James Cathcart: Former CEO of the British Youth Council / UK Youth Parliament, and Head of Target Groups/Mentoring at the Prince’s Trust. James brings over 40 senior-level and front-line experience to Young Voices Heard, freelance consultancy and volunteering.
His interest in empowering young people as active citizens has developed from a career spanning youth work, juvenile justice and social work (as a qualified Carer/Social Worker/Probation Officer). This progressed to training, management and international development, working for several national charities including the National Children’s Bureau and the Prince’s Trust where he developed and rolled out a new national mentoring programme for young people leaving care. Author of “Look Beyond the Label” and “Mentoring Standards and Procedures.” (The Prince’s Trust) and “Preparation for Adulthood” (National Children’s Bureau)
He is strong advocate of youth-voice, campaigning in support of young people’s right to be heard and acted upon. He also promotes youth volunteering and is a subject specialist on mentoring and coaching youth-led start-ups and campaigns. He is a regular blogger for Children and Young People Now magazine, and a member and former essay-judge for the Royal Commonwealth Society. Former trustee the charity Young Citizens, and the Mentoring Befriending Foundation. 10 years ago he launched a Campaign for Youth Recognition to promote nominations for national awards for young people – The King’s New Year and Birthday Honours List, the Pride of Britain Awards, Points of Light, and the British Citizen Youth Awards, of which he has been an Ambassador for 8 years. In January he launched #YouthVoiceNews, a weekly free newsletter with over 500 subscribers, which he edits voluntarily.
Born in Northern Ireland, educated at Durham/Southampton universities, but now living in Kent, James likes music, flying, travelling and writing/editing
“In 2017 I decided to take a career break from being a F/T Chief Executive, but still wanted to work with young people to promote their greater participation in public life. I could see opportunities for the youth voice ‘movement’ as a whole to be better connected, sharing and passing on good practice to each new generation, and for young leaders to be instrumental in this process. Inspired by, and still advised by, a group of young leaders and alumni of organisations that I’ve worked with, I set up Young Voices Heard to promote greater youth participation and influence in civil society – in the boardroom, in communities and in the media – as well as starting a campaign for reforms that would embed an equal right to include youth voice in our national institutions.” James
Power of Youth campaigners – “Listen to us, work with us, invest in us”
