Youth spaces vs. disabled youth spaces
By Sophie Mattholie, TLF Adviser I’ve spent a lot of time in various youth spaces in the past few years. Most notably as an advisor onThe Listening Fund, and as a Trustee at a youth-led disability charity called The LUNA Project, both ofwhich I was lucky enough to get to talk about on episodes of […]
Our partners’ top lessons in listening to young people
As the grant period for our first cohort came to a close, we worked with a few of our partners to reflect on their learning journey in listening to young people. We dug into what inspired them to deepen their listening, the different approaches they had put in place, the benefits and challenges they experienced […]
Data and Dialogue: The Mix’s Journey to inclusive listening
Italia Jenson and Bohdana Dock, The Mix What we do The Mix is the UK’s leading digital charity for under 25s, reaching over 6 million young people each year. Whatever issue a young person is facing, The Mix is always there for them – via our website, over the phone or via social media with […]
“How can we work both with and against the system?”
By Dave Close, Executive Director, Hot Chocolate Trust This question was posed by Prof. Momodou Sallah (DeMontfort University) at Scotland’s National Youth Work Conference this month. It says something about the weird mentality of youth work that an idea that might seem impossible, also seems inevitable. As youth workers we repeatedly find ourselves living this […]
Five tips for setting up a youth advisory board
Author: Nicky Crabb, Director, Little Green Pig In 2019, Little Green Pig got an #iwill Fund grant to help us set up our first ever youth board; a long held desire for the organisation, as we are always trying to improve the ways we centre the voices of the children and young people we work […]
The softer skills needed for safe listening spaces
Claudia Elliot, Communications at Listening Fund’s Learning Partner, Collective Discovery Creating safe spaces for effective listening to young people requires skill. But which skill(s), exactly? We spoke to a group of Listening Fund partners to explore what different types of expertise were proving particularly valuable in their work. And whilst ‘hard’ skills – such as […]
How do you set up a great youth board?
Insights from Listening Fund partners on Youth Boards and Advisory Groups By Claudia Elliot, Collective Discovery We have been exploring the many ways youth sector organisations, and others, can increase their accountability to young people – listening to them in order to serve them better, and improve their organisation’s impact. Youth boards and advisory groups […]
The benefits and challenges of listening to young neurodiverse people
Author: Kerry Hunter, Early Years Neurodiversity Specialist and National Neurodiversity Youth Council Co-ordinator, ADHD Foundation What we do The ADHD Foundation is the UK’s leading neurodiversity charity, offering a strength-based, lifespan service for the 1 in 5 of us who live with ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, DCD, Dyscalculia, OCD, Tourette’s Syndrome and more. We offer national […]
Listening with Youth Ambassadors at KRAN
Author: Fawzia Worsley, Youth Engagement Coordinator for Kent Refugee Action Network The Listening Fund has helped KRAN to properly listen to our young people: even though we knew that we needed to understand young refugees better, we also felt that we probably knew better. Such is the way of adults. What we do at KRAN […]
Listening to staff with lived experience
Author: Mari Eggins, Chief Executive of Carefree Cornwall I work for Carefree, a Cornish charity that would not exist if, as founding CEO, I hadn’t listened to what young people told me. How Carefree began Carefree began in the early 2000’s, employing me as its first worker from January 2005. As a foster carer who […]