Young Advisors are young people aged between 15 and 21, who stimulate social action by showing community leaders and decision makers how to engage young people in community life, local decision making and improving services.

Working through a social enterprise model, we deliver public service reform helping direct limited resources to where it is needed most.

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YAs from West Somerset, based at Minehead Eye, took their skills on the road recently as they travelled to neighbouring County Devon to train local Councillors there. The YAs ran a series of thought provoking exercises and stimulated some debates around how young people and adults can forge closer working relationships. To read young trustee Sammy Webber's account of the training click here

Alongside Google, FutureGov and Livity, the Royal Society of Arts recently launched an ‘Interactivism’ Challenge for young people. Through this Challenge, they’re asking people of all backgrounds – young people, teachers, council officers, youth workers, social entrepreneurs and professional practitioners – to put forward their suggestions for how technology and the web can be used to help young people find the employment, education or training opportunities that are right for them. This could be anything from a website which directs young people to the job vacancies that suit their interests and skill sets, to a smartphone app which allows them to be in contact with mentors on the go. Ideas don’t have to be fully-formed and participants don’t need to have any kind of technical expertise.

Taking part is simple. Anyone thinking of posting their idea just has to follow three simple steps:

1. THINK: Think about the problems young people face in finding work, education or training

2. CREATE: Put forward your idea for a web tool or software app. Register on ‘simpl’ and then submit your idea on the Google Interactivism Challenge for Young People website. (Be sure to tick the box marked ‘Interactivism’ to enter it in the Challenge)

3. MAKE: If your idea is a good one, Google software engineers and social innovators will work together to build it into a working software prototype at a Hack event

The competition will be open until the 25th January, after which they’ll be shortlisting the best ideas and inviting those behind them to a ‘Hackathon’ weekend in February. At the event, participants will be paired with Google software engineers to turn their ideas into working software prototypes, with the winning team being awarded a set of Google Chromebooks for their efforts. They will also be coordinating voluntary assistance to help winning participants further develop their ideas after the Hackathon event. So get designing!!!!

Young people from Waltham Forest met with Ken Livingstone recently to discuss community issues and challenges with him. To read more about the event and our Waltham Forest YAs click here

A team of Young Advisors and young people from Catch22 met with the riots panel on Monday 24th October. You can find out more by clicking here and you can find out how you too could give evidence!

Merton Young Advisors have certainly been busy since they trained back in February 2011; they have spent an industrious six months forging closer links with local councillors, worked on panels for Positive Activity funding and completed training in order to undertake a research project for a Pan-London Safeguarding Children Culture & Faith Project. To learn more about their recent work read this case study or have five minutes with Daisy, a Merton YA, and read about the project from her point of view

Young people and the local council at Waltham Forest felt strongly that there should be a formal opportunity to discuss the recent rioting in London with youth groups engaged with the local authority, local councillors and senior members of the police force.

The event, organised by the Youth Involvement officer and Cllr Karen Bellamy, was incredibly successful with over 20 councillors and 20 young people attending as well as two senior police inspectors. It was moved to the council chamber because of numbers and the adults present were very impressed with the positive work that young people from the Youth Involvement groups had been doing. For more information click here

Responding to the recent UK riots, Sandwell hosted their very own Question Time event to debate the causes and discuss the solutions! With over 60 people attending – including young people, community workers, youth workers and organisation representatives – the event was a great success and sparked some very interesting discussion! For more information, click here

Our new West Midlands Young Advisors, trained at our recent Summer School, have put together a video based around the U-Turn project, Dudley. By exploring what's great about their neighbourhood, but also highlighting the things that need to change, they've put together the perfect example for any new Young Advisor of the value of the knowledge young people hold about their community. Check it out!

Young Advisors were commissioned by Andy Winning of the Dudley Community Safety Team to carry out an evaluation with the young people who were involved in the Staysafe project. The evaluation aimed to find out how successful and effective the scheme was in changing young people’s attitudes towards anti social behaviour along the issues associated to ASB.

To find out more, check out our case study.

We've been on our travels to the East Midlands recently to visit one of our newest teams, Leicester Young Advisors, as they support the work of their local National Citizen Service team. Check out our case study for more info!

Three Sheffield Young Advisors, Luke Ellie and Emma met with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on 12th August 2011. Just days after the riots, they highlighted the positive work that young people do in the city. Check out the case study for more information!

Our team of Young Advisors in Marsh Farm, Luton, were recognised by Bedforshire police for their continued efforts to improve community safety. Check out the full story by visiting our new case study.