Young voices are crying out for a more child friendly focus
The first tentative steps have been taken towards making Gloucestershire a county where young people enjoy growing up, do not feel ignored and are able to maximise their aspirations and potential to the full. Driven by the Police and Crime Plan Priority of Young People Becoming Adults, a model has been agreed between the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC), county and district councils, which focuses explicitly on the voices and views of young people. The project was kick-started when the OPCC began assessing what could be done collectively to support all young people in Gloucestershire. “We know that there is a significant amount of excellent work being carried out within the county, but much of it is in silos and therefore not connected”, said Dame Janet Trotter, who is heading up the project for the OPCC. “There are clear gaps in obtaining the collective voice of young people. Decision makers often fail to take sufficient notice of them when developing policy. Our
aim is to help all young people in the county develop their potential by giving them a voice and listening to them systematically. “The new model will mark new ways of working locally and will focus explicitly on the voices of young people”. In particular, it will seek to establish, how best to engage with those in the 0-25 age group in order to find out what they aspire to achieve personally and for the county. The challenge then will be to develop a platform that young people - and organisations and groups working with young people - can use to comment on and promote the achievements of their contemporaries. It is hoped this initial work will involve diverse and representative groups of young people across the county and that it will provide a foundation for enhancing their lives... The aim is to complete this phase by the end of the summer period 2019 to allow an opportunity to launch to a wider audience in the autumn l
September 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com | 81
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