Growing a stronger youth council
The Kirklees Youth Council report
Our report shares what young people told us about having a voice, getting involved in community life, and how we can help them to grow the skills, confidence and connections that they want, in the way that they want. Published on 18th October 2019.
To celebrate our 10th anniversary, Kirklees Youth Council have been taking some time to reflect on the experiences of our young citizens. Our youth council helps children and young people in Kirklees to learn about local democracy, to gain skills and confidence, to become active citizens, and to have a voice.
Over the past year, we have supported a group of Young Commissioners to gather evidence and make recommendations for the future, based on what children and young people have told us.
Over 1,800 people have shared their views, ideas and experiences with us during our engagement activities. Over 1,700 children and young people in Kirklees have talked to us about having a voice, getting involved in community life, and how we can help them to grow the skills, confidence and connections that they want, in the way that they want.
Our report includes ideas for supporting young people on their journey as they grow, the importance of democracy friendly schools, why democratic education matters, how we can help our young people to grow stronger relationships (especially with councillors and with each other) and how we can involve young people in decision making in a meaningful way.
We’ve made 30 recommendations that can help shape the future of Kirklees Youth Council and strengthen our wider work to support our young citizens in Kirklees. We hope these ideas will be useful for other organisations, including other youth councils. Most of all, we hope that we can involve more of our young people in our local democracy, in the way that they want.
Our report, October 2019
Download our report
Growing a stronger youth council (PDF, 56 pages, 2.1Mb)
Explore our report
- Introduction: What really matters
- What we did and how we did it
- Who participated
- Kirklees Youth Council: the story so far
- 30 Recommendations
- Why do we need to grow a stronger youth council?
Meet our Young Commissioners
We have supported a group of Young Commissioners to lead this work on behalf of the young citizens of Kirklees. Meet our Young Commissioners
Our evidence
Explore our evidence
We are grateful to Dr Tom Loughran from the University of Huddersfield who analysed the Kirklees Youth Survey results and shared some key headlines.
Watch our report launch
If you missed our report launch, you can catch up with our webcast archive, or have a look at our live tweets from the report launch event for a quick summary.
What happens next?
Our youth councillors hosted a special 10th Anniversary event on 19th October 2018. Previous youth councillors shared their experiences and we all shared ideas for the future. Have a look at our videos to hear personal stories (and hopes for the future) from some of our participants. You can also look at our Tweets from the anniversary event.
