This report considered stakeholder perceptions of the Young Advisors Pilot Programme. It evaluated the impact Young Advisors made and their inputs at different levels – local, regional and national.

Some of the more high profile work that Young Advisors had become involved with included developing their role to suit the needs of their area and workloads, attempting to address issues and providing the opportunity for adults and services to engage with and include young people in key decisions.

Within their activities, the Young Advisor role had become well established across the pilot areas. These roles included:

The Young Advisor Programme was developed following concerns from a number of New Deal for Communities (NDC) and Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder (NMP) schemes about engaging young people in their communities, particularly in decision making processes and service development.

This pilot programme was designed to provide the opportunity for young people to make a positive contribution alongside adults at a range of levels. It aimed to recruit and train young people to become “young consultants” to adult service providers and agencies as a way of increasing youth participation in all areas of their work.

The research investigated stakeholder perceptions of the Young Advisors Pilot Programme and the views and perceptions of the Young Advisors from each of the 4 pilot scheme areas using semi structured interviews. An interview guide provided key topics and subject areas. It assessed the development and implementation of each of the schemes and explored how these have developed throughout the lifetime of the pilot schemes. It identified new developments and good practice and sustainability.

Endline investigations included the use of a range of participatory tools with the Young Advisors. An Evaluation Workshop was arranged so that all the Young Advisors would have an opportunity to come together to share their views and perceptions and provide an opportunity for them to build on each others experiences.

Achievements as a result of this pilot programme included:

The main barriers encountered by the Young Advisors were:

The programme provided a new method for increasing youth engagement and encouraging agencies to begin developing their services with input from young people and to encourage young people to become more active citizens in their communities and provide this valuable input. However, the report concluded that it was too early to measure the impacts of such personal development on the Young Advisors.

Neighbourhood Renewal Unit
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7944 6476
patrick.atagana@odpm.gsi.gov.uk

//

01/10/2006

Neighbourhood Renewal Unit

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Integration of social groups

Young people