Citizen Engagement CIC works in close partnership with Citizen Coaching CIC to support and facilitate the Young Advisors West Midlands.
Young Advisors West Midlands are a group of young people aged between 14 and 21 who stimulate social action by showing community leaders and decision makers how to engage young people in community life, local decision making and improving services and ideas.
They are completely independent of any local authority or political group. This empowers the group to formulate their own strategies, make key peer-to-peer connections and act quickly and flexibly.
The Young Advisors are often from some of the most disadvantaged areas and backgrounds, working to improve their own community and environment. This means that the engagement between the advisors and their target communities is both effective and profound. This ‘Grass Roots’ engagement presents the double advantage of improving the wider community, and offering valuable experiences and skills to local young people.
Through the Citizen Engagement CIC, advisors are trained to become agents of ‘social action’ who will go on to guide and advise local authorities, housing associations and other local partners about what it is like for a young person to live, work, learn and play in their neighbourhoods.
They:
- Help organisations ‘youth-proof’ their practices, policies, strategies and commissioning
- Help stakeholders understand how to attract and maintain the interests of young people
- Speak out for young people, making sure their thoughts and feelings are considered in decisions that directly affect them
- Innovate strategies to solve local challenges, bringing legislative and decision making power to community level
- Help deliver research and consultations to ensure that findings relate strongly to the needs of young people
- Help to deliver training, mentoring and coaching to people of all ages
- Engage directly with other young people to get them involved in neighbourhood improvements in order to engender further social action.
- Provide crucial feedback about what has changed as a result of your work, helping to give everyone a sense of involvement.
The Citizen Engagement CIC’s partnership with the Young Advisors means that your organisation can make better informed decisions designed to maximise social impact within target communities.
Or visit the following website link: http://westmidlands.youngadvisors.org.uk
For further information please contact either:
Sue McGavin
Email: sue.mc@citizenengagement.org.uk
Tel: 01952 770026 / 07557687225