Youth Voice is for young people aged 16 – 25 living in Newcastle Upon Tyne who have experienced homelessness or housing issues.

 It’s a chance to have your say about things that matter to you, learn new skills, meet new people and have fun!

 The team:

 Karen Adamson – Youth Voice Coordinator (Manager)

Jenna Mitchelmore – Peer Education Coordinator

Georgia Rooney – Volunteer Coordinator

Jade Cairns – Youth Voice Assistant

Lee Luke – Youth Voice Assistant

 What we do…..

 There are lots of opportunities to get involved:

• Peer Education – young people felt that because of their experiences they would have benefited from more available information in schools about services and support that is available to young people.  From this programmes have been developed to meet this need and are delivered as part of PHSE in secondary schools and Pupil Referral Units.
• Youth Independence Forum – this was set up and is facilitated by young people who are supported by accommodation services in Newcastle.  The aim of the forum is to create an opportunity where young people can speak to decision makers in the city to ensure that their voices are heard and they can make a difference. This meeting is held monthly.
• Code of Conduct – young people felt that depending on which services they accessed would then depend on how they were treated by that service.  They developed a quality framework for services that support young people who have a housing need, and annually they inspect these services and support them to improve on particular areas which are important to young people. 
• Drop in sessions - a weekly opportunity to meet up with other young people, chat, eat and have some fun!
• Volunteering  - all young people who work with Youth Voice have the opportunity to be registered as volunteers
• Positive activities – we support young people to plan activities that they would like to take part in
• Interviewing & inducting new staff – due to the experiences of the young people we support, they are part of a group of young people who make up an interview panel and take part in the interviewing and inducting of new staff in Children’s Services.  They are also part of the interview panel for the Young People’s Service.
• Workshops and events  - we are often asked to present our work to other services and attend evenst to discuss what we do. 
• Campaigning for change – young people use the systems and services we work in, so they are experts in these experiences, because of this they are able to identify improvements and we support them to do this.
• Awards & celebrations – young people can gain accreditation for the work they do with Youth Voice from the Youth Achievement Awards.  We support the celebration of all young people’s achievements and have responsibility for arranging annual events for all of the young people who are supported by the Young People’s Service. 

 How we do it….. We use a variety of methods to engage the young people, including forums, drop in’s, group work, fun activities and one to one sessions.  We used tried and tested models of participation.

 Who we work with……….We work with a range of services across the city to improve outcome for young people.  These include both the statuary and voluntary sector and include: Barnardo’s, Foyer, De Paul, Youth Services, Newcastle City Council,  Your Homes Newcastle, etc etc

 Criteria for referral……just their age! We would expect support from their workers to engage them in our work, and they can take part in any of it or all of it, the choice is theirs.  Each week we have available a list of what’s one and just need to be informed of a worker that they young person is attending or is keen to attend.  We can also arrange a one to one session with a young person prior to attending if it is felt they would benefit from this.

 How we measure outcomes….. we focus on soft skill development confidence, self esteem, time keeping etc.  From observing this we can determine the development of young people.  We also contribute to support plans and the ‘Outcome Star’.

 How do we monitor……………We evaluate every session we hold with young people, they are planned and are outcome focused, using the Every Child Matters framework. We also collect statistical information as well as qualitative data.