Youth Advisory Boards
Youth Advisory Boards (YABs)
Youth Advisory Boards are bodies of young people and professionals that meet on a bi-monthly basis. The aim of the YAB is to identify issues that impact on young people and to play a strategic role in meeting these needs.
With a YAB operating in each district area, we are working with key partners and young people to operate a strategic partnership that:
- Maintains a strategic overview of local youth provision across the district area based on the needs of young people aged 11-25
- Commissions services and sustainable activities that help community cohesion, intergenerational understanding and build local community capacity to meet young people’s needs, especially for those who are more vulnerable
Select the Youth Advisory Board by area to view information and documents.
Norfolk County Council and the seven Norfolk Youth Advisory Boards were successful in achieving the British Youth Council, Youth on Board Award for Innovation.
The award was given as a result of the excellent work that each of the Youth Advisory Boards have undertaken during the last 12 months to ensure that young people are at the heart of local decision making on services for young people.
In order to achieve the award they needed to demonstrate that the advisory boards had:-
- Increased their ability to work with young people and support youth participation in decision-making
- Enabled young people to make a significant positive contribution at a local, national or international level
- Allowed young peoples' creativity to shine
- Inspired, empowered and encouraged the involvement of young people from a range of backgrounds
- Increased youth leadership and given young people a voice in how things are run
The work that the Youth Advisory Boards and the Youth and Community Workers supporting the boards have undertaken this year presented plenty of evidence to fulfil the above criteria. The boards are not resting on their laurels, over the next year they will be developing the Young Commissioners project to further enhance the involvement of young people in determining the scope and quality of the services they receive.
Robin Konieczny MA(Edu)
Norfolk County Council, Children's Services Early Help Team
Commissioning, Partnerships and Community Capacity Manager - Norwich & Sth Norfolk
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