Young people are leading our fourth needs analysis this summer to help us build a detailed picture of what it is like growing up in Westminster today.
Our team of youth researchers are speaking directly to their peers across the borough, guided by a new Youth Advisory Board who have helped to shape the project from the outset.
Once completed the findings will help us to shape how YWF and our partners allocate funding, design services and advocate for young people across the borough. Previous needs analyses have helped YWF across several areas. From improving access to mental health support in youth clubs; developing community-led programmes to tackle serious youth violence in the borough through to improving digital wellbeing and providing employability support to local young people.
The report and outputs from this work give our membership accessible, usable evidence to support and promote their work to funders and wider partners.
Youth leadership is shaping the research
For the first time, a Youth Advisory Board is helping to shape and lead the project. Seven young people from different Westminster neighbourhoods have worked with Young Westminster Foundation and our research partner Rocket Science to decide what the research should focus on, how it should be carried out, and how the findings will be used. Their involvement ensures that young people’s priorities shape every stage of the process.
Youth Advisory Board members looked at local data and drew from their own experiences to identify the issues that young people should be asked about. This has guided us when devising interview questions and format, so that we are now well placed to gather the views of young people on the topics that matter most to them.
Research training
In June, YWF recruited 17 youth researchers aged 16 to 25, representing different neighbourhoods and local organisations across Westminster. Their involvement is paid at the London Living Wage and they have each received training in peer research, ethics and safeguarding. They used role play scenarios to practice building trust and listening actively. This approach enables us to build a detailed picture of local needs and to effectively protect participants’ wellbeing.
Together our researchers and Board members have co-designed and tested the research questions. The process has ensured that questions feel more natural and that there’s a good conversational flow for young people, while additional resources have also been developed to make participation more inclusive.
Interviews are getting underway now!
Working in Northwest, Northeast and South locality teams, the youth researchers are now speaking with their peers through local networks, youth organisations and summer activities across Westminster. This hyper-local approach will help capture the different experiences of growing up in each part of the borough.
The team wants to hear from as many young people aged 13 and over as possible.
We’d love to hear from you…
If your organisation works with young people in Westminster and could host the youth researchers at a session, please get in touch. You can email us on info@youngwestminster.com
The more organisations we visit, the more our research will reflect the full breadth of experiences across YWF’s membership and the Westminster community.
