EMVY Event: ‘Promoting Young People’s Voice and Influence in the East Midlands’

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	The participation landscape can change on a daily basis - new funding, new initiatives and announcements. Participation Works is your specialist news provider for the world of children and young peoples participation. You can view our news on this website. Subscribe to our RSS feed in a reader Or Subscribe to Latest News from Participation Works by Email What is RSS? Do you know of a story we should be covering? E-mail claire@participationworks.org.uk.

EMVY Event: ‘Promoting Young People’s Voice and Influence in the East Midlands’

The East Midlands Voluntary Youth (EMVY) held their Annual General Meeting followed by a ‘Promoting Young People’s Voice and Influence in the East Midlands’ event yesterday. (Thursday 6 November 2008). Formed in 2000 by voluntary youth groups and networks across the region, EMVY aims to be an inclusive and diverse network for the voluntary youth sector, providing strategic support, influence and advocacy at a regional level.

John Preston, Chairman of EMVY welcomed everyone and conducted the AGM. Lindsay Allen from EMVY who is the PWNE East Midlands Region Network Coordinator chaired the event.

The event began with a presentation from Kathryn White, Area Project Development Manager for the YWCA in Northampton, delivered a presentation on the VOICES forum, a project for young women delivered by the YWCA, with two young women from the project, Nikki and Tara. The YWCA is the leading charity working with disadvantaged young women from England and Wales. Speaking at the event Kathryn said, “Young women face unique problems in today’s society. They are unheard and lack influence. At the YWCA we work with young women to help them overcome prejudice and take charge of their lives.” In Northampton the YWCA run their services from the Northampton young women’s centre based in the town centre. Their main focus is supporting young mums and they offer support and services to young pregnant women and young mothers at the centre, which run from Monday to Thursday every week. They also run a crèche for young women who attend the centre. The services run by the centre are set up for and run by young women. In January 2007 the VOICES forum was set up for young women to explore their needs, discuss issues and have a say on matters that affect their lives. Weekly forum sessions are run on Wednesday afternoons, which are led by the youth worker at the centre. They hold monthly formal forum meetings, which are chaired and minuted by young women. The young women research issues in preparation for the monthly meetings and take this to the meeting. At the centre there is an IT suite where they can do research. Nikki, a young women involved in the VOICES project said, “The VOICES sessions are good fun and a chance to give our opinions. I have chaired forum meetings, taken minutes and found out about things to take to meetings. I did research on UNICEF recently. It was good to use the computers. Last Christmas I led a forum session encouraging girls to make presents for their children.”

Christine Morgan, Director of Northamptonshire Voluntary Youth Action (VYA), delivered a presentation on the Northamptonshire Children and Young People’s Charter of Involvement, which was developed by young people in Northampton. The Northamptonshire Children and Young People’s Partnership, operated through the Children’s Trust, has a Strategic Active Involvement Group which works to actively involve children and young people in decision making and a strategic active involvement task group, made up of young people aged 13-19 who developed and wrote the Charter. The Northamptonshire CYPP also works with the Northamptonshire VYA and Council for Voluntary Youth Services as part of the SAIG. Speaking at the event she said, “Its important that organisations recognise that active involvement is our business. We have to give children and young people the opportunity to be involved and at the level they want to be involved. We also need to support children and young people to get involved and develop skills to do this.” The Charter sets out how young people want to be engaged and involved in decision-making and the importance and value of involving young people and why it is important to young people. The children and young people from the SAIG task group carried out research with other children and young people to find out how they want to be involved and ran a consultation conference in November 2005 to find out their views.

Steven Pryse, Youth Participation Development Officer at the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services delivered a presentation on ENVOY, which is the Enthusiastic Voice of Youth, the NCVYS Youth Forum, with Rebecca Davidson, a young person involved with ENVOY. The forum is for young people aged 11-25 years old. Speaking at the event Rebecca said, “The forum gives young people the opportunity to have a say in matters that affect them and to change the way adults see young people. ENVOY hold a residential twice a year for members where young people meet to discuss issues, challenges, make new friends and most importantly have fun!” Rebecca produces and sends out the ENVOY newsletter to members, which lists various opportunities for children and young people to get involved in decision-making. Other NCVYS activities include the Young Partners Award, which is an annual award that recognises young people’s involvement in decision-making within organisations. Young people shortlist the nominations and make the final decision on the award winner. The nominations open in February and a big awards ceremony is held in December. This year the YPA awards ceremony will be held on the 13th December 2008. ENVOY members play a big role in organising the YPA awards ceremony. Future plans include developing the rollout of ENVOY regionally to enable more young people to get involved across the country. To find out more contact Steven Pryse at steven@ncvys.org.uk.

Tania Osborne from the Children and Learners Unit at Government Office East Midlands delivered a presentation on GO activities and policy. The 14-19 and youth policy team are currently working with local authorities and other agencies in the region on curriculum development to implement the 14-19 Next Steps reform of education to ensure that there are flexible opportunities for young people as the participation age for staying in education and training rises to 18 by 2013.

The event concluded with a Participation Works Hear by Right taster workshop and local learning group with Jake Manning, Participation Officer at the National Youth Agency. Participation Works Hear by Right Local Learning Groups are an opportunity for organisations to access practical support and guidance to focus further on the Hear by Right standards and identify and develop the areas that are key for the organisation. To find out more about Hear by Right visit www.nya/hearbyright. To find out more about Local Learning Groups contact Jake at jakem@nya.org.uk.

Related Links

EMVY

Northamptonshire Children and Young People’s Charter of Involvement

YWCA

Northamptonshire Voluntary Youth Action

NCVYS

Posted on Friday, November 07, 2008 (Archive on Friday, November 14, 2008)
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