Youth Action Teams

Young people co-producing system change

Our Youth Action Team programme supports young people to design their own programmes to address issues they feel passionate about.

This model relies on a peer-led approach where young people draw on their lived experiences, knowledge, and views to identify concerns and formulate their ideas for improvements and solutions.

Through a youth-led, creative, and participatory approach, young people are supported to organise peer to peer activities, consultations, campaigns, and events to ensure their voices and ideas are heard. Key to the programme is the engagement of service providers and strategists who are committed to work with young people in finding youth-led solutions to improve the quality and access of services.

FYA utilises its extensive partner network with statutory and community service providers to ensure young people engage with decision makers at the right time in the strategic planning process.

“I do feel like my confidence improved. I have really bad social anxiety and don't feel comfortable talking to people I don't know or putting my hands up to speak even in school, but this group has helped me feel a little more confident.”

“Exiting CAMHS is hard as a young person who experiences low mood and other negative emotions that come with it. The transition is debilitating, making you feel as though you’re just being let off into the harsh realities of the world without being eased into it.”

“Participating in the FYA ‘CAMHS to Community’ project was an opportunity that I’ll never forget. It has allowed me to speak on issues that are so stigmatised and advocate for young people who are experiencing difficulties.”

“The youth that are part of ethnic backgrounds deserve to have an experience and opportunity like such. Shedding light on diversity and mental health within ethnic minorities is so important to me as a young Arab Muslim woman.”

“I hope that there are more opportunities out there, not only for me, but for other young people who want to get out there and gain some sort of practical experience, and to provide them with a solid understanding on how it feels to network with professionals, while engaging in fun projects that emphasise the impertinence of these issues.”

In partnership between Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and FYA, we ran a pilot project to provide a safe space for young people who had just exited the CAMHS service, as a transition back to community services; to receive peer support, learn new skills, increase in wellbeing and confidence, engage in discussion and have fun. The young people were trained in peer mentoring as part of building peer support. Through group discussions and interactive participation, they realised their similar experiences, issues and recommendations. Young people created a film including their recommendations, such as the vital role peer support could play both when exiting, but also perhaps for young people waiting to receive CAMHS support.

A workshop was then held with a group of CAMHS staff and clinicians, facilitated by one of the young people, providing insight into how the group was run and a taster of activities and discussions with staff. The young person also shared her experience in the pilot project through a poem they had wrtten and recommendations for implementation for another group. An immediate outcome of the workshop was an offer of involvement for the group with Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) where young people can be paid to support the continual improvement of different aspects of CAMHS.

A new group for any young person from CAHMS is due to start in August 2024, with two young people returning to help facilitate sessions. They will also help the new cohort of young people with peer support and to identify action to implement the recommendations and any new recommendations that may arise. The project was highlighted in the Publication ‘Children and Young People Now’ and you can watch the film below

Young people involved in the CAMHS to Community programme share their experiences of being involved

Fitzrovia Youth in Action supported young people from Elfrida Rathbone to run two run campaigns aimed at improving understanding of their accessibility needs.

The first campaign was organised in partnership with both Elfrida Rathbone and Camden Council’s Count Me In Project. Our tailored approach included team building through weekly sessions combining fun activities with skill-building workshops focused on mental health and other hands-on activities. The programme's multisensory approach included arts and crafts, visual aids, and accessible resources to meet the young people's needs.

The group decided to focus their campaign on highlighting the challenges faced by people with disabilities when traveling on London transport. Through a creative process, young people developed ideas, participated in a photography competition, and produced scripts for a film called "Give us Access". Overall, the programme fostered relationship-building, individual engagement, and provided a platform for participants to voice their perspectives. The film can be viewed below.

Following this, we worked with young people from Elfrida Rathbone who wanted to address accessibility in health services for young people with learning disabilities. We supported the group to plan a 'mystery shop' programme, targeting several Camden health services. A total of seven visits were conducted to services ranging from pharmacies to GPs and sexual health clinics. During the visits, young people met with staff to find out more about the services on offer and talk about their needs and issues. As part of the project, the group also organised a pop-up consultation at Leighton college, which supports young people with special educational needs and disabilities. Through the pop up, they were able to gain the feedback and recommendations from 30 additional young people about their experiences of using Camden health services.

At the end of the programme, young people presented their findings and recommendations to health service managers and Camden Council staff. Feedback from the group has been shared with local health teams and will be used to help inform service improvements.

The "Give Us Access" film explores the challenges people with disabilities face when travelling on London transport.

The Feed Your Community group was a collaboration between FYA and the Felix project and sought to help reduce food waste and provide food to those in need. Our 2023 Ambassador consultation had indicated that anxieties regarding food access and food poverty were impacting young people. Initial work between Felix and FYA indicated that the group were most concerned for homeless people locally during the winter. The group then organised to collect surplus food on a weekly basis from a partnering organisation of Felix Project, supported by Deliveroo, who also wanted to reduce food waste. The donated items included items that could no longer be sold such as dented cans, food soon to pass it’s best before date or fruit and veg that was considered ‘wonky’ and could not be sold. Young people collected and then delivered these items to a local homeless and refugee centre identified by Felx Project, who then used the food to make hot meals.

Young people showed unwavering commitment collecting and delivering the food, choosing to continue volunteering beyond the origonal end date of the project. FYA is now part of the Tackling Poverty forum with Camden Council, which includes the Food Mission, to continue assessing how young people can be part of designing responses to food inequality in Camden.

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About Fitzrovia Youth in Action

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Youth Action Teams

Young people co-producing system change

Project in Numbers

Youth Action Teams in Numbers

*based on 2023-24 annual report

7

69%

60