Building a Culture of Participation

Increasingly acceptance of the principle of children’s involvement is being turned into practice through a variety of participation activities across a range of organisations. But some have difficulty in translating their commitment into practice that is meaningful for children and young people, which is effective in bringing about change and which becomes embedded within the organisational ethos. This Handbook draws on the findings of a research study that explored the experiences of 29 organisations in seeking to listen to young people and to take action on what they said. The research points to this being most likely to succeed where organisations had worked to sustain and embed their participation activity. This Handbook and the accompanying research report Building a Culture of Participation* both aim to stimulate thinking and to provide useful ideas about how to actively involve children and young people within services and policy making.