Testimonials

I had the pleasure of training the Dudley YAs and have since then worked with them on a couple of assignments. Scott, Robyn and Rachael led a session in a Midlands- wide training day on youth engagement in Walsall. They had to get to the venue which meant taking three buses from Dudley. They arrived promptly and proceeded to steal the show! The audience comprised regeneration professionals and about 20 police officers. The police were especially impressed with their presentations and spent much time seeking their views on youth issues and arranging for the YAs to do some work for them. Rachael also helped me train a new cohort of YAs for the midlands and again, arrived promptly and led a very interesting session on her work as a YA. The Dudley YAs are a credit to themselves and the Connexions service who host them. I would recommend their services without reservation.

Sue King OBE
Regeneration Ltd
Renewal Strategy Development & Community Empowerment

The Dudley Young Advisors are an excellent team and have demonstrated themselves to be one of the best in England. They are insightful individuals, keen to learn. Their different backgrounds, education and experiences have been key factors in creating a dynamic team.

On the national stage they have co-facilitated conferences of local authority officers and councillors with skill and professional presentation. They have always been willing to burn the midnight oil to rehearse and prepare for these events thoroughly. From the outset, at their initial training, they dealt with some dysfunctional peers, from a different YA team, with sensitivity and directness.

The team has managed group discussions, delivered workshops and made major presentations with Government Ministers, senior civil servants, TV personalities, and community leaders. They handle themselves with dignity and grace, promoting the YA movement for others to follow their example.

Their local work youth proofing, e.g. for health services, mapping problems and proposing solutions have all drawn accolades from Council Leaders, Portfolio holders, and LSP Directors.

They are currently engaged with the national Young Advisor Charity developing a £4m bid to the Big Lottery Fund to roll out the Young Advisor programme across England. As well as youth proofing the Bid, one of the team has also attended the Big Lottery’s briefing session – the only one of two young people present, and the only one to speak before a large number of delegates, asking questions of Participation Works, The National Youth Agency, and the Big Lottery.

I have deliberately not singled out any of the Young Advisors I have worked with - Rachael, Linden, Joanne, Robyn or Scott - because it has often been their teamwork, as well as their individual talents and perspectives, which has made the difference. Their lead, Jon Brown, is crucial to the success of this Scheme. He combines a warm, open-hearted, can-do approach with a well organised professionalism. This is a potentially high risk programme in which he has consistently challenged and supported the Young Advisors. His approach has opened doors for them that would undoubtedly have remained shut.

This team has had a significant impact on the development of the Young Advisors movement; they are often quoted as an exemplar of the programme, in Manchester and London. Their work and style have influenced national and local government policy and practice.

Leslie Silverlock, March 28th 2008, Neighbourhood Renewal Adviser
President, Young Advisors,

Working with the young adviser’s team has been a joy. They are a very committed group of young people, keen to make sure that they can represent children and young people's voice in various arenas. We have used them in two particular areas of work that I would like to mention.

We run a conference for children and young people to review our children and young people's plan every year. In October last year we ran three one day conferences, the first was for adults - stakeholders and partners, which the young advisers attended. They were vocal and supportive of agencies trying to deliver their best services for the benefit of children and young people in Dudley. following this experience they organised and facilitated the two separate days for children and young people, supporting them to focus their thoughts and ideas on issues of concern and how best to organise services to meet these needs effectively. All of the feedback has been used in developing our new children and young people's plan, which runs from January 2008 to the end of December 2011. the young advisers helped to make these events successful and effective, challenging adult perceptions appropriately to ensure that children and young people's views were heard, considered and acted upon.

We have now set in place our Children's Trust and the young advisers have worked with children and young people to produce a DVD, voicing their views on what the Trust is about and how it will be supporting children and young people in Dudley into the future. This DVD will be shared with schools, colleges, other agencies, parents and children and young people's forums to make sure that the population of Dudley as well as those who work with and for them, know what the Children's Trust is and how it operates. The Executive Board are very impressed with the way the young advisers have researched the background of what a Children's Trust should be, checked it out with children and young people, and then delivered a very real tool to communicate this from a young person's perspective. I can only say what a pleasure it has been to work with this group of young people, who put others first, work hard, often beyond the call of duty and have the rights and responsibilities of children and young people across the borough in their hearts. A greater team of workers who can respond to clear project directions would be hard to find. If you haven't thought of engaging them so far, I would suggest that you seriously consider it in the near future.

Regards Cindy Peek
Assistant Director Childrens Service

I can thoroughly recommend young advisors. They have been fantastic here in Dudley. I have been particularly impressed with the way they bridge the generational divide and challenge the negative stereotypes of young people. They have been flexible in their approach, taking on a range of activites and challenges. We need young people to tell us how it should be and to work with us to move things on. I am very much hoping to use young advisers in developing succession and intergenerational strategies for our community centres. I would like to see them used more by the statutory and voluntary services and I shall definitely be asking if they will youth proof our new community renewal strategy.

Susan Mcgavin,
Head of Community Renewal, Dudley MBC

The Dudley Young Advisors are a real credit to the movement of Young Advisors across the country, making outstanding achievements locally, and using their experience to help inform national policy. On each occasion they have undertaken national work for the charity or central government, they have delivered to a high, professional standard, always meeting deadlines. The combination of an empowering lead and an outstanding team has really paid dividends for their continued success. I look forward to our continued working!

Gary Buxton
Young Advisors
Chief Executive