Involving Young People in further decision making beyond Consultation
The 5th year of the programme is now well underway and is focusing on exploring ways of engaging young people in decision making beyond the stage of community based consultation. This involves working nationally in a number of neighbourhoods and working towards addressing a range of youth needs. Recently we have been working within a number of Safer Stronger Communities Funded (SSCF) neighbourhoods and also within neighbourhoods which are not part of a regeneration programme.
Safer Stronger Communities Fund (Neighbourhood Element)
One of the core outcomes of the SSCF is clearly noted as “to improve the quality of life for people in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods and ensure service providers are more responsive to neighbourhood needs and improve their delivery”. A key indicator of the success in many of these neighbourhoods has been the approach taken to involve young people in effective consultation on youth needs. The Foundation is drawing on the information from such consultation processes in order to explore and develop ways in which young people can be further actively involved and in a sustainable way.
Development of a Youth Forum – Chester, Cheshire
The Foundation is currently working with a number of partners on a SSCF funded estate in Chester to support the development of a Youth Forum (youth representatives). It is envisaged that the Youth Forum will, when fully developed, feed information into the Neighbourhood Management Partnership board existing Children and Young People Sub Group. It is hoped that over time this Youth Forum will be involved in decision making including where funding is allocated for young people’s activities, projects and services.
Youth Consultation leading to Youth Decision Making Opportunities – Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
NIF is currently in discussion with agencies within a SSCF area in Mansfield to explore the option of consulting with young people to support the Neighbourhood Management Partnership’s Children and Young People’s Action Plan and to look at sustainable ways in which young people can be further actively involved.
Community Action - A Grass Roots Approach
Not particularly with a faith context in mind but an approach to further understand community needs, this project has seen a joined up approach to community consultation, with members of St Martins Church in Talke, North Staffordshire working in partnership with a number of agencies undertaking a successful community based consultation process using Planning for Real®. Part of this process involved consultation with a selection of classes of young people at nearby Clough Hall Technology School as a way of gathering information on young peoples concerns and ideas for changes to the surrounding area.
Partners are now exploring the possibility of working with a group of young people and training them in community consultation techniques in order to help them prioritise the views generated by young people through the consultation and to go on to develop an action plan. Partners are also exploring ways of linking the consultation information and the involvement of young people into the schools citizenship agenda.
The learning from all this work and how the projects progress will be updated very shortly.
