Youth Voice
The voices of young people and their families is essential to our work.
We are focused on ensuring youth voice is incorporated into all our work, from decision-making to the design and delivery of our projects.
This includes understanding how young people experience and perceive serious violence and the fear of it.
As well as inspiring genuine behaviour change, we want our projects to stand as a legacy for people to learn from.
Through attitudinal surveys, peer action groups and events, we listen to the comments and concerns of our community and act upon them.
Youth Engagement
In partnership with The Young Person’s Advisory Service (YPAS) we coordinate a team of young people from across the region who conduct peer research and social action with people aged 10-20, with the aim of reducing youth violence. Past projects have included investigations into young people’s mental health, the impact of COVID, and the fear of crime.
This innovative research programme saw the group of “peer researchers”, aged between 16 and 25, quiz nearly 350 other young people either in person, online, or at focus groups to get their views on key issues to make their area a better place to live.
After two years of work, they unveiled the results in a new study ‘Youth Violence and Us: The Culture of Youth Violence in Merseyside’ which argues that a greater focus on empathy and a focus away from punishment towards education would help prevent hatred and abuse from becoming “normalised” on Merseyside.
The Hope Collective is a powerful partnership of leading cross-sector organisations working together in a spirit of unity to create real change for young people and communities across the UK.
Working with the Hope Collective, we organise ‘Hope Hacks’ designed to give young people a platform to express their view on the subjects that matter to them most.
The Merseyside ‘Hope Hack’ is bringing young people from across the region together to give them a platform to discuss how they would tackle key societal issues, such as poverty and inequality, community safety, racism and division and mental and physical wellbeing.
Read more about Merseyside’s Hope Hack
We are proud to support the Merseyside Youth Association RAISE Team’s NOW Festival.
Now in it’s ninth year, the Festival aims to engage children and young people in a creative discussion around mental health through whatever ‘NOW’ issue is chosen for that year.
In 2024, hundreds of young people from over twenty schools and youth organisations delivered a range of dramatic performances, exploring the theme of ‘Mental health and violence prevention’.