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Name Youth agreement
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Provider Career Connect
While refreshing its participation strategy, charity Career Connect has developed a youth agreement that places young people’s voices at the heart of its work.
The agreement sets out a range of principles for the charity’s staff to follow and will be used by staff to initiate conversations with young people about the charity.
Career Connect provides employment and training services to young people in schools and wider communities, with a specific focus on making these services accessible for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The charity says the youth agreement will provide young people with a better understanding of what the charity does. It also hopes that it will reassure those hesitant to engage with them, since it promotes the importance of young people’s opinions, and safeguards their rights and welfare.
The agreement itself aligns with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and lays out these commitments in clear and youth-friendly language, to establish a positive relationship between young people and the services they engage with.
Evie Chambers, youth voice co-ordinator at Career Connect, says: “Our youth agreement and our commitment to the UNCRC was a way for us to make a promise to all of our young people, no matter which of our services they use, that they can all expect the same standard of service from our teams.”
The development of the agreement involved 100 young people aged 14-19 participating in face-to-face and online focus groups, held in partnership with Youth Focus North West. The participants were representative of a diverse range of young people, and the sessions were held at community venues and schools, with consideration given to the accessibility of the site.
Participants were briefed prior to the sessions, so they were fully aware of what would be asked of them. They were also given vouchers at the end of the session, to demonstrate that their time was valued.
During the sessions, young people were asked to identify areas for improvement within Career Connect’s youth participation activity, and their ideas formed the basis of the youth agreement.
The sessions revolved around collaboration, meaning the participants were able to grow their teamwork expertise, and learn how to communicate and work effectively within a group.
The agreement will be embedded into everything that Career Connect does – it is on display in all of their sites and will be heavily featured in staff inductions and training.
Its implementation will be monitored using internal processes and feedback channels and will also be subject to an annual review. It will also receive regular feedback from the charity’s new group of youth ambassadors, who will act as a sounding board, reporting back to the trustees on various aspects of Career Connect’s work.
My View
Lucy, youth voice participant
"I took part in a youth voice session at college in February. We discussed Career Connect’s work with young people within the community, and how we can change the views of people who seem to misunderstand young people in general.
"We also discussed how services and agencies can work with young people in different ways, using digital and social media – which is faster, fun and more appealing.
"We discussed the importance of youth voice and how it matters that young people are being heard, and seen in a good light.
"Being involved has helped with my confidence, my own self-belief, and understanding that I have some good ideas and thoughts that I should, and now have, started to speak out about. I really enjoyed the session and I was encouraged and felt comfortable speaking out during it."
