The Jimmy Dixon Leadership Programme

A programme of support, training and funding 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.

Group of youth workers at a training session 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.

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

Learning from the Jimmy Dixon Leadership Programme supports and informs London Youth’s own youth involvement and participation structures, including our youth board. Read more about our youth board here.

This programme is generously funded by the Jimmy Dixon Charitable Trust.

How does it work?

London Youth members will be able to access either some or all projects and facilitated training sessions including:

Projects

Youth Involvement Seed (YIS) Funding – Applications now closed: £600 project funding and £200 supporting costs for members that require additional resource to develop and deliver youth-led structures, such as a youth board or young trustees.
If you have any questions, please get in contact with kadisha.james-fergus@londonyouth.org

Training

Introduction to Youth Involvement and Participation

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This training includes facilitated discussions and activities to help youth workers improve their skills and confidence in youth involvement.

In this interactive introductory session, we explore:

What is youth involvement
Why is youth involvement important in your practice
How can you lay the foundation for long term and effective youth involvement in your organisation.

Look out for our next training dates on our events page.

Youth-Led Decision Making

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This training is to help members understand different types of youth involvement structures including youth boards, young ambassadors and young trustees. Through facilitated discussions and activities, you will work with others to consider how to begin establishing these structures within your organisation.

Look out for our next training and network dates on our events page.

1:1 Support

Bespoke 1:1 support around your organisation’s youth involvement. This can vary from phone-calls to sound out ideas to help developing organisation wide restructures (and lots of things in between).

Resources around Youth Involvement

London Youth: ‘Learning to Lead’ research
National Youth Agency: Hear By Right
London Youth: Youth-Led Structures Booklet
Partnership for Young London: A Review of Participatory Approaches
Roundhouse: Guided by Young Voices
Read about London Youth’s Youth Involvement Structures Here

I’m a London Youth member – how can I get involved?

If you have any questions or would like to sign up for one or more parts of the programme, please email kadisha.james-fergus@londonyouth.org.