On this page we’ve tried to address some of the most commonly asked questions that we get at the National Charity. This is of course a work in progress – if you have a question that needs answering, or indeed an answer to a question that needs asking please get in touch on….

info@youngadvisors.org.uk

But don’t just take our word for it – read some interviews with our Leads on the ground who are tackling challenges and busting barriers every day with and on behalf of their Young Advisor teams

To read interviews with leads from our movement click here

Most of our projects have put Young Advisors onto casual consultant contracts or zero hour sessional contracts - this means the young people can work 'as and when' rather than be contracted to a set amount of hours. Your organisation probably uses this type of contract from time to time with adult consultants/contractors or sessional workers already.

One of our projects, which is based out of a Housing Association, has actually employed the young people directly on a rolling contract. They get paid the basic rate (so less than £8 per hour), and they only get paid for what they do. One advantage of this is that they are entitled to staff benefits (so sickness pay, holiday pay, training sessions etc).

The third option is to identify an external payroll company or friendly charity that will process the pay, tax and insurance of the young people. Some of our groups, who have struggled adding young people to their payroll system due to recruitment freezes etc, use this as an option. The payroll service takes an administration fee however - so usually when YAs charge out at £10 per hour, they get £8 and £2 goes back into the scheme - the £2 here might fund the admin cost rather than aid the sustainability of the project. If you contact your local Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) office they will be able to give you advice on who offers this service locally.

All our groups go about this in different ways. Some host organizations already have groups identified that they would like to train up and some host organisations are starting from scratch.

One thing is for sure though – recruitment is always easier once you have trained up your first cohort of Young Advisors – because they will do the job for you! Young Advisors have access to networks that adults can’t reach, so they will know exactly who to talk to and where to advertise to strengthen the reach of your recruitment process.

If you haven’t already got a YA team why not look to commissioning a neighbouring project to help you with your recruitment? Go to our where-are-we page or get in touch at info@youngadvisors.org.uk to find your nearest team

Ideas…

Mail outs – some groups use this tactic, especially if they can work out where young people are living (so if you are a Housing Association this would work for you)

Posters/flyers – again young people could tell you best where to place print publicity for your recruitment. But a few suggestions could be in youth clubs, schools, GP clinics, libraries etc.

School Assemblies – talking to young people gathered at school is a sure fire way of your message reaching a large audience

Adverts in the local paper/on local radio – lots of our schemes have pursued this tactic, try and get some free space in your local paper, or find out which organizations in the communities send out newsletters

Working through partner organisations – approach other organizations that have a youth portfolio to see if they can nominate appropriate candidates. Is there an arts programme in your area? Could you approach the Youth Offending Team? Can local youth workers suggest anyone they think could benefit from the programme?

I think motivational problems have been universal in most of our YA teams at points! You will know best about whether this is a permanent state of mind and the young people are 'not quite ready' or whether it is something you can work on. We would obviously advocate trying to get them engaged - but we also think its important that the young people are meeting you halfway. Obviously being a YA is an opportunity to influence decision making, learn new skills and ultimately get paid! The YAs have to be motivated to achieve these things.

However…sometimes it takes a little push. Below are some suggestions that have worked for other teams…

Having something to work on
This seems quite obvious, but it's surprising how many teams struggle to think of ways YAs can work and then lose team momentum. Even if this work isn't paid and is more about building profile and getting experience. It could be a piece of research for your organisation or the working up of the presentations the young people prepared for core training. You could also ask the young people what they would like to tackle.

A launch event
Lots of teams 'launch' themselves in the first few months after training. This is generally more successful when teams have done some work - just in terms of showcasing their achievements. Team Sheffield had a very successful launch event. After training they did a couple of pieces of work in their area - including mystery shopping sexual health centres and then presenting their findings at a city wide sexual health care conference. They then hosted a launch event at the Town Hall and invited local councillors, senior managers, youth workers, etc. They presented their Action Walks and talked about what they had tackled so far. As a direct result of this event they were given a significant amount of funding and a remit to look at youth engagement in the city. It certainly worked out as very motivational!

Widen recruitment
Some of the best teams have a very diverse group of young people working together - young people from all different backgrounds and of different ages and experience. So, you might want to target some high achievers from local schools, you could look at including young parents, young people who have been involved in other youth engagement programmes (so UKYP for example), young people who have been through the criminal justice system etc. Just a few suggestions, but this does honestly work. The best teams are really diverse, plus you then have a wide bank of skills and experience to draw upon.

More training
Not to sell our own services but…
We have a wide range of training courses that are designed to aid sustainability of teams and address challenges that teams might be facing. If motivation or engagement is an issue then perhaps looking to our ‘Youth Leadership’ or ‘Team Building’ workshops could help.

If you had a specific piece of work you wanted the young people to work upon we would be happy to work up a bespoke programme that could help you tackle it. See our young-advisors-solutions page for our brochure, courses and costs.

One to Ones
Many of our leads work with their YAs on an individual basis to address problems and make personal development plans. One of our leads tackles lack of engagement by setting soft and hard targets for the young people. So the hard targets might be completing a piece of work, turning up at an event on timeetc, but the soft targets could be stuff like talking to two strangers at a networking event, or being supportive of another team member. She said this approach had worked really well in terms of personal development.

BRINGING THEM TO AGM
One of the absolutely best ways of encouraging your YAs to raise heir game would be to bring them to our annual residential. We take about 80 young people from all over the country to a residential centre in Derbyshire where we do a mixed programme of training and outdoor pursuits. The event is free to all YA members and their leads - but projects have to fund their own transport costs. Groups need to attend with their lead. They will get to meet loads of young people who are doing great things in their community. It’s often a 'penny drop' moment for YAs and their leads as they see the potential avenues they can explore in their own communities. It's really fun too - and free!

Empowerment
This is the young people’s project and will sink or swim based on how much they want to put in. Perhaps working on a 'business plan' or some project aims for the team would help focus them. They could also take a responsibility for future recruitment, perhaps be tasked with organising the launch event or writing a funding application for the transport costs to the AGM. Give them something to do - they either will embrace it or not - but YA projects generally 'vote with their feet' so we have to be led by what the young people feel able to do!