It can be difficult to create a participation strategy if your organisation does not work directly with young people. This was brought home to me when helping Y Care International to scope existing participation and identify recommendations for embedding it within the charity.

The charity itself supports a lot of excellent projects with the most deprived young people across the world, through a network of YMCAs. Projects include working with young offenders and young people in gangs, young people affected by HIV, and child soldiers. It also runs global youth work projects with YMCAs in the UK and Ireland. Projects are encouraged to involve young people from beginning to end, and the charity helps them, through training, to gain the skills and resources they need.  The difficulty is in making sure young people can be involved internally as well.

When using Hear by Right to check where you are and where you need to go, it is imprtant to identify exactly what you are trying to map. What does “young people” mean to your organisation – is it younger children, under 18s, under 25s or have you not got an age-based definition? The latter is fine, providing the group is at least defined as the “users” of the service, or those who are supposed to benefit from it. Are you trying to map the whole organisation or just one team? It might be helpful to think about what parts of the organisation make decisions that affect young people's services and lives. What is important to remember is that you are not mapping the services you support. If appropriate, you may want to encourage them to produce their own maps and plans, based on their own priorities, but ultimately it must be their responsibility, as they will have their own challenges to face.

A real benefit of involving young people internally is the lessons you learn. By embedding service users' participation within the organisation you gain a better understanding of what good participation is, what methods work and how to overcome the barriers that you will inevitably face. This puts you in a better position to support the organisations you oversee in involving young people more effectively in their work, and ultimately improving their services and their lives.

Brighton's Experience in Mind project, a partnership between Hove YMCA and mental health charity Mind has been in touch to let us know of their exhbition at the city's Jubilee Library from 3 to 21 November. It features photographs taken by a dozen young people with the project, giving an insght into young people's mental health and providing a voice to express feelings around isssues such as depression, idnentity and anxiety.  

The sample image below  aims to illustrate how self-destruction can affect a person's mental health and that life can be bitter sweet.

Many thanks to all those who have been letting us know of what your plans are. We've also spent an idle five minutes on Google and come up with whole heap more activity: Durham's annual Youth Work that Work's Awards at County Hall;  conferences bringing together young people with the police and fire service in the Vale Royal area near Northwich; a Youth Summit in Pershore bringing together young people and council officers from Worcestershire to look at the big issues of the next 20 years; a conference involving of 160 young people in Hertsmere  looking at issues of staying safe and postivie activities; and a Q&A session for young people with the Mayor of Torbay organised by the area's member of the UK Youth Parliament.  

Meanwhile details of other events continue to come through. In Newcastle on 7 November Barnardo's are holding an event at Westgate Sports Centre that will see some 100 socially-excluded young people have a chance to meet and talk with local MPs, councillors and other key decison makers.  The whole event has been designed, developed and will be delivered by a group of young dads from Barnardo's Newcastle Independence Network, supported by Barnardo's Regional Do Politix team with sponsorship from The Electoral Commission. The aim of the event is help young people who are currently out of education, employment or training to be aware of how politics affects their lives, to help them identify the issues important to them and to raise their confidence in communicating with politcians and others in positions of power.

Jake Manning writes:

On the 22^nd October, Harry Wade and I completed our 70^th, and final (for a while at least) Participation Works Hear by Right Workshop, having now delivered to over 1200 people from 900 community and voluntary organisations. It’s been a brilliant “tour” (as we affectionately refer to it), and emotions on the last “gig” were mixed – not least because the venue lost our resource box with all the delegate packs and training tools!

Hear by Right, in case you weren’t one of those 1200 people, is a standards framework that enables organisations to map the extent of children and young people’s participation and plan for future developments. It’s a way of building the participation of young people right across an organisation. See www.nya.org.uk/hearbyright for more info.

Several key themes emerged from the workshops, but perhaps the strongest one for me was about keeping the process manageable.

