Edinburgh Youth Social Inclusion Partnership

1
Edinburgh Youth Social Inclusion Partnership

• Involving young people in developing solutions to
  exclusion
• Supporting evidence-based change in mainstream
  practice
• Providing evidence through action research
• Young people are participants, not objects of
  action research

2
Making participation a priority

• Young peoples views and experiences used to form
  a baseline The Bottom Line
• Grant applications require participation to be a
  priority
• Grant recipients encouraged to attend training
  and offered ongoing support
• Projects required to monitor nature and extent of
  young peoples participation
• EYSIP maintains direct contact with young people
  via regular outreach

3
Action Research
Young people define the problem, explore the
context, help to analyse and interpret
Evidence used to shape service provision and
policy
Model proposed Tested with young people and
refined through practice Evaluation with young
people of success/failure
4
Outcomes for young people
Learning and capacity building. Listened to and
respected
Political awareness Challenges to policy
makers and politicians The chance to be part of
something bigger
Improved services New opportunities Different
relationships with services Better communication
and connections between services
5
Participation
Advocacy
Participation can be one-off or sustained,
individual or collective
This stage tends to involve more advocacy
than participation
This stage adapts to level of participation
desired by young people
6
Levels of participation key factors for young
people

• The nature of exclusion experienced by the young
  person
• The nature of the target group specific or
  diverse
• Previous experience of participation
• Focus of the work, and level of identification
  with the issue being explored

7
Levels of participation key factors for workers

• Time
• Place in organisation/team
• Commitment at different levels within the
  organisation to change
• Flexibility and adaptability during the project
• Prior connections with young people

8
Political Pressure

• Preference for recognisable structures and easy
  access
• Clear thinking required to deal with the conflict
  between adults and young people in constituencies
• Consultation is service-led agenda

9
Impact of EYSIP programme

• Approaches to measuring levels of engagement and
  what young people get out of it
• Worker/organisational learning
• Visibility of young people in mainstream
• Tools, training and networking
• Accreditation of young peoples participation