Carnegie Young People Initiative

In order to engage young people in local democracy and the political process, The Campaign Company, working alongside Wakefield Council, designed and pioneered Democracy Wall. This tool was used for the first time in Wakefield as a key youth engagement activity for Local Democracy Week 2005.

The week focussed on young people up to the age of 26, and particularly on ‘harder to reach young people’. The objective of the project was to bring young people together to discuss and engage in the democratic process in a highly visual, interactive, and fun manner, culminating in the building of a ‘wall of democracy’ blockading the entrance to the Town Hall and ‘forcing’ the Leader of the Council to listen to the view of young citizens of Wakefield.

Connexions Tees Valley has recently produced a fantastic report on young people’s views and priorities related to the Every Child Matters and Youth Matters agenda. The report brings together their recent consultation work and discussions with young people across Tees Valley on the key issues confronting them whilst growing up today. The report includes a lot of great information and excellent examples of best practice. It is intended to give young people an opportunity to establish their priorities and enable them to exert an influence on current development in services for young people.

Key findings include:

94% felt that the ‘safety’ as the most important factor in defining a decent neighbourhood. Over 50% felt that meetings and website are good ways to give their views to local councils.

Bus Buddies was set up to tackle the long-standing problem of transport services in rural areas, and in particular improving and increasing young people’s access to transport in rural areas. The project, designed and implemented by young people and supported by the North East Regional Youth Work Unit, the Regional Bus Forum and other interested individuals and organisations, enabled young people to travel the length and breadth of the region by public transport over a two-day period in order to report their own experiences and other young people’s encounters of the services provided. The 15 young people, aged between 14 and 22, interviewed other youngsters and produced a filmed presentation of their results on DVD. These insights are now informing the debate about rural transport, and contribute to the region’s bid to run one of the DfES’s ‘Opportunity Card’ pilot projects in conjunction with a major bus operator.

Sophie Bradfield first started her journey in participation with Poole Children’s Fund at the age of 11 as a committee member in a local after school club. When she became too old for the youth club she was invited to become a young evaluator for Poole Children’s Fund. This involved a training course to learn evaluation skills and as a result of her training she has been as far as Gloucestershire and London to evaluate children’s organisations. She later became a member of the Children and Young People’s Board for the DfES. The board ran for six months and amongst other things, appointed the Children’s Commissioner for England, which meant: months of consultations of children and young people for what they wanted in the Children’s Commissioner (she was involved in running two of the consultations, for the south west); creating a job description and person specification; designing a logo; creating interview questions; feeding back progress to Margaret Hodge (Minister for Children and Families at the time); and talking with the adult panel at the DfES. She was also one of only two young people representing the South West on the board. She has recently been elected as the new Youth Parliament member for Poole, representing the 11,000 or so, voices of children and young people, aged 13-19, living within Poole. Since being elected she has become a member of Poole youth forum, and a member of the Shadow Board for Poole. In Sophie’s own words,

The first Participation Worker Learning Community began in London on 20th February. 18 Participation Workers met together for 3 hours and used such methods as ‘speed dating’ to discuss their daily work and struggles and achievements in children’s participation they have faced. The participants now have a 6-week time period in which to contact each other in a variety of ways, to support each other further in their work. This period will also be pinpointed with some key group activities/meetings. We will be reporting on this Learning Community in more detail at a later date. CYPI intern Sarah Schulman facilitated a session for members of the Learning Community to get to know each other.

As part of the development of PWNE we are supporting regional Participation Worker Networks, either those already in existence, or launching new networks in partnership with local organisations. We believe that supporting people to share practice on a regional level will ultimately prove more sustainable, and will also strengthen the voice of children and young people in regional bodies, and local children’s trusts.

Particip8 is pleased to announce the arrival of the ‘You have the Right’ creative resource pack!
The pack contains a wide range of activities – including art, drama, tasks and games – all designed to help children explore Children’s Rights and Responsibilities through the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Mel Parr is the SE representative on the PWNE Steering Group and she is establishing the case for the creation of a South East Participation Workers forum. Mel realises that many participation workers work in isolation within their organisations and a South East
forum could be used to share good practice, develop SE regional events, make links with GOSE, information sharing and of course networking.

The Partnership for Young London has launched the London Participation Workers Network via it’s new website. This is an e-network which allows Participation Workers from all over London to make links with each other and share ideas and practice. There are already over 80 members so demand is obviously high. The network will be very useful for future Participation events in London. click here to access the site