‘Decisions for young people, being made by young people’ – Tom discusses his time on the Youth Voice Wales team

‘I felt a great sense of pride in being able to influence big decisions that will have a positive effect on the young people of Wales’ says Tom.

Tom, 23, was volunteering with charitable organisation The National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) when he decided to join the Youth Voice Wales Team with The National Lottery Community Fund. He has been a part of the Team since October 2021 and in that time, has been involved in co-developing ‘Mind our Future’ a £10 million National Lottery funded programme to support young people’s mental health and resilience in Wales. From decision-making to application assessment, Tom and the team were part of the process every step of the way.

“This experience was invaluable to me. It’s been great to be able to influence decisions being made that are important to us as young people and being able to make a difference.”

The team were not only able to make invaluable and crucial decisions about who were funded and the issues that they thought needed tackling first, but also, they were able to work on important skills.

Tom said, “Since working with the Youth Voice Wales Team I’ve got better making my own decisions and having confidence in them, having confidence in speaking out, and learning to be more assertive with the decisions I am making and being able to better debate the pros and cons of each possible outcome.”

Led by the National Lottery, this group of Young People have been able to take control of a large-scale decision-making process that has given then experience that will follow them onto their next steps in whatever paths they choose.

The Youth Voice Wales Team support The National Lottery Community Fund’s Youth Voice strategy. Its purpose is to achieve our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) visions through youth voice, bringing diversity of thought and lived experience expertise in the areas where most of our funding is distributed. Through the Youth Voice strategy, we want to: -

• Build the Fund’s knowledge and learning on Youth Voice, so that all understand the value and importance of Youth Voice.
• Embrace EDI in our approach to attract future staff and leaders, as well as grant applicants.
• Act as a bridge between young people and our influential platforms to be a catalyst for change.
  
• Co-design future funding and engagement strategies with young people to ensure lived experience is embedded throughout our grant making.
  
• Place young people as experts within our models, as examples of participatory grant making.
  

Across the Fund we have now recruited groups of young people to work with us as influencers, advocates, researchers, consultees, and decision makers. We have learned a great deal from working with members of the Youth Voice Wales Team through their involvement in Mind our Future and their wider involvement in our Wales Committee strategy days and Wales Portfolio Review.

What was the involvement of the young people in the programme “Mind our Future?”

The young people’s involvement Mind our Future (MOF) is best understood in the context of the Fund’s wider commitment to participatory grant making, i.e. placing an emphasis on exploring different models for shifting power in grant-making decisions to the communities impacted by them. In essence the young people’s involvement in MOF included:

• agreeing a programme name
• communicating and promoting the programme to stakeholders
• developing application materials and programme guidance
• assessment and decision-making
• conducting media interviews to celebrate the announcement of the nine awards.

To mark the #powerofyouth month we produced this film that captures the process of the Youth Voice Team Wales’ involvement in shaping and co-designing Mind Our Future programme