Doncaster Council Young Advisors

Doncaster Young Advisors help organisations and local services improve their products and delivery to make them more young people friendly

Summary

Doncaster Young Advisors are a newly formed team of young people aged 16-24 who bring unique expertise and knowledge about being young to influence strategic planning, decision-making and marketing within Doncaster Young People’ services.

Our role is to help organisations and local services improve their products and delivery and to make them more young people friendly. We are employed and co-ordinated by Doncaster Council and use a variety of methods to ensure that young people are given the chance to be meaningfully involved in service design, delivery and evaluation.

We understand we all have our own strengths and weaknesses as a team, so we continually work to learn from each other and widen our own individual skill sets, while still understanding we don’t have to perfect at everything. A skill that all of us share is the ability to communicate and work well with fellow young people, not only as a young person but in a professional manner during focus groups and consultations.

Work We Can Deliver:

  • Campaigns
  • Inspections
  • Report Writing
  • Youth Proofing documents
  • Consultations 
  • Events 
  • Recruitment & Selection
  • Commissioning

Our Projects:

Children and Young Peoples Plan

Young Advisors have developed Doncaster Councils Children’s and Young People’s Plan 2022-25. The C&YP Plan has 8 ambitions and will have the ultimate goal of making Doncaster 'the most Child Friendly Borough in the Country’ and by that we mean; a safe, happy, healthy, connected and inclusive place for all Children and Young People. This plan has been designed by young people for young people and is a bright,  colourful, interesting and holds the attention of its readers. The plan can be viewed here: Children & Young Peoples Plan 22-25

Mental Health and Wellbeing Resources 

Since forming in 2019 the team have worked hard on improving Mental Health and Wellbeing for Children and Young People in Doncaster. Recently they were commissioned by the NHS CCG to help shape and develop a new CAMHS service called ‘With Me In Mind’ which was part of a National Trailblazer. For this project the Young Advisors developed the following resources to encourage Children and Young People to talk about their Mental Heath and Wellbeing. 

Super Sam Story Book
A book developed for Primary aged children which tells the story of a young boy called Sam who experiences some feelings that he can’t quite explain, but realises that these feelings are normal and the best way to deal with them is to talk to someone.  
Super Sam Book

Sam & Evie Lockdown 
Following the events of the pandemic and the effect it has had on so many children the Young Advisors developed another story book as a follow on from Super Sam. This book tells the story of best friends Sam and Eviie and how their lives have changed and sends an uplifting message to let children know they are not alone.
Sam and Evie Book

Mental Health Film
A powerful film which focuses on some common mental health issues faced by young people including anxiety, exam stress and body image, and encourages young people to talk to someone.
Mental Health Film

  

Child Friendly Logo

Doncaster Young Advisors helped create a vibrant logo, to encapsulated a Child Friendly Doncaster. Our aim is to become the most ‘Child Friendly Borough in the Country’. The development of the Child Friendly Status is defiantly the way to achieve this. Some of the Young Advisors sit on the Youth Advisory Board who constructed 'Child Friendly Doncaster', including the participation principles, child friendly training and certificates. The team are constantly designing new logos and posters for the work we do and the Child Friendly Logo is a great example of that.

Peer Mentoring

The team were approached by the Transition Service and asked to create a promotional film to encourage Schools to implement peer-mentoring within their settings, the purpose being to support children and young people that are moving up into a new year group, a new student and for any students that just want someone to talk to another young person. The team produced a short film promoting the benefits of peer-mentoring, this film forms part of the training package delivered by the Transition Service to all Schools that sign up to peer-mentoring. You can view the film on YouTube: Peer Mentoring Film

Anti-Bullying Resources

The team helped raise awareness of anti-bullying and got young people involved by running their own  campaign during Anti-Bullying Awareness Week. For the campaign the team developed various printable colouring in sheets for schools to use as a resource, encouraging children to write, colour and share #OneKindWord which was the Anti- Bullying Alliances theme for 2021. The team also produced special podcasts discussing the main issues surrounding bullying, what can be done for those being bullied or those who know of someone experiencing bullying. These podcasts are available on Spotify, YouTube and Instagram

 

Be The Kind Kid - Anti-Bullying Book 

We have recently developed another resource book to raise awareness around anti-bullying and the impact it can have on children. The book tells the story of Ellie who decides to set up a kindness club after she hears that Lilly, a girl at school at school is being bullied. The book was launched on 13th November 2023 on World Kindness Day and the start of Anti-Bullying week. Over 55schoolsinDoncaster signed up to receive a copy of the book along with Smudge - the Kindness Kitten mascot. The book and mascots are being used as a resource in the school and children are coming up with ideas on what they can do to be kind. The book has also been shared with students at Schools In Pittsburgh, USA. You can download a copy of the book here:  

https://bit.ly/BeTheKindKidBook

Become a Young Advisor

We currently have no vacant positions available, however, please keep checking the Council Recruitment page as all vacancies will be advertised on there: 

Contact Us

We as Young Advisors can not only get you access to the opinions and experiences of young people but we will also deliver meaningful bespoke analysis to help shape your planning, marketing, communications, product or service development. We will work with you to ensure our research findings provide clear, actionable and specific recommendations to drive engagement and growth. 

If you like the sound of what we do and how we do it, and think we could work together then please get in touch by contacting Mandy Burns on: 

Tel: 01302 737061

email: YoungAdvisors@doncaster.gov.uk

To keep updated on our work please follow us on our social media platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @DoncasterYAS

 

 

 

 

 

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Last updated: 22 December 2023 13:52:35

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