Consultation with young people via a council youth event

A London borough wished to explore the ways in which young people find out about services in their local area, and to discover more about their perceptions of community cohesion. The topic areas meant that more than a simple self completion questionnaire was needed, but budgets were limited. A local youth event offered the opportunity to consult with young people face to face.

We carried out semi structured interviews with over 30 young people attending the event, either singly or in friendship pairs. Interviews were carried out by a small team consisting of an experienced CHILDWISE researcher, plus two field interviewers, all with enhanced CRB checks.

This was a cost effective way of consulting with young people from the Borough, to collect their views and explore further the issues and circumstances that affected them. The feedback proved very valuable to the borough in planning communications, in terms of channels to use and content, and in understanding and monitoring views on community cohesion.