Bristol Young Advisors create the DISC Agency

Before the New Deal for communities' Young People's Programme came on board in 2000, there was nothing in the Barton Hill area for young people to do. Participation in the area started with the development of a young people's forum, which young people were interested in because they had never come across anything similar before. For the first time, someone was showing an interest in what young people had to say, they were able to go to conferences with other youth forums across the country, sit on the Community at Heart board to represent young people and get involved with the development of their neighbourhood.

Many of these young people did hundreds of hours of voluntary work within their community when the Young Advisors Pilot Scheme was announced. Bristol put in a bid to run the project but were unsuccessful, however we were told that if we had the money, we could set it up ourselves. In the end the Department for Communities and Local Government informed us that they had some money that we could use to train up young people to become Young Advisors. We took full advantage of that and soon had 9 Young Advisors trained up. They have now been running their own business, part funded by Community at Heart since October 06.

During their time in training, the Bristol Young Advisors took the opportunity to come up with their own business name and catch-phrase, calling themselves the DISC Agency, we are the people, you are the voice, it's your community, it's your choice. They then looked at their aims and objectives, coming up with some very creative ideas for their business to benefit young people in the community. As part of this, they realised that there was a need to apply for funding so that they could rent their own office space and set up as their own business. The group were successful in applying for the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital fund receiving a total of £14809.66.

This funding was to be used for a variety of activities including holding a launch event, creating publicity for their business, getting hold of their own office space and equipment so that they can set up as a proper business and setting up their own website which will act as a type of forum for young people to access for any issues that arise. The Young Advisors DISC Agency have been involved in facilitating workshops at conferences for Bristol City Council, Voscur and Connexions. They have also been involved in doing consultation and evaluation on the services available for young people in their area. They are currently working on developing holiday activity schemes for young people and have plans to roll out the Young Advisors' Scheme across Bristol, manage forums, grants panels and work on developing young people's services across Bristol and the South West.

The young people involved in the scheme are full of endless ideas and creativity and have worked tirelessly to make the Bristol Young Advisors a success. They are looking forward to developing their business further and working with young people across the city to empower them to make successful changes in their communities.