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Youth Voice: listening to young people to shape activities

Felt covered pinboards with post it notes of young peoples opinions

Leap have been gaining the thoughts, opinions and experiences of young people in their focus on listening: Youth Voice. This article explains why they think it is crucial, the different ways they have gathered information and their key learnings. We hope it is useful to you on your journey ‘listening to understand’

Sports and physical activity participation for children and young people has been programme centred for decades. Our own experience of childhood is very different to that of today’s young people, especially if they have different backgrounds, interests and abilities to our own.

28.2% of children in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes are active for less than 30 minutes per day (Sport England Active Lives Survey Academic year 22-23). Leap want to address this. They value inclusion and the opportunity for every child to participate in school sport and physical activity, particularly those young people who would not usually take part.

Why Youth Voice?
  • To develop physical activity they wish to engage with
  • We have an obligation through the UN convention on the Rights of the Child which in Article 12 states that children have the right to be listened to and taken seriously.

“Initially we stepped back and asked ourselves how often young people were asked for their thoughts. What language did we use? How did we ask”

Listening

To inform their work Leap embarked on a joint research project with the Open University Centre for Children and Young People’s Wellbeing and other interested partner organisations. Their aim is to discover what young people want for their physical activity. Leap were clear they wanted more than a ‘tick box exercise’: it was important that they were conscious and meaningful, and that responses inform future work.

Leap have tested different ways to understand and learn from the young people:

  • Forums and Focus Groups
  • Observation
  • Direct Questioning
  • Interactive surveys: such as Post It Notes, boxes to drop responses into.

 

Leap held forums with participants. They, as you would expect, began with little interaction but as confidence developed they found the young people were keen to share their opinions!

 

Focus groups with young people in Bletchley, Milton Keynes showed the importance of how questions were phrased: for example Leap found terms such as physical activity and wellbeing were not commonly understood. For many young people who do not participate in traditional sports in their free time, their only experience is likely to be from school PE lessons. ‘What do you like to do in your spare time’ or asking about their sources of fun and enjoyment gave more useful responses.

 

Observation has been key: you can observe joy! An example was at The Radcliffe School when they watched students excitedly choose to return to their cheerleading club after a school football match.

As part of the Opening Schools Facilities investment process Leap ask how have young people influenced the project that the school has proposed. This ensured young people have shaped the project and is based on their needs. Aspire is a great example: they turned an empty space into a gym as this was something the young people requested. They then further listened by creating a challenge board due to feedback from the young people.

 

At July’s School Games festival, whilst inter-school competitions were offered, the main focus of this day was to offer a positive experience of movement to less active young people. Leap asked the students how they felt before and after their events by chatting to them. They received honest feedback:

 

“To be honest, I only signed up to get out of school, but it’s been great. We learnt how to do tricks and some new skills. I’m going to tell everyone back at school about it and tell them we had ice cream after.”

“I’ve gone from barely knowing how to ride a bike to standing up on one; it feels like I’ve just had lots of sugar!”

“I don’t like it. I don’t like most sports. When can we leave?”

 

Leap tested different ways of using interactive surveys.
At Lead The Way (an event providing young people with Special Educational Needs the opportunity to gain skills for leading, coaching and delivering movement and physical activity opportunities) students were asked to put their thoughts anonymously on post notes and stick them on the wall. They received one word answers which weren’t able to influence future events. At the next event they will ask them to post their reflections on a 1-10 scale to gain more effective feedback.

Following the same event a survey was sent to schools: response was low and the completed surveys still contained one word answers. A change of approach for future surveys!

Leap have also tested a token box at School Games events. Initially they asked ‘Did you enjoy your day?’ but have developed this to ask questions such as ‘What makes a good coach?’ to inform our coach education. The answers to the latter question (mainly around fun) will lead to further questions like ‘What is fun?’ for future events.

Key Learning

Key learnings so far are:

  • Avoiding jargon. Terms such as ‘wellbeing’ and ‘physical activity’ as these are not commonly understood phrases. Instead, ask what the young people like to do in their free time.
  • Engaging a story telling specialist at events to gain young people’s opinions was incredibly informative.
  • You can receive feedback by simply observing a session.
  • Try different ways of listening. Post it notes can generate one word answers, but used creatively they may give more useful information.
Where next?

Feedback is helping shape future events to help them appeal to students who don’t usually attend sports activities. Leap will be clear about what will be happening to allay any fears, arranging more and smaller events, and continue to offer activities such as BMX, Skateboarding and ‘activity stations’.
Looking ahead, they will develop consistent gathering of youth voices across all of their events. By reflecting on testing, they can ensure that the information we gain accurately reflects the opinions of the young people.

“Through listening to young people’s voices we can understand how to create activities they enjoy, can advocate to others and potentially continue”

Leap would love to hear from you if you share their interest in hearing what young people have to say. They have no pre-conceived ideas about what ‘active’ means – except that staying active often contributes to wellbeing and is fun and enjoyable. Email rhsmith@leapwithus.org.uk for more information.

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