Our youth consultations give young people a voice. Using our own method, developed since 1995, we have consulted young people for organisations ranging from County Councils to the United Nations Environment Programme. We work with groups who are not normally given a voice, enabling young people to produce relevant, coherent and focussed input to decision-making at all levels. Our method:

· Works with teachers or youth leaders to enable young people to research a specific issue, e.g. getting more out of a school topic; energy saving; conserving biodiversity; local planning issues.

· Has been developed with young people so that they are fully engaged in the process.

· Helps young people to develop skills that help with employment, by experiencing the real-world environment of project management and delivery, and the need to work in teams.

· Helps create new perspectives and recommendations for anyone interested in a youth perspective or involving them in finding solutions for specific issues.

 

Some examples of our achievements are included below. Click on the link in each section to find out more information, or contact us for a discussion about how we could help you:

The project explored the views of young people on climate change and potential actions they might take in school relating to their research.

Climate Change Challenge: Norfolk & Suffolk

DEFRA Food Waste Consultation: Bedfordshire

The CoRWM Consultation: Luton

Over 2000 young people at schools in Luton were consulted about recommended options for the disposal of radioactive waste.

Text Box: Insight into young people’s attitudes to community participation in kerbside kitchen waste collections in Luton & Aylesbury.

A school programme, funded by EU Life, to raise awareness of the bittern project within the Lea Valley.

Bittern Project for RSPB: Lea Valley

Text Box: The project involved 112 schools over five years, with children from 8 to 18 years old exploring the practical implication of school recycling. The opportunity to talk directly with local decision-makers was also a clear attractor and benefit to both teachers and pupils and the project had far-reaching impact on recycling schemes.

Waste Action Project: Bedfordshire

A consultation to obtain the community’s views on the design plan for Parc y Bwlch forest with the Forestry Commission, Wales. 

Parc y Bwlch Forest Consultation: North Wales

Following Fading Footsteps: Petersfield School

A booklet and film produced by a Primary school in Cambridgeshire (UK), documenting the local history that the children researched and compared with the present day.

Working with students—ranging from young people identified as disadvantaged and excluded, or gifted and talented. We helped to re-engage these young people within their school or wider communities through raising their self-confidence and improving relations between them and other groups, enabling them to successfully re-engage with specific topics.

School Topics in Secondary Schools

Working with pupils in ten primary and special schools in London to develop ways of growing fruit and vegetables in the school grounds.

Grounds for Growing: Learning Through Landscapes

This project explored the local community’s views concerning possible uses and development of the Kingswood site in Hull. Students from Kingswood College researched what people wanted, and presented their summary to Councillors and members of the Planning Department, to contribute to the Area Action Plan.

Kingswood Consultation: Hull

Youth consultations

Ideas for saving energy in schools were generated by primary school students, and were used by the Council to develop the support needed by schools. The young people in each school were able to monitor the success of the strategy after its implementation.

Energy in Schools: Bedfordshire County Council

WTA staff were part of the research team in this year-long project. This extract from the report by the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) Good Practices in Teacher Education Institutions includes a short paper on the project (pages 17-22).

ESRC Listening to Children project for the University of Bath

WTA developed and delivered a two-year project aimed at engaging youth groups in recycling, reducing and reusing. The participants were encouraged to develop their own ideas and projects for recycling, reducing and reusing, and developed start-up business ideas from the project.

Youth Advocates Project: Bedfordshire County Council & South Bedfordshire District Council

WTA developed and delivered a two-year project engaging pre-school children in simple activities to learn about recycling, and inspire inter-generational education around the subject. The project inspired the participants to get involved in doing more recycling in their homes.

Under Fives Project: Bedfordshire County Council & South Bedfordshire District Council

To contact us:

Telephone: +44 (0)1223 208718 or +44 (0)7952 824467

Email: web@wtaeducationservices.com

 

 

Website updated October 2014.

Disclaimer: We provide hyperlinks to websites as a convenience to our site users and cannot accept responsibility for the content of external sites.

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UNEP directly involved WTA in a mapping exercise to indentify, review and connect other youth organizations and networks working on youth development issues, and strengthen links and collaboration.

UNEP European Youth Consultation 2013