In Youth Matters: Next Steps, the Government stresses the need for service providers to ensure their suitability for disabled young people and to engage actively with them to meet their needs.
Sunderland's Youth Development Group has been working on this since April 2003, when it became aware of a number of concerns raised by disabled young people across the city.
The council's youth inclusion coordinator and its participation team realised a forum was needed for disabled young people, to enable their voices to feed into decision-making.
The solution
The first step was to approach youth inclusion projects across the city to gather disabled young people willing to act as advocates for their peers. Within a month, 10 young people aged 13 to 25 had been brought together.
Michelle Kelly, a youth worker at Sunderland's Youth Development Group, recalls: "They were a good representative body of young people."
Having been brought together, youth workers asked the young people what they wanted from the group.
They agreed on their main mission: to promote equal opportunity and diversity across the city. After several weeks of discussion on an appropriate name, City Equals was born.
The members were already part of youth inclusion projects, but they were aware that young people across the city had to know about them. So they created leaflets for distribution.
The accessibility needs of two members in wheelchairs meant finding a suitable venue for the group was challenging at first. Their current base on the ground floor of the youth development group premises has since been made completely accessible. The choice of location helped build effective work with Sunderland Youth Parliament, which meets in the neighbouring room.
The outcome
The group has carried out access audits of popular venues in the region and is regularly consulted by the council.
Members were runners-up for a youth achievement award last year and gain accreditation for their involvement through schemes including The Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
One of the members is leading on the development of a web site for the group. He has also recently been appointed by the youth development group as one of four paid youth advocates to manage the city's Youth Opportunity Fund.
What's your challenge?
Contact Emily Rogers on 020 8267 4721 or emily-jane.rogers@haynet.com
TOP TIPS
- There has to be consistency, especially for young people with special needs
- You need a basic understanding of the issues disabled young people face
- Know the group's limitations and be patient. You will get there in the end
- Communicate in different ways. If doing agendas for meetings, use big print and yellow paper. But make sure nobody stands out
- Young people with disabilities can get a lot of negative reaction. Promote this as positive learning experiences
- Thanks to Michelle Kelly, youth worker, Sunderland Youth Development Group.
