A new programme to increase the scope and quality of youth involvement within member organisations.
London Youth are committed to ensuring that as many of our members as possible are able to improve their level of youth participation and decision making, giving many more young people the chance to lead projects and change their communities for the better. To this end, and following the ‘Learning to Lead’ research conducted by London Youth in 2017 into quality youth involvement, we have developed a pilot of capacity building programme for youth workers and young people.
The overall aim of the Jimmy Dixon Leadership Programme is to increase the scope and quality of youth involvement and to link this to continued social action within member youth clubs. Our research strongly suggests by providing members with this assistance, we will see increased levels of engagement of young people, services that are more focused on their beneficiaries and better able to provide services to young people in their community.
The programme includes training, project funding, resources and events to help member clubs improve levels of engagement of young people and youth-led activity, from the development of programmes and projects, through to the establishment of youth boards and the continuation of social action activity.
Through the Jimmy Dixon Leadership Programme we will be looking to have a positive impact in three areas:
- Youth workers have increased skills and confidence to deliver meaningful youth participation and involvement
- Members are better able to establish youth-led decision making structures most relevant to their particular circumstances
- Increased levels of young people’s participation and engagement within members and their own programme delivery
This programme is generously funded by the Jimmy Dixon Charitable Trust.
How does it work?
Participating members will be able to access projects and facilitated training sessions including:
Projects
- Sustained Social Action Fund: Money and staff support for young people coming out of our established social action progammes to continue their activities, leading to sustained groups of young leaders at out member organisations
- Youth Involvement Seed Funding: Money and staff support for members that require additional resource to develop and deliver youth-led structures, such as a youth board or young trustees
Training and networking
- Introduction to youth involvement and participation: A full day of facilitated sessions and discussions based around four modules to help youth workers improve their skills and confidence, resulting in an outline plan to help young people make the most of their potential
- Building youth-led decision making in your organisation: A half-day session to help participating members establish a youth board and/or young trustees to help increase the frequency and scope of youth-led decision making
- Developing active participants into peer mentors: Half-day training sessions for members who have taken part in social action, sports or arts programmes and would like to build on their experiences by helping their young leaders to support and become role models for other young people
- Youth Involvement Network: A quarterly 2 hour session providing a space where youth workers can hear from external speakers, share best practice, help find solutions to specific challenges and network with one another
Online resources: Training materials and resources will be made available to all members on our website in the near future. In the meantime, please do read our Learning to Lead Report that reports on exemplary youth involvement in our network
I’m a London Youth member – how can I get involved?
We are currently seeking members to take part in all projects and training sessions. If you have any questions or would like to sign up, please email Kadisha James-Fergus – Kadisha.james-fergus@londonyouth.org