Youth Voice & Influence Service
Who are the Youth Voice and Influence Service?
The Youth Voice and Influence Service are a team of professionally qualified Youth and Community Workers who all have a passion for ensuring young residents voices in the city are heard.
What is Youth Voice & Influence?
By Youth Voice & Influence we mean listening to young residents, valuing what we hear and acting upon it to make positive change.
We support and empower young people to shape, lead and produce their own activities and programmes.
We ensure that we have the mechanisms in place to support young people to be involved in decision making at all levels.
Are you a young resident interested in having a Voice?
Do you have any issues you would like to see addressed?
Is there something you would like to change for the better, whether that be locally, regionally, or nationally?
Do you want to get involved in creating this change?
If you answered ‘YES’, please fill out the expression of interest form. The team will then get in touch with you about the opportunities that would best suit you:
https://forms.office.com/e/NmxvbN3hg2
What can young residents get involved in?
We support various groups in Sheffield. These groups give young residents aged 11– 25yrs a way to have their say and work on projects they care about. Here are some examples:
- SENDing Voices – This group is for young residents aged 13 to 25yrs with a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND). It is for those who want to help make things better for young people with SEND.
- SYP YPIAG - The group allows young residents aged 13yrs to 25yrs to give direct feedback to the police on issues that matter to them and others. It also gives the opportunity for joint campaigns to make Sheffield a safer place for all residents.
- Community Young Advisors – There are numerous groups across the city for young residents aged 11 - 17yrs that gives the opportunity to engage with decision makers and influence change in their local area.
- Sheffield Youth Cabinet – This is the citywide voice group for young residents in Sheffield. There are 35 elected young people (5 per Local Area Committee area). Elections take place once every 2 years and you need to be 11 to 17yrs old to stand in the elections. The youth Cabinet also have special interest/ link seats (which go up to aged 25) to try to ensure a diverse range of voices are represented.
- Sheffield UK Youth Parliament – We have 3 young residents elected as Members of UK Youth Parliament for Sheffield. They lead on national campaigns and the bi-annual Make your Mark Survey. Elections take place once every 2 years and you need to be 11 to 17yrs old and already elected to the Youth Cabinet to be able to stand for one of these roles.
What other ways can I get involved?
The team undertake a lot of consultations around things that matter to young residents. They link regularly with decision makers to make sure young residents voices are heard and listened too. If you would like to suggest an issue for one of the groups to work on please email details to youth.cabinet@sheffield.gov.uk
The group can then look at the issue on your behalf.
For more information please call 0114 205 7450 or email youth.services@sheffield.gov.uk