit and involve hard-to-reach young people. Nine UK youth groups worked with BYC to develop and refine a diversity toolkit and two youth organisations successfully piloted the toolkit in the field.