Involving young people

Young advisors

The Young Advisors are a powerful group of young people who advise the council on issues affecting young people in the borough. Young Advisors are accredited youth consultants who advise internal partners and external partners on how to improve services for young people.

Their work includes feeding in regularly to the Children and Families Scrutiny Committee and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Board. Young Advisors are also trained to deliver workshops in schools, most recently they have delivered ‘No Space for Hate’ workshops to primary school students in the borough.

Members of the Young Advisors are trained to deliver their innovative peer to peer outreach programme ‘Streetbase’. They are part of the charity Young Advisors.

“Being a Young Advisor has been really great for me as it has helped me meet loads of amazing young people who do amazing stuff in the borough and in their lives. It has helped me with confidence, and to recognise how my voice as a young person matters in a room full of older people who might be more experienced than me.

As a Young Advisor we make sure we go into different spaces and offer the opinions of young people and make sure that we get our voices heard, and give other young people a chance to have their opinion on what’s working and what’s not working properly in the council”

Waltham Forest Young Advisors had a recent recruitment in December 2018 and gained 25 new accredited Young Advisors.

Youth Independent Advisory Group (YIAG)

The YIAG are a powerful group of young people, aged 14-25 who live in Waltham Forest. The YIAG advises the council on community safety issues, feeding directly into strategy including the Violence Reduction Partnership. The YIAG is trained to deliver peer to peer workshops in schools. Additionally, the YIAG trains new police recruits on the impact of Stop and Search on young people and the importance of trauma informed and child-centred approaches. Members of the YIAG are also trained to deliver their innovative peer to peer outreach programme ‘Streetbase.’

Some YIAG have experience with the Youth Justice System or have grown up in areas where youth violence is part of their lives. Young people can be referred to the group through a variety of services including Early Help, the Youth and Family Resilience Service as well as a peer referral system.

The YIAG provide youth input to the Safer Neighbourhood Board, Stop and Search monitoring group, Communities Scrutiny, and the council’s Violence Reduction Partnership.

Contact Roni Weir if you want to find out more about the YIAG: roni.weir02@walthamforest.gov.uk’