Engagement with Young People

I've been hearing how hard it is to engage young people. "We create events for them to come to but no one comes."

Belong in Plymouth used the following engagement tools with good success:

- Built relationships with trusted adults who had worked with young people over a number of years.
- Co-designed with these trusted adults.
- Structured learning around listening and getting your voice heard.
- Allowed the group to pursue this learning and related activity at its own pace.
- Paid both youth leaders and the young people themselves to be in the room.
- Gave budget to the young people to decide what they wanted to do next, and the role of commissioning the work themselves.
- Ensured the commissioned work (in our case a documentary supported by Fotonow CIC) allowed young people to be fully involved as directors, interviewers, interviewees, editors, and videographers in practical ways.
- Stepped out of the way for young people to host and speak at their own events.
- Built events in spaces and ways that were more natural for them rather than traditional meetings.
- Kept power balances in check by having equal amounts of young people and adults in structured conversations, led by the young people themselves.

All of this resulted in 11 young people with multiple disadvantages, who had many stories of disengagement from education, committing to 2 years of steady work. We have witnessed their confidence, capabilities, and teamwork grow exponentially during this time. They are definitely willing to engage. The question is, are we prepared to put in the work to engage back?