workshop
Importance & Impact of Youth Involvement
Youth participation is a difficult cliff to traverse, and can feel hard to do in a way that meets an organisation’s needs and those of the young people too. So, any professional will have one obvious question – is it worth the work? This panel’s answer is… – yes!
We’d like to use this panel discussion to showcase and talk about “What happens when you listen to and involve young people in your project, organisation, or service?”
We will hear from both organisation leaders and young people on the importance and impact of involving young people. We will talk about the benefits for young people but also the massive benefits it can offer projects, organisations, or services.
The young people on the panel talk about their own experiences and answer these important questions:
“What is it like to be meaningfully involved as a young person?”
“What is it like when you aren’t?”
Come join us and watch the conversation!
The Warren of Hull
https://www.thewarren.org/
42nd Street
http://42ndstreet.org.uk/
The Winch
https://thewinch.org/
My Life My Choice
https://www.mylifemychoice.org.uk/
About the speakers
About Claire
I’m Claire and have been working for 42nd street for nearly four years. I have always been involved in social action, campaigning and youth voice at the organisation. I feel really passionate about ensuring that young people are involved in the design of services and love hearing their ideas.
About Lydia
I have been working at The Warren for nearly 4 years now. I started as a street based outreach worker, supporting young people to access service when necessary. For the past 18 months I have been supporting young people with any campaign/social change work that we are doing here at The Warren and supporting our Young People’s Parliament, “The Thing”. I have experienced youth involvement in decision making at its absolute best over the last 4 years and I know it takes a lot of hard work and reflection to ensure that this process works to benefit both young people and The Warren as an organisation.
About Lzzy
My name is Lzzy (she/they). I have been part of The Warren since November 2015 and have been involved in many projects and groups in this time. My interests are mainly focused around military history (WW2 specifically). Also, I enjoy all sorts of music from classic Rock and Roll all the way up to stuff that was released yesterday.
My most recent project that I am proud to steer is The Warren’s Minecraft project, where we are replicating The Warren within a virtual space. I came up with this idea during lockdown as a way to still allow access to The Warren for young people in the unique circumstances we were in.
About Suraya
Coming from a criminal justice background supporting youth in North London, I encompass limitless passion and enthusiasm to educating others on the lived inequalities of varying communities through the power of research and advocating. As a Social Citizen Scientist and Peer Advocate by experience, I am on a journey to better understand the research world in adjacent to exploring elements of justice as a young person, and a BA student studying Social Work at Middlesex University. I hold mixed experiences in both fields of work, ranging from courts, youth offending and prison work on a Pan-London level, to working on a prosperity model for Euston with UCL institute for Global Prosperity. I hope to continue this line of work and delve into different avenues of work.
About Lisa
I came to MLMC straight from my BA and have been working at MLMC ever since. I came to MLMC because I wanted to support young people with learning disabilities to speak, be heard and lead on projects, campaigns and anything else they want.
For the past 18 months I have supporting our young people with campaign work and supporting out Young Champions’ Parliament and I’m thrilled that Minty and I are here to tell you more about what we’ve been up to and how you can do this with your projects.
About Minty
My name is Minty. I’ve been with My Life My Choice for about 5 years. I’ve done lots of different projects like the young person’s group and Power Up. I really enjoy art, playing with my dogs, being with my family and friends and speaking up for young people with disabilities. The most important thing to me is love, to love others, and importantly, yourself. A big thing I have been working on is mental health. It’s so important to us all and I feel that for a lot of people, it’s a very difficult topic to talk about.
Organisation
