Youth Participation Service

Havering Youth Service provides a wide range of opportunities for young people to grow and develop new and existing skills, make a positive contribution to their community and, where relevant, reduce their involvement in risky, antisocial or criminal activities.

Havering Youth Service delivers an inclusive service that is available to all young people in Havering, as well as providing targeted and preventative work in partnership Children’s Service and Housing.

85 percent of young people’s waking hours are outside of formal education and what they choose to do in that time can impact upon them in the long term.

Youth work is an educational process that engages with young people in a curriculum built from their lived experience and their personal beliefs and aspirations.

This process extends and deepens a young person’s understanding of themselves, their community and the world in which they live and supports them to proactively bring about positive changes. 

The youth worker builds positive relationships with young people based on mutual respect.

Young people choose to attend a youth provision and engage with youth workers.

The youth workers help young people learn about themselves, others and society, through informal educational activities which combine enjoyment, challenge and learning.

This includes direct contact with young people, street projects and supporting the voice of young people in design delivery and governance of services in a variety of settings.

• Schools / PRU’s/ Alternative Provision
• Community Safety
• Rainham Royals
• On the streets and parks and other contextual settings
• The Youth Offending Service
• The Leaving Care Service and the Cocoon.

The Youth Service also operates the myplace and the Robert Beard Youth and community facilities. 

These centres already have a good reputation with young people and will be valuable assets to further the youth work and provide bases for wider community engagement and participation. 

This is key to maintaining and increasing income to ensure the sustainability of the Youth Service.

Timetable and projects

For further details email us at myplace@havering.gov.uk

Young People’s Participation

Every young person has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them and to have their views considered and taken seriously
Article 12, the UN convention on the rights of the child.

Youth Voice and Participation is about ensuring that children and young people are afforded opportunities to be involved in processes for decision making on issues that affect them. 

This means:

• taking on board their views and then acting upon them
• recognising that children and young people are the experts of their own lived experience
• children and young people set their own agendas that aren’t necessarily the same as adults
• processes should be put in place in order for them to express their ideas and opinions
• acknowledging that children and young people participate in different ways
• creating a learning environment that meets the needs of all
• not doing 'to' but working 'with'
• recognising that children and young people can be our greatest teacher
• Being creative with activities that enables all young people to participate

The Participation Team works with young people through the following provisions.

• Havering Children in Care Youth Club – a fun and engaging club where young people can play pool, chat to worker, make new friends and relax.
• Through a range of exciting events from theatre trips, laser tag though to residentials.
• Peer Mentoring sessions where young people are trained to support each other.
• Through the 'Mind of My Own' App where children and young people can put down their thoughts, and wishes and send them to their Social Worker, or IRO.
• Drama Projects such as 'True Stars' where care experienced young people get to work with professional actors to create a performance that will tell their stories.

There is also the Havering Youth Council that is made up of young people throughout the borough who want to ensure that young people’s voices are heard. They focus on a range of issues from period poverty to mental health.

They work closely with the UK Youth Parliament.

For more details contact us at participation@havering.gov.uk