Children and young people's participation: practice examples

Communic18 co-design champions

As part of the Year of Young People (YoYP) 2018, a group of children and young people, called ‘Communic18’, were recruited by Young Scot to lead on the planning and delivery of YoYP events and activity.

Communic18 was a representative group of 35 young people, aged 8 to 24 from 15 local authority areas, and with a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. The group provided a resource for both young people and organisations taking part in the YoYP 2018. The group acted as young leaders, ensuring organisations planned and delivered their activity for the Year using an ethos of co-design with young people.

Members of Communic18 were split into smaller ‘themed teams’ based around the six themes for the Year (Participation, Health & Wellbeing, Education, Culture, Equality & Discrimination, Enterprise & Regeneration).

Their role was primarily to work in these smaller groups to:

• make sure that YoYP 2018 themed events were co-designed with young people
• plan YoYP 2018 themed events and activities with delivery partners, private organisations, charities, youth groups, interest groups etc.
• help to recruit and support YoYP 2018 Ambassadors across Scotland and attend YoYP 2018 Ambassador Information and Induction Days

The group also designed a Co-design Blueprint to support others in engaging young people in co-designing YoYP activity. Communic18 ensured that the Blueprint was truly reflected across all areas of policy and decision-making at a Scottish Government level throughout the YoYP 2018. This involved members of Communic18 leading ministerial meetings, taking part in project board meetings and supporting senior civil servants to plan for and execute the broad range of key activity which was delivered by the Scottish Government.

A variety of training opportunities were provided for Communic18, which centred around confidence building, asking questions, leadership skills and public speaking. These opportunities enabled the young people to develop their skills and capacities as individuals; whilst also enabling the group to become experts in engaging directly with stakeholders.