Staf Participation Consultant Kevin Lafferty shares his reflections on this important piece of work.

It has been a busy couple of month for Youth Justice Voices! Especially because for now some of the members have become Youth Justice Visionaries. Care and justice experienced young people who have been asked by the Scottish Government to share their visions of what youth justice should look like in Scotland for the next few years.

The visionaries are creating online workshops and engaging with other young people throughout this month, collecting more visions to further influence a youth justice strategy which is led by the young people it’s to work for. As well as planning online workshops the group have already taken part and reworded questions already asked by the government, making them more to the point and young person focused.

This work is not easy and the Youth Justice Visionaries will be paid for their contribution! Their work for the next month is planned and structured by them using Zoom and Padlet to organise where the Visionaries are with their consultation. This is not all! Also in August the young people shared their visions of what a safe space would look and feel like for a child who may have come into conflict with the law.

This is an exciting time for Youth Justice Visionaries, the members are focused more than ever, proud they are getting their voices heard and getting paid for their contribution. 

 

Youth Justice Visionaries are running consultation sessions tailored to your participation group or organisation throughout September to help young people share their views on key youth justice issues: to book a session contact ruth@staf scot. Workers can also support young people to share their views and influence The Scottish Government via topic guide, which you can view and download here - the deadline for submissions is 30^th September.

'Youth Justice Voices' is a Scotland-wide participation project, jointly run by Staf and The Children and Young People's Centre for Justice (CYCJ) and funded by The Life Changes Trust, which seeks to amplify the voices of care and justice experienced young people (aged 16-25) to influence national change.