Skip to site navigation

Accessibility Options

Font size

Colour scheme

Making a positive contribution

 
Young people at the Y factor conference told us they want to make a positive contribution to the community by helping and talking to others.

Many young people felt that giving their views was important and really valued the conference as a way of doing that. They would like more of a say on the environment, such as recycling, bins and collections.

What was discussed?

The issues discussed included:

  • helping in the community by fund raising, volunteering or giving
  • keeping the community tidy
  • opinions that can make changes
  • schools councils
  • walking or catching the bus to school or college

Changes

If young people took over the provision of services they would like to:

  • improve the environment – i.e. more street bins for recycling
  • have more youth centres that young people want to go to (safe and friendly)
  • build a place where all bad tagged people go to make everyone else feel safe
  • have more equipment for young people and have better school resources and IT facilities
  • provide more activities for special needs and disabled people, such as better access playgrounds etc.
  • build more football or sports cages
  • build a multi-media space for arts and crafts, music and drama to enable young people to express themselves
  • provide more activities all year (not just summer schemes)

Key suggestions

The key suggestions that came out of the discussion were:

  • Provide and advertise local facilities within schools and colleges more effectively. Young people don’t know what is happening.

  • Encourage young people to participate more in their local community.

  • Provide activities all year round (rather than just the summer) and have a big special event to enable young people to learn about everything on offer and be able to sign up to volunteering opportunities, youth clubs and sporting activities.

A to Z of Services