Democracy through Citizenship
Case Studies - an ongoing piece of work
Young People Making Decisions in their Neighbourhood
The Project, York Council, The Youth Service and a local College have been working together on a scheme where young people from the college have organised a process whereby young people can express their views about their neighbourhood.
Specifically young people are able to put forward ideas about how their neighbourhoods can be improved and their priorities for how money should be spent.
Each ward in York has a ward committee. The ward committee has a budget to be spent on improvements to the local area, decisions being made by the ward committee. Young people's views have been under-represented in this process.
A core group of 12 young people from the school met weekly to plan the process.
The first step was to organise a process to gather views of other young people within the college. The process they chose was straightforward, setting up a stall and display outside the college canteen each break and lunchtime. Other students gave a suggestion and received a token reward of a sweet.
276 suggestions were put forward covering issues such as:
- Personal safety
- Play areas
- Somewhere to go!
- Litter bins and dog dirt bins
- Transport
The next step will be the group producing materials for use within citizenship lessons so that young people can decide on their priorities.
For more details of the project to contact us by e-mail info@citizen.org.uk