The National Youth Agency: Myplace

In this series we look at a range of generic and specialist youth facilities to encourage ambition and vision in support of Myplace bids, linking each to one of the programme's ten key principles.

- EC1 Music Project, London

Key principle: Young people's active participation - empowering young people and putting them in the lead to drive decisions about the design, use and ongoing running of places for them to go.

This new centre, formally opened in December 2007, has been designed as a colourful and contemporary space to provide for a combination of structured and non-structured activities. The space meets the needs of children and young people, provides a quality finish which the young people respect and functions effectively as a youth project. Young people have been involved since the early stages. Architects consulted them and they drew pictures and described what they wanted in the new centre. Budget constraints were always made clear to them. They were then kept informed about progress and timescales during the planning process, following which a young people's steering group was set up to make decisions about aspects such as colours and furnishings. Young people took part in recruiting new staff, following training from Islington's participation project Listen Up. They are encouraged to express their views on how the project should use its resources, both on a day-to-day basis and more formally through questionnaires. They also evaluate the project's programmes and courses.