Goals: To combine activity days with consultations into young people's views of rural life
Funding: Youth BzR is supported by individual local businesses and contributors including The Countryside Agency and district councils. Each event costs between 1,500 and 4,500
Young people in rural areas have been having fun while getting their views on life across through the work of the Derbyshire-based Youth BzR project - short for "bazaar" in text language.
The project was set up in 2003 by the Derbyshire Rural Community Council to find out the views of young people living in the Derbyshire Dales and High Peaks area. It comprised activity days over the summer months in villages and towns around the county, using attractions such as archery, a mobile skatepark and go-karting to attract about 200 young people at a time.
Detached youth workers and partnerships with Connexions, local authorities and parishes have helped spread the message, and the young people were also consulted on their views on a range of issues such as village life, work and training, and sport and leisure, during the activity days.
Frances Rostron, a consultation consultant at the council, said: "The activities showed young people what could be done for them. We also used a number of consultation techniques such as peer interviews and an interactive questionnaire."
One of the key attractions was a Big Brother-style "diary room" consultation exercise, where groups of young people could answer questions to a camera without seeing the questioner. This approach, made familiar by the TV show, proved a surprisingly successful method of getting young people to open up, said Rostron.
The consultation results have been used by the council to successfully lobby for young people's needs, including persuading a local committee to give planning permission for a 250,000 skatepark.The scheme has also inspired a group in Elton to set up its own youth club for young people in rural areas.