Our three top tips for keeping Hear by Right manageable are:

• Have the right people in the room

This includes the staff members you need to provide a full picture of the organisation and, crucially, the views of children and young people.  But don’t wait forever for the perfect set – get started with whoever you can get!

• Prioritise your indicators

Don’t try to tackle all 49 at once – prioritise the most relevant ones and start with those (you could choose one from each standard).

• Set an appropriate review cycle

Strike a sensible balance between being often enough to keep your strategy live, but not so often that it supersedes your capacity.

If you were one of the 1200, and have now gone through the experience of implementing Hear by Right, then what are your top tips for making Hear by Right more manageable?

Arts Award, a national qualification for young people run by the Arts Council and Trinity Guildhall, is marking Youth Work Week with a publicity campaign to expand use of the award in youth work.  

Diana Walton, Head of Arts Award Development, commented: ‘We know that Arts Award works well in youth work and informal education settings – to mark Youth Work Week 08 we are congratulating 170 successful projects in full page adverts! 

‘We also know that many youth workers incorporate Arts Award within their delivery and now have expertise which others could tap into.  We’re calling on youth workers to share their experiences though a simple online survey. We are committed to developing guidance which is really relevant to the sector.’

Arts Award supports young people to explore their own arts interests and to develop communication, planning and leadership skills. Each student works with an arts adviser who may be an artist, teacher or youth worker who has trained for this role.  

Abbie Dunn, an Arts Award adviser from Stradbroke Youth Centre, said: 'As a relatively new Arts Award adviser…it’s been a real learning curve that I have enjoyed and I feel positive I could do again. The young people…all agreed that the challenge was worth it and feel they have achieved their aim as they are now seen more positively by older members of their local community.'

Youth workers are invited to share their experience of running Arts Award within the youth sector at www.artsaward.org.uk/youthwork by 30 November 2008.

Thanks to Coventry for sending in extensive details of their Youth Work Week activities.

An event is being planned for Coventry City Centre on Saturday 1 November to celebrate young people's contributions to the Every Child Matters agenda.  Young people will be showcasing work that highlights 'staying safe' using graffiti board displays and musical performances that promote an anti-knife crime message. There will also be the launch of an anti-knife crime poster campaign with posters created by local young children.

Young people taking part in a local 'Goodie in a Hoodie' initiative, will also be there promoting positive images of young people, highlighting their ‘positive contribution’ and preparing for their role in Takeover Day later in the week.  A group of successful Duke of Edinburgh Award participants will be there to showcase the expedition work that they have 'enjoyed and achieved' throughout the summer.

Coventry’s SHADOW team has established six young people's health focus groups in secondary schools across the city and will meet during Youth Work week to discuss the standard of health education in schools.  On Takeover Day on 7 November each SHADOW team member will be shadowed by a young person, which will include attendance and involvement of a Health 'Turning The Curve' event hosted by the Children and Young People's Champion. 

The City has its own Democracy Project and during the week it will be taking four young people to attend the Children's Workforce Development Conference in Birmingham, while a further eight are to take over the running of the council’s Consultative Forum – based on a theme of ‘young people - saints or sinners?’. Another group will be covering Takeover Day events for the Coventry Evening Telegraph

Wood End Youth Centre is organising a visit to another regeneration area to meet up with young people and learn from their experiences. Youth workers are working with the police to help young people team up with officers and local councillors on Takeover Day for a walk, during which young people can talk about their experiences and concerns about their area.

Other local youth centres will be inviting councillors and parents along to show what young people are doing at their clubs, while the President Kennedy Youth Club are planning to promote the International Youth Conference for Peace and the 2020 vision campaign promoting messages of peace and a petition against nuclear weapons.

