The UK Youth Parliament was established in 1999 to provide opportunities for young people, including those from marginalised communities, to influence the parliamentary process.

The UK Youth Parliament is made up of more than 300 young people aged between 11 and 18 years, elected as Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) to represent the views of their peers. It provides opportunities for young people to bring about social change through meaningful representation and campaigning.

Key activities for the UK Youth Parliament include participating in regional roundtable events and undertaking a national ballot of UK-wide youth views, Make Your Mark.

The MYPs also campaign locally, regionally and nationally throughout the year and deliver sessions with schools and in the community to engage young people with the democratic process.

The Young Inspectors is a programme set up for young people across Middlesbrough and Redcar to ensure young people’s voices are heard within services and programmes. The Young Inspectors are made of young people from different backgrounds and abilities who conduct inspections of local services. They produce reports with recommendations for the service, covering what works well, what does not work well and what can be done to make things better.

The programme allows the young person’s voice to be heard on the services that are being developed and offered, in order to ensure that the programme is not only meeting the requirements set out by the DfE but is developing in the right direction for those children, young people and their families that access the provision. The Young Inspectors programme allows the young people who train in this role to develop skills and experience opportunities that can be carried forward into their future. Training for the Young Inspectors is in the form of interactive activity workshops and planning meetings around upcoming inspections.

To find out more, contact: emma@youthfocusne.org.uk

The Youth Endowment Fund Peer Action Collective (PAC) is a peer research programme running nationwide with 9 regions in England and one in Wales. Youth Focus North East are proud to be the lead delivery partner for the North East region. As the lead partner we invited other organisations from across the North East to help us deliver this project, enabling us to run the project in urban, rural and coastal areas. Partner organisations each host one Peer Researcher, aged between 16-20. The aim is for these Peer Researchers to investigate youth violence in their communities; with the intention that this will then be used to produce social action projects.

This project has produced a range of high quality research and, more importantly, high quality social action based on the reliable research outcomes. Young people involved have learnt valuable skills which they can take into their working life.

To find out more, contact: megan@youthfocusne.org.uk

Young Boro Champions is a group of young people from East Middlesbrough who are exploring the challenges faced by their community, in order to find their own solutions and make lasting change.

Through this project we enable young people to explore ideas and the challenges facing their community, raise their aspirations, be supported to be the decision makers, manage a larger budget, take the next step in their social action journey and encourage more young people to be involved.

To find out more, contact: tilly@youthfocusne.org.uk