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Youth Development
Youth Engagement Programme
Funded by Department for Communities and Local Government
2003 - 2008
Consultation, Involvement, Engagement – Where Do We Stand
There has been an ever expanding growth of initiatives, programmes, and policies focusing attention on involving, engaging and consulting young people with the development of a spectrum of tools and techniques being created by a range of organisations active in youth participation. This activity has, in turn, reflected a range of government initiatives concerned with engaging young people.
Successive reports about youth participation have highlighted historical weaknesses and difficulties in how best to engage young people. Against this background, the Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation (NIF) successfully bid for funding from the (then) Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and, more recently Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), securing a further year’s funding (2007-2008) to further its approach to youth participation.
NIF has earned a national reputation in the field of community engagement; with particular emphasis on highly participatory techniques. NIF’s approach embraces not only consultation but a belief in, and processes designed to build on, people’s knowledge of their neighbourhood and skills to work in partnership with agencies to tackle issues. NIF’s "Planning for Real®" has been the principal tool and technique to secure these benefits. It’s contribution is widely acknowledged in a range of publications about effective community engagement.
NIF’s successful bid for ODPM funding focused on using and developing a youth approach to using Planning for Real in the context of engaging young people in urban regeneration. During the fifth year of funding by the DCLG, we intend to extend our programme with an emphasis on youth participation at post-consultation stages and focus on themes that are particularly relevant to the DCLG (e.g. Housing Market Renewal and Safer Stronger Communities).
To mark these changes in the programme and, in order to share NIF’s experience to date, we have produced a summary of case studies reflecting some of the work undertaken during earlier stages in the programme.
Whilst the case studies do not always fit neatly in with the raft of initiatives that are now a feature of the broadly defined regeneration landscape, we have sought to identify their relevance to particular themes in order to assist practitioners in the field.
Visitors to the website are welcome to contact NIF staff for further information about these case studies; year 5 of the DCLG programme; and, of course, to share news, views and observations about engaging young people.
Case Studies
The following are case studies which have been carried out as part of the DCLG funded Youth Development Programme.