Bury has announced a packed series of events and activities marking Youth Work Week starting from 27 October.  These range from a fun day for young people with complex health needs, to sports, arts and recycled fashion events.  Take a look here for full details: http://www.buryyouth.co.uk/Youth+Work+Week.htm

 The Institute of Race Relations is inviting youth workers to an event marking its 50^th birthday with a half-day conference on 1 November linking the history of the anti-racist struggle to problems facing young people today. Organisers describe the event as a chance to hear from those who have participated in anti-racist movements, share experiences and “ask important questions about the anti-racist agenda and its relevance to education and youth work".  Catching History on the Wing takes place at The NUT offices in central London from 1pm to 6pm  and features an address from Lord Ouseley, a screening of a film about Notting Hill in the 1950s and a panel discussion of Islamophobia. Tickets are £10.  For further details visit www.irr.org.uk or call 020 7837 0041.

Finally, The NYA has brought out a new edition of Youth Action to coincide with the week. This colourful magazine promotes is full of examples of how young people are getting active in their communities. it gives them a chance to share their stories of volunteering in projects such as Love Music, Hate Racism to a commuity radio station in Bradford that is helping youngpeople learn new skills and giving others the chance to get their voices heard.  The magazine is being widely distributed thanks to Cabinet Office fudning  - click here to see the magazine online or to receive a free copy email Rita Kotecha     

As if there's not already enough excitement on show at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium, the venue is going to play host to a major event for Youth Work Week in the North East.   Youth Solutions 08 on 5 November focuses on young people leading service delivery and meeting the objectives of the Aiming High vision. The event will be run by social enterprise “Just for Youth”, a young-person led team that aims to break down barriers and guide statutory and voluntary partners through youth engagement. Keynote speaker is Fiona Blacke, chief executive of The National Youth Agency, while Alex Brooks of the Children’s Workforce Development Council will also talk on involving children and young people in the development of the workforce.  For more details and to register for the event, visit www.just4youth.com/youthsolutions08 or call Just 4 Youth on 0800 0833731.

Meanwhile in Rochford, Essex,  a conference is being held in Youth Work Week to enable young people to present their views to members of the Crime and Disorder Strategic Partnership and the Children and Young People Strategic Partnership, with a view to influencing service planning and delivery. Young people are currently being supported by TASCC (team around the school, child and community) youth workers to produce video and other media for the event. 

A mock trial will be held at Cardiff Crown Court on 8 November with young people aged 16 to 21 forming the teams for the defence and prosecution. The young people will be recruited through Youth Offending Teams, youth centres and schools and the charge is: "A universal DNA database is an unreasonable infringement of civil liberties to the citizens of the UK".  

The event is being funded by the Wellcome Foundation and there is further support from the Unviersities of Glamorgan and Swansea and the Cardiff-based science discovery centre Techniquest  A summary of findings will be produced and circulated widely.  See www.dnadatabaseontrial.org.uk fro further detrails    

I’ve not long got back from Indonesia – a trip that’s left me pondering some interesting questions about the cultural dimension to young people’s voice and influence.

Having previously gone to the Far East with the British Council to prepare young people’s input to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Bali 2007, I was invited back to facilitate project management and leadership training for young people from all across East Asia and the Pacific.

We took them through the theoretical sides of project management such as the Kolb cycle of reflecting and learning from experiences,  and also looked closely at leadership  –  questions such as who do we look up to and why? What are the good qualities of a leader? What qualities do we have in us which we can strengthen for leadership?

  

Melody Hossaini (fourth from right) with young climate change activitists in Indonesia

 

All of the learning was then linked to the participants’ own projects and we rounded the week off by allowing the participants space to think about how they would take their projects forward.

In one of the first sessions we undertook, I did the exercise ‘Take a stand’ with the participants. This is an exercise I carry out frequently here in England with both groups of adults and young people. One of the statements which was put to the participants was ‘children and young people know what’s best for them’. The participants are then asked to individually take a stand next to the face which corresponds with their answer- strongly agree? Agree? Strongly disagree? Disagree?

The East Asian young people were almost evenly split on this, but almost all of them highlighted the importance of the role of parents and that a lot of respect should be paid to parents and their wishes. This was not something that had ever been mentioned by the young people when  I had posed the same statement to in England. I found this an interesting cultural perception.

