What we do
Youth inclusion
We believe that the young people who are most affected by the system must be at the heart of efforts to change it.
Young people are integral to our mission and vision as the national What Works Centre for youth employment.
Our approach to youth inclusion
We cannot create better outcomes or find effective solutions for young people’s futures without actively involving them in the process. Youth inclusion is therefore essential to us achieving our mission and is recognised as a key enabler across our organisation.
We proudly engage the voices and perspectives of young people experiencing marginalisation in our work, actively ensuring that those engaged with us can meaningfully influence what we do and advocate within the employment system, while also developing their skills and personal outcomes.
To support this, we have built a youth inclusion architecture to ensure youth voice is a part of our governance, our key areas of activity, and our funding.
Who do we work with?
We deliver a host of engagement programmes to embed young people’s voices and perspectives in our activity and allow them to share their knowledge and expertise of youth employment issues with key stakeholders.
These programmes include youth-led and co-produced ways of working to empower young people to take a lead on issues that affect them.
Future Voices Group
Giving young people the opportunity to build influencing narratives and help lead the conversations with policymakers and employers in translating and embedding evidence to drive changes in policy and practice.
Youth Governance
We recognise the importance of young voices not only shaping our work in delivery but also shaping our governance. We have two Young Board members who sit on our Board of Directors. One of these Board members also sits on our Grants Committee.
Building Futures Youth Advisory Group
Young people aged 14 to 17 who are informing the development of test-and-learn waves for the Building Futures programme evaluation.
Connected Futures Ambassadors
Young people aged 16 to 24 from across our place-based partnerships who are actively involved in finding local solutions with local and regional stakeholders.
Alumni network
We have engaged with several cohorts of young people since our creation. We have set up a Youth Alumni Network for past participants to continue to advocate for other young people in the system. The Youth Alumni Network will have access to both internal and external opportunities to continue to influence the youth unemployment system.Additional opportunities
We also engage our young people in important roles outside of our engagement programmes to inform our work; from research consultations through to grant decisions.
This can be done through one off-consultations with the FVG or offered as additional opportunities for all groups.