Our Youth Engagement Co-designers, Amy, Charlotte and Kyra, held a series of youth-led workshops to gather young people's vision for youth advice and counselling services and to inform the quality framework.
In this blog, Amy reflects on what they heard and shares their co-created zine, which was given to the young people involved as a creative way of sharing their findings.
We want to say a massive thank you to the young people who shared their experiences and stories with us. We can't express how much we appreciate your honesty, bravery and insights.
This project would be nothing without the collaboration of young people. To the young people from 42nd Street, Off the Record Croydon, Isle of Wight Youth Trust, No5 Young People, and Young Person’s Advisory Service (YPAS) your contributions have been invaluable and will hopefully go on to make a big difference for young people across the country and the services supporting them. This project really emphasised the importance of co-production and "Nothing about us without us"; it is only possible to make a quality framework about supporting young people if young people are integrated into its development.
Looking back on the workshops, what stands out?
One theme that stood out to me was hearing from young women (especially young women of colour) about their experiences of being dismissed by doctors and people working in a clinical setting. This was deeply concerning, especially as the same issue came up at different hubs in very different parts of the country. Although some cases were not directly mental health related it, was really important for us to pick up on recurring issues and patterns that were affecting specific groups of young people and highlighting gaps that services would need to be aware of and compensate for.
This meant when it came to writing the framework that we emphasised the role of hubs being specifically tailored to the needs of the young people using them, that young people would be shaped by their lived experience/ gender/ race/ identity and it was important for services to acknowledge this and to try to make sure that there is a diverse workforce where possible at these services. These stories also helped inform the importance of listening and believing young people and valuing young people's specific lived experiences.
Why did you create a zine?
We have curated this zine to raise awareness on the important input that young people have had on the quality framework and have broken down 4 key areas.
The zine is really beautifully illustrated and captures the core of the quality framework (which is a long wordy document) in just a few pages. It's really informative, easy to read and hopefully an insightful representation of what young people have to say about mental health services.
The zine is accessible for young people to read as well as decision makers and services who may benefit from a more concise summary of the quality framework.
We know that a feedback loop is really important for young people, so they can see that their feedback has been taken seriously and taken on board. One of the key qualities we identified within the quality framework was the importance of clear communication. We want to ensure clear communication with the young people we have worked with, so they know the time and responses they gave us have been put to good use.
Open the Youth Engagement Co-designers zine
As your time as a co-designer comes to an end, do you have any reflections?
I wish there were more projects like this. I'm extremely grateful for this job role, and it has given me a lot of hope.
We still have a long way to go, however, through this work, I can already see real positive change and the incredible work that hubs are already doing. I hope this framework has emphasised how important these hubs are and how deserving they are of investment and funding.
