Welcome to #YouthVoice News and Opportunities – a regular roundup from the world of youthvoice, participation, and influence. This BITESIZE edition has shorter headlines with links for further detail, PLUS regular features ..recommended reads, opportunities and resources. Subscribe for free here, and access back issues. This week:
- ⭐’Young Voices Heard’ New Year 2026 resolutions
- ⭐Youth Council UK – 150 youth organisations sign up to revived British Youth Council. Youth ‘Board’ nominations open to mobilise your youthvoice.
- ⭐Youth Strategy Watch – Recommended read Gemma Juma
- 👀LinkedIn: Recommended Reads – James Sloam, Matt Henn & ParticipationPeople
- 👀Opportunities for young people
- 👀Opportunities for supporters
- 👀Centre4YouthVoice – NEW free peer research resource & Dec Newsletter
- 🎁Resources
#YouthVoiceNews is produced by Young Voices Heard CIC as a non-profit venture, and edited by a volunteer.
NEWS
Young Voices Heard: New Year Resolutions – Young Voices Heard, as well as producing this news and resource platform, actively seeks to promote meaningful youthvoice, participation and influence in public life. YVHs annual New Year’s resolutions have been updated for 2026 to support this. For example: greater youth recognition, young trustees in governance as the norm, calls for a F/T Youth Minister /ongoing dialogue, and of course the continued commitment to produce regular editions of Youth Voice News. Read more here
#YouthStrategyWatch – on promises in action. Welcome to #YouthStrategyWatch, a regular feature tracking the Government’s promises to embed #youthvoice and influence as part of the Government’s 10 year Youth Strategy. 1/ to create a new national ‘Youth Policy Network’ that would co-produce policy; 2/ a promise to work with local areas to establish new Local Youth Councils across England; 3/ to be accountable to young people through a new website for young people, which will contain updates on the delivery of the strategy, and 4/ a commitment to invite a diverse group of young people to run a new Annual National Hearing on the delivery of the strategy.
✍️This week’s recommended read on this is an upbeat account of a recent stakeholders/youngvoice event, an example of national to local dialogue. By Gemma Juma CEO of Jack Petchley Foundation. The post includes a link to their youth-commissioned “Are You Listening?” Youth Survey Report. 2026 ✍️
⚡150 youth organisations sign up to NYA’s ‘Youth Council UK’ | Youth ‘Board’ nominations open. New members for the revived successor to the British Youth Council, have been sent an elections guidance pack on how to nominate reps (age to be confirmed but likely to be 16+) to a new Executive Committee/Board. It’s expected they will be joined by older ‘advisors’ in due course, with details of a youth-led structure to be shared on the information website at NYA YCUK after the process is completed, so check their website for updates. For more info or to find out if your organisation is a member, contact ycuk@nya.org.uk
⚡ Recommended Reads – on LinkedIn / DECEMBER
Editors pick from #youthvoice influencers/commentators on LinkedIn. Check out the comments too! Note that whilst some are using LinkedIn to write mini-blogs others are going with the video format – Which do you prefer?
⭐James Sloam (x 2 post) – The first post here signposts James’s LSE blog examines youth disillusionment with democracy and presenting ideas on how to fix it through co-creation in public policy at the local and city level and a Civic Mentoring Model framework.
A second post summarises and signposts a new book Youthquakes and Aftershocks: Youth Political Participation in the UK here. which is also promoted by co-author…
⭐Matt Henn -reflects on his previous article that ‘disputed the rather spurious orthodoxy that young people were not voting in large numbers because they were “uninterested” in politics’ and that a new book Youthquakes and Aftershock conclusions on whether the political class have changed their view here
⭐Participation People – Designing a youth-led panel? Here are 5 don’ts to avoid. Easy-to-read advice is typical of PP online posts.
YOUTH VOICE OPPORTUNITIES
Our pick #youthvoice opportunities. For a broader range of early career/skill-building opportunities, go to our friends’ website, Youth Opportunities | Early Career and Skill Building roles in the UK
⚡Young Citizens – Young Trustee (18-25) closing date 18th January Could you be our new Young Trustee? – Young Citizens (I was a trustee here for five years and advocated for the introduction of younger trustees to the board, great to see its now the norm – recommended/James Cathcart Dir Young Voices Heard)
⚡Youth Council UK – Executive Committee/Board and electorate. 150 founder members have been sent election packs on how to nominate, and then elect young people to the National Youth Agency hosted national youth council (replacement for the British Youth Council. Information about the size of the committee, the electorate, the deadline and age range have not yet been made public on the website but the previous youth council’s age started at 16. If interested, then ask your youth organisation if they are members and how they will be selecting nominations and voting delegates as soon as possible. For more info or to find out if your organisation is a member, contact ycuk@nya.org.uk
⚡Trustee positions – Interested in becoming a trustee? Only 3% of trustees are under the age of 30. Find under-30-friendly trustee boards through the Young Trustees Movement
If you have a #youthvoice opportunity coming up, drop us a line info@y oungvoicesheard.org.uk
SUPPORTERS OPPORTUNITIES
⚡Centre for Youth Voice: Free Training and Events timetable
February 24th – Community of Practice: Evidencing Impact and Change of Youth Voice: We’re bringing organisations together to look at how we collectively evidence the impact of youth voice.
Multiple dates – Involving Young People in Services: Professor Kaz Stuart is delivering three training sessions around creating opportunities, supporting, and evaluating young people’s involvement in services
- February 10th – Supporting Young People to be Involved in Services
- March 10th – Evaluating Young People’s Involvement in Services
Multiple dates – Peer Research Toolkit Training: Based on the toolkit, we are delivering 90-minute training sessions on different aspects of the peer research approach, with presentations and Q&As.
- January 20th – Introduction to peer research
- January 27th – Setup, recruitment, budgets of peer research
- February 3rd – Co-designing research aims and questions
- February 17th – Participatory research methods
- March 3rd – Ethics, safeguarding, and data protection
- March 17th – Conducting fieldwork with peer researchers
- April 14th – Involving young people in analysis
- April 28th – Impact and embedding participation
RESOURCES:
⚡ Resource/ Training – Gamifying Democracy, The Politics Project
“This training is ideal for youth practitioners and teachers looking for meaningful, practical, and enjoyable ways to bring politics to life with young people. In this training, we’ll share games and activities you can use in youth settings to start conversations about politics and democracy. Designed for group settings in informal spaces, youth clubs, and classrooms, these games help young people explore their power, voice and their ideas for change. The easy-to-use games we’ll share in the training are specifically designed to support young people to explore their power and agency, their ideas and opinions about local, national and global topics, and their emotions towards politics and politicians. We are running this training three times, all online. Please sign up to the session most convenient to you:
⚡Resource: Involving Young People – A Toolkit for Peer Research / free / Centre for YouthVoice | The Centre for Youth Voice is committed to moving the sector beyond consultation toward genuine co-production. We are delighted to share the new Peer Research Toolkit, produced in partnership with Partnership for Young London and Trust for London. Drawing on a decade of learning and the expertise of over 200 peer researchers, this toolkit moves beyond the “why” of youth voice to the “how”. It provides the practical frameworks needed to treat young people not as subjects to be studied, but as co-researchers with the authority to lead. Link to toolkit
For other YVH recommended resources, go to the www.YoungVoiceHeard.org.uk main website / RESOURCES.