Young people are often left out of the political process. However, gaining their trust and loyalty will pay dividends over a lifetime. Our successful track record in this field has taught us that organisations need to think creatively and broadly – as illustrated by our wide range of projects and products.
Our work in this area is built around our strong and diverse team, who bring a variety of communication, engagement and technical skills to our projects. You can rest assured that all our staff have been CRB checked and approved.
We also have extensive experience of designing and implementing Youth Opportunity Fund models – an area due to receive £115 million over the next two years.
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: youth engagement
Working with Barnsley Youth Council, we targeted young people in the area, to encourage them to participate in the hospital trust and educate them about local decision making and health issues.
Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Trust: recruiting young people
We are supporting the trust in its Foundation Trust application by running targeted campaigns to recruit 2,000 members, which included young people aged 14 to 17 years old.
Connexions South Yorkshire: respect agenda
We organised a successful event to engage young people in discussions about the respect agenda, using our democracy wall and videoqube.
Lewisham Council: young mayor
We worked with Lewisham to launch a Young Mayor scheme. This involved working with young people to create, design and implement the scheme, as a means of engaging them in democratic processes.
Lewisham Council: text book
We run the Text Book service on behalf of Lewisham Council. Utilising mobile phone technology, it provides young people with a pocket-sized directory that signposts the wide range of services in their local area.
Middlesborough Council: young mayor
We first designed and implemented the idea of a directly-elected Young Mayor in Middlesborough in 2002. This scheme was subsequently shortlisted in the innovation category of the 2002 Local Government Chronicle best practice awards.
Lewisham Council: young citizen's panel
We have worked with the London Borough of Lewisham to support its Young Citizens Panel of 300 11-18 year olds living or being educated in the borough. This involved consulting with young people at the onset to gauge support for a young person’s panel; recruiting members to the panel; maintaining the panel and communicating with panel members. We have also conducted quantitative research with panel members on behalf of Lewisham’s partner agencies (including the police and primary care trust).
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit: youth matters weekend
We devised and implemented a residential weekend event to consult with young people and youth workers from New Deal for Communities (NDCs) and Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders (NMPs) on the government’s green paper, ‘Youth Matters’. The event, which was funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minster’s Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, brought together 60 young people aged between 11 and 25, and 20 youth workers, to discuss the issues in a fun and innovative way.
New Cross Gate NDC: board elections
We worked with New Cross NDC (New Deal for Communities) to increase public participation in their decision making process, with particular emphasis on reaching socially excluded groups, such as young people. This involved creating publicity materials and seeking imaginative ways of dramatizing the election process.
North Yorkshire County Council: democracy wall
We worked with the council to engage young people across the county during Local Democracy Week. This included facilitating a series of outreach sessions to consider ways in which the council could better engage with them. Their ideas were written on 'bricks' which were later used to create our innovative Democracy Wall outside county hall.
Royal College of Midwives (RCM): bursary campaign
The RCM commissioned us to create awareness among midwifery students of their campaign to institute a non-means tested bursary of £10,000 for all midwifery students. This work included research, developing campaign messages and creating campaign tools.
Shoreditch Trust NDC: young director elections
We have worked with Shoreditch Trust NDC (New Deal for Communities) to help run the election for the trust’s first directly-elected youth representatives to the Shoreditch Trust Board.
South Kilburn NDC: youth board
We worked with South Kilburn NDC (New Deal for Communities) to establish the area’s first elected youth board. We worked with local youth service providers and schools to promote the election process, and supported 21 candidates to run their election campaigns.
South Kilburn NDC: young people select
We worked with young people in Brent to set up this innovative scheme, which allowed them to act as a select committee, focusing on the issues of crime and respect. They took evidence from witnesses such as elected representatives, ODPM special advisors and local police and community wardens.
South East Regional Assembly (SERA): videoqube
The South East Regional Assembly commissioned the VideoQube as their contribution to the annual session of the UK Youth Parliament, to capture young people’s views on the assembly’s ten year plan.
Wakefield Council: democracy wall
During Local Democracy Week 2005 we used our innovative Democracy Wall to engage with young people in youth groups across the borough.
Over 100 young people wrote on the wall to describe the one thing the council could do in the coming financial year to improve the quality of their lives.
Wakefield Council: UK youth parliament training
We have been working with Wakefield Council for a number of years to develop candidate training and support for the annual election of two members to the UK youth parliament. Our involvement includes candidate training, production of election statements and providing dedicated support to the candidates throughout the campaigning period.
