It’s Wednesday morning and I’m writing this on a train up to Aberdeen. Since the beginning of the year, I have gotten quite familiar with the 8.40am train from Glasgow to Aberdeen, as every second Wednesday myself and Hannah run Youth Justice Voices North East.

Youth Justice Voices is our national youth-led participatory project for care and justice experienced young people aged between 16-25. Since February 2023 the project has been running in the North East, working to amplify the voices and experiences of young people in the area. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been meeting regularly with the group, and I’ve been getting to know them and the city in which they live.

It’s hard to distil our conversations into a few hundred words, but what I can do, is give you an overview of some of things we have been focusing on. We have spent some time exploring our identity as a steering group, identifying areas of focus, re-imaging our logo and welcoming new members into the group. Mia and Victoria, our colleagues at Staf, joined us in early April, and delivered a whole session all about the power of branding, how logos work and helped us imagine something new for YJVNE. This has really helped us to strengthen our ideas about how we outwardly present our identity and values as a group. We’re still in the feedback loop, but we’re hoping we’ll be able to share our new logo soon!

We have also spent time discussing individual and collective voice, exploring the spaces and places where we feel empowered and listened to, and understanding the impact of that not happening. We’ve also discussed, Aberdeen and the changes we would make to the city. A large part of our focus recently has been on change generally, our feelings towards it, whether change is actually possible and what it might feel like. Our conversations about change have led us to preparing something for taking part in the Participation Network Gathering in June. The gathering titled, Thinking Outside the Tick Box: Moving Beyond Consultations and Surveys, is our inspiration, and the group are excited to share their experiences of participation projects, how change is enacted and what could be done better.

Throughout all of our sessions, and even whilst navigating difficult conversations, the group has consistently brought their open, honest, and important reflections, ideas and actions for future change. It continues to be a pleasure travelling up to Aberdeen and hanging out with this brilliant group of people.

Jack, who wrote this blog, is Staf’s Youth Development Worker leading on the work in the North East. If you’re reading this and have any questions, or think you or someone you know might like to be involved, please reach out to Jack.