The other very interesting observation for me was that I was seeing how almost difficult it was for some of the young people of East Asia to offer points that were controversial. I could see that they were not used to questioning authority or stating something at the risk of causing tension in the group.

This again, was generally dissimilar to working with groups in England who felt free to state their views despite those things. I reasoned that perhaps this was because in their upbringing, respect had always been extremely important.

When discussing this with the group (as we did to reflect on how we were learning), one of the young people said to me, ‘it’s not that we are too respectful or do not have views - but sometimes we just don’t know how to word it in English’. I felt that moment to be an extremely valuable inter-cultural dialogue. All in all I was extremely impressed with the young people’s warmth and genuine nature of attitude they brought to their projects and I look forward to continuing to work with them.

Melody Hossaini, Project Officer, The National Youth Agency

West Runcorn Youth Club Members Committee and Management Committee will merge and young people will be formally adopted onto the new committee. The young people will showcase their achievements over the past three  years, including gaining funding for a multi use sports area, running DJ and MC skills courses, and gaining the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

East Widnes Area Youth Forum and Kingsway Youth Club Members Committee will be holding an Open Day to showcase the achievements of young people in improving local youth service provision and enhancing the quality of youth facilities in Victoria Park.

Ditton Youth Club Members Committee will be celebrating their role in improving the youth club environment. This included a graffiti art mural project and setting up and running a Fair Trade café. Castlefields and Windmill Hill Youth Squad will be celebrating their successes in leading environmental improvements to their community. Murdishaw Youth Club Members Committee will showcase the More than Hoods positive images campaign that aims to challenge the stereotypes of young men and “hoodies”

West Widnes Area Youth Forum and Chapelfields Youth Club Members Committee will celebrate their achievements in improving the quality of the youth club. This included the refurbishment of the community centre and advising on improvements to the youth club programme.

For more information contact:  Stefan Cadek, Youth Service Operations Manager - stefan.cadek@connexions-gmerseyside.co.uk

There’s only four more potential Youth Work Weeks until 2012.

So what you might not unfairly ask? Well I for one would like to get people thinking and acting soon as possible about ways in which young people’s voice and influence can help inspire our Olympic year. In particular I’d like to get people thinking about the Cultural Olympiad.    

Not everyone has the ability to jump, run, swim or whatever to Olympic standards and as such, many young people will feel that prospects for their sporting involvement in the 2012 London Olympics are somewhat limited. But the Olympics are not only about sporting achievements. The Cultural Olympiad, originally an integral part of the ancient Greek’s games, has been reenergised by the modern Olympic movement with the idea that mind, body and spirit should be celebrated at the games. London 2012 wants to make this a reality and make the Olympic games a huge enlightening, celebratory, feel-good event covering more than bulging muscles, sweat and groin strains.

I have been working with MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) to ensure that the participation of young people is at the heart of one of the Cultural Olympiad projects – Stories of the World, the International Exhibition Programme. Working with young people across the UK and in Scotland I have (yet again) been bowled over by the enthusiasm, creativity and innovation of young people who want to be involved.

No doubt, many adults will say that young people aren’t interested in museums, galleries and archives – but go and ask them! Young people want to feel associated with their past, they want to see their own unique cultures celebrated publicly, and they want these public services to respond to their lived lives. The Cultural Olympiad projects can give young people a space, a voice, a focus for their ideas of culture. Aren’t these ‘services’ present to celebrate community? And as such don’t they therefore need to reflect all of the community, including young people?

What might a modern Cultural Pentathlon include?  Rapping, filmmaking, ; broadcasting, murals and creative writing? Or maybe still further we can offer young people the opportunity to take part in the Participation Pentathlon of dialogue,  peer consultation,  design,  delivery and strategic decision making? If 2012 truly aims to leave a legacy for young people then the Cultural Olympics offer an excellent opportunity for young people to make a difference for themselves and their community which will act as an exemplar for generations to come.

Fran Farrar,  development officer – participation team, NYA