Youth leadership can challenge perceptions

But here at The National Youth Agency (NYA) we have been making changes to our governance arrangements. The NYA is at an exciting time in the redevelopment of its board of trustees following the appointment of a new chair, Janice Shiner.

We had a fantastic response to our call for new board members. Many were young people keen to contribute to our work. Inevitably we won't be able to appoint them all but we're planning to bring all those who applied together for a day of workshops and discussions about young people and governance.

We are also part of a consortium appointed to run the National Body for Youth Leadership - a youth-led programme designed to create and offer opportunities for young people to develop their leadership skills. The challenge is to make it relevant to the widest group of young people, and in particular it must be relevant to those who have the potential but might not naturally come forward for a programme of this kind. We need leaders from all walks of life.

We hope that young leaders will also be able to challenge wider negative perceptions of young people. The research evidence tells us that young people themselves highlight this as a problem - they feel the media and some sections of the public are particularly hostile. If we're going to make headway on this then we need to be clearer in our language and more precise in our arguments about which parts of the media industry we're talking about and which sections of the public hold the most negative views.

Together we can start to focus on what and who really needs to change - young leaders and organisations all need to be involved - but critically we must not lose touch with the continuing task of ensuring that youth participation is real and meaningful. We won't build a movement unless these ideas reach out to a critical mass of young people and they can see what's changed as a result of their own efforts.

So youth leadership needs to be wise and it needs to support participation in its widest sense if it is to be successful. As well as nurturing young leaders, we must also make sure the structures and conditions are in place for all young people to feel they are listened to.

- Fiona Blacke is chief executive of The National Youth Agency.