Frequently Asked Questions – 11-25 Age Specific Strategies
What's The Big Deal 11-25 Age Specific Strategies about? The 11-25 Age Specific Strategies of The Big Deal aims to create and deliver a coherent approach to participation of children and young people across Northern Ireland. It shares practice, increases children and young peoples participation and builds connections and networks to enable children and young people to make decisions about the things that matter to them and influence public policy and decision making locally. The Big Deal 11-16 and 17-25 Age Specific Programmes are being delivered by the Northern Ireland Youth Forum Big Deal participation worker team with support from the Education and Library Boards (ELBs). A Participation Worker, located in each of the five ELB areas, supports the work of existing and facilitates the development of new and emerging participation structures. They also coordinate innovative programmes for organisations that work with young people. The programmes are designed to achieve the greater participation of young people as decision-makers in the activities and services they take part in. The Hub team seek to support youth participation structures and organisations to review their methods of involving young people and to develop policies, structures, training for staff and programmes to enable young people to contribute at all levels of an organisation. Who can get involved with The 11-25 Age Specific Strategies? The age specific strategies are set up in such a way that young people themselves, youth councils, youth committees or youth forums can get involved. Also, community, voluntary, statutory and private organisations are eligible to take part in the programmes, especially those working with young people in the 11-16 and 17 -25 age ranges who are excluded and/or under-represented and are interested in developing their structure or organisational capacity to involve young people in decision making. We are particularly keen to reach out to and engage, for example, children and young people who have a disability, are looked after or emerging from care, in or have just come out of the juvenile justice system, experiencing poverty, from black and minority ethnic communities or lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered.
How much does it cost? This programme is funded through the Big Lottery Fund and therefore, for those who are successful in the expression of interest process, there is no cost involved. We require only the commitment and willingness to support the programme to increase children and young people’s opportunities within organisations. How can I get involved? There are a few ways of getting involved. If you are a Community, voluntary, statutory or private organization that works with children and young people and you want to involve young people in your work, we accept Expression of Interests a few times a year. Keep an eye on this web page for dates of when this process opens. As well as the web page, we will also be promoting the process through a range of methods such as Youthnet’s electronic newsletter, epipe, and through ELB Youth Services networks. Simply download, complete and return an Expression of Interest form to NIYF and your form will be assessed for eligibility. Young people outside of youth services or structures should contact NIYF directly to explore the options and opportunities available to them, across Northern Ireland. Tel (028) 90331 990 or email niyf@thebigdealni.com How does the Expression of Interest Process work? At each round, the selection process will take account of the size, remit and target groups of structures/organisations previously involved in the programme. This is to ensure that, by the end of the programme we will have reached a balance of organisations that: are local, sub-regional and regional, are part-time and full-time, target young people who are excluded and/or under-represented, are from rural and urban settings across Northern Ireland. We will inform applicants of the outcome of the selection process within 14 days of the closing date. We will then visit short listed organisations and carry out a further assessment. Young people will be involved in the assessment of Expressions of Interest. How does the Organisational Change Programme work?
The organisational change programme aims to support organisations in developing young people’s involvement in the decisions that take place within the organisation. It involves consultation, training, the development of recommendations and a participation plan for each organisation that takes part. Dependant on the nature of the change necessary and the size of the organisation/structure, the length of time that we may be involved ranges from around 6 weeks to 6 months. Does The Big Deal work directly with young people? Direct work with young people is a big element of The Big Deal programme, and is carried out through training programmes, democracy projects for young people, local networking events and consultation exercises. We wish to reach out to and engage the widest possible cross section of young people around Northern Ireland with the aim of developing young people’s decision making ability and bringing about change. (Individually or in a community sense.) Can The Big Deal help us get more young people into our youth clubs? Our role is to help young people get more involved in decision making in any group, centre or participative structure. We believe that if the young people are more involved, they will want to attend more frequently and encourage their friends and family to attend. Can The Big Deal help us recruit young people onto our management committee? We are not responsible for recruiting young people to management committees, however we can provide training on recruitment and running of management committees. Our organisational change programme covers this area. Does The Big Deal provide funding? No, however, children and young people can apply for funding through the The Big Deal small grants programme. Does The Big Deal work with both the Voluntary and Statutory Sectors?
Yes, the five participation workers are based in the five Education & Library Boards but they also work with any organisation that involves children and young people regardles of what sector they are involved in or supported by. What other help and information is available? If you would like further information on the Big Deal 11-25 Age Specific Strategies, please contact: The Big Deal Northern Ireland Youth Forum 68 Berry Street Belfast BT1 1FJ Tel. (028) 9033 1990 niyf@thebigdealni.com www.thebigdealni.com