About us
The Active Involvement Team is Cardiff Youth Service children and young people’s participatory and engagement team. The aim is to ensure we reach out to as many young people as possible and give greater opportunities for their voices to be heard, as well as including young people in the governance of wider youth services delivery and ensuring young people are aware of changes and implementations made from their input. The team has a particular emphasis on Article 12:
Children and young people have the human right to have opinions and for these opinions to matter. It says that the opinions of children and young people should be considered when people make decisions about things that involve them, and they shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand on the grounds of age. It also says children and young people should be given the information they need to make good decisions.’
Additional to this we will also adhere to Article 13 and ensure we as youth workers give up to date and appropriate information, support, and Guidance to all young people we encounter with to increase their access to information and aid making informed choices/ decisions in things that matter to them.
Article 13: “The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice”
To try to achieve this the AIT run Projects and take on approaches shown below:
Young Programme
· Young Commissioners - Approximately 55 young people have received training and helped with the commissioning process of over 65 million pounds worth of services.
· Young Interviewers - Over 100 young people have received training and been involved in over 810 interviews with Cardiff Council (various departments), South Wales University, Cardiff & Vale Health Board and many others including third sector organisations.
· Young Inspectors - 44 young people have been trained and inspected.
· Young Researchers - 12 young people were involved in research around the link between poverty and educational attainment.
· Young Leaders – currently developing internally with youth services.
I Say
An educational programme, delivered in both primary and secondary schools, which covers the following topics:
· Children’s Rights and Participation
· Pupil Voice (e.g., school council, debates, staff interviews, staff appraisal, school appraisal)
· Democracy – Youth Participation
· Democracy – UK Democratic Processes
Additionally, to this we currently work within the wider youth services with young people introducing participation and creating further opportunities for young people to be active community members. We also aim to create opportunities for wider groups of young people to be involved in strategic decisions and changes.
Participation standards
AIT support wider youth services to undertake the participation standards kite mark:
· Staff support, guidance, and monitoring
· Coordination of youth inspections
Training
AIT deliver training currently within youth services:
· Children’s rights and participation – train the trainer I Say
· Train the trainer in all aspects of the Young Programme – Delivered within our service and to partners.
· Bespoke training identified by professionals and young people – designed and delivered to suit learners’ gaps in participation and engagement.
· Democracy and community groups training – developing for staff and young people
Strategies
· Outreach work.
· Internal partnership and collaborative working.
· External partnership work.
· Informal Education.
· Young person-centred approach.
· Projects/ workshops – Opportunities for developments and skills within communities.
· Consultations – meaningful conversations with young people.
· Training – Professionals and young people
· Collaborative work with Cardiff Youth Council and local community groups.
If you would like to know more about what we offer, or are either a professional or a young person wanting to get involved, please see our contact details below.
