Participation and engagement of children and young people

What does 'participation' mean?
Engagement - children and young people
Listening to young children strategy
Involvement in decision making
Youth Voice
Participation works
Rise - Giving new emerging communities a voice

Youth Opportunity Fund
Key documents
What children and young people are saying
Investing in Children (IiC) Membership

What does 'participation' mean?

Participation is the process by which children and young people assert their right to be involved in decisions that affect them.  The Participation strategy for children and young people 2009 - 2012 (117.8 KB pdf) seeks to promote participation, create opportunities for dialogue and bring about changes that children and young people think will benefit them. 

A Steering group has been working through the 12 children and young people's priorities identifying where progress has been made and where further work is required to effect change, e.g. cheaper access to leisure facilities has led to the Fusion card and free access to a range of activities; children and young people have been engaged in decision-making through U Decide participatory budgeting and Big Lottery funding for play through Kids Can Choose.

A wide range of participation and engagement activities are increasingly embedded across Children's Trust developments, examples can be found within the make a positive contribution section of the website.

Listening to Young Children Strategy

There is a lot of good practice in listening to the under 5s in Newcastle and we hope to build on that and help the youngest children get involved in shaping the future. See Listening to young children strategy

Participation Works

Participation works is an online gateway designed to improve the way practitioners, organisations and young people access and share information about involving children and young people in decision making.

Rise - Giving new emerging communities a voice

In recent years many young people from various cultures and backgrounds have moved to Newcastle. As part of the Future Leaders Programme, commissioned by Changemakers, the Rise project was set up by Newcastle City Council to improve its understanding of the needs of these young people and what could be changed within its policies and practices to make things better for them.

Lusi Manukyan was appointed as a Young Advocate in 2010 to work with young people from new emerging communities. She led workshops with over 40 young people to explore their identities, perceptions and aspirations. Her findings are presented in the attached report.

Thanks to Lusi for the skill, patience and commitment she gave to the project and to all the young people who participated. Thanks also to the Participation Unit and Changemakers for the support they provided.

Youth Voice

A group of young people have developed a code of conduct for organisations. see Youth voice code of conduct

Youth Opportunities Fund (YOF) - Young people to have their say

The Youth Opportunities Fund (YOF)

Key documents

These are some of the key documents around children and young people participation in Newcastle.

IiC members booklet
Listening to what young children say strategy (Pdf, 509kb)

Newsletters

Change up Newsletter - Winter 2008 (736.3KB, pdf)

Youth Express Magazine

The Youth Express Magazine is published quarterly and gives updates on work across the city being carried out by the youth service.

Youth Express Magazine (Autumn 2008) (pdf, 752.2 KB)
Youth Express Magazine (Summer 2008) (pdf, 754.8 KB)