Dudley Youth Service works with young people to get their views across to people in power in a supported way. This involves providing development opportunities to enable young people to actively participate in policy and decision-making and service development.
Dudley Youth Service work hard to establish and support youth forums to develop and encourage young people to get involved at all levels.
The work we do involves a range of different initiatives from a local level to a national level and provides young people with a range of opportunities to develop their skills and understanding of democracy and decision making processes.
Project/Youth Centre Committees - Young Volunteers
Young people can volunteer and set up committees in order to make decisions and be consulted on issues such as budget spends and planning programmes for activities. Senior Member training for these young people supports their development.
These can also make an impact on the local community and let people know what they would like to change. Some set up campaigns on specific issues, for example - building a local skate park.
Area Youth Forums
These have been set up in the 5 townships across Dudley and provide an opportunity for young people across a township to look at and address issues which affect young people.
Area Youth Forums often have strong links with the local councillors. There is an opportunity to get elected from this group to represent young people borough wide on the Dudley Youth Council.
Dudley Youth Council (DYC)
This youth council was set up in 1997 and is funded and supported by the Youth Service. DYC is a group of young people aged 11-19 who work to improve things for all young people in the borough.
DYC provides the Council and other organisations with the opportunity to work with young people on borough wide policies as well as offering the young people a forum to discuss issues which affect them and other young people.
Young people are elected onto this group from the different youth forums across the borough
UK Youth Parliament (UKYP)
UKYP allows young people to work alongside MP's and Councillors. Dudley signed up to UKYP in 2000 and so far has been a great success.
Every other year a vote is held to elect 4 young members, 2 Members of Youth Parliament and 2 Deputy Members of Youth Parliament who then go on to represent all young people in Dudley at the West Midlands Youth Parliament.
In the 2010 – 2011 elections over 8,500 young people voted from across the borough.
Annual Youth Democracy Event
Young people aged 11 – 19 from across the borough are invited on an annual basis to talk about things that are important to them. It is organised by young people for young people and it an excellent way of bringing together many young people and giving them a chance to speak out about things that affect them.
The feedback from this event form the basis of a manifesto for the Youth Council and Members of Youth Parliament to take forward locally, regionally and nationally.
For any information about the participation work within the Youth Service, please contact:
