Welcome to Our Voices Heard, we have been in existence for 2 and a half years and continue to grow and gather local children, young people and young adult’s voices. We are funded solely to gather the voice of our local children, young people and young adults on specific topics that can be used to influence strategic change within service and delivery.
Criteria
- To be aged 0 to 25
- Live or access services in the Solihull borough
- Have a Special Educational Need and/or Disability
What we do
We have several areas of our business that ensures we capture a diverse range of children, young people and young adult voices. We provide a free membership for anyone to sign up to, this enables us to ensure people are aware of our work and the events we run.
Ambassadors
We currently have 12 young ambassadors. These young people assist Our Voices Heard with meetings, events that we attend or provide, and they also can take part in small projects that are commissioned by other professionals. This all strengthens the collection of young voices about how they feel their community is and if they wish to suggest any changes. It is free to become one of our ambassadors, if this is something you would like more information about please feel free to email us.
Education Participation Sessions
We work closely with local schools and educational settings to spend time with young people to allow them to have their say. On rotation, we visit schools and work with small groups, up to 8 young people allowing them a safe space to discuss what is going well and what may not be going so well. These voices are then gathered anonymously and taken to strategic meetings to influence change. For education settings to work with us, all we ask is for a secure space, groups of up to 8 young people and a member of school staff to be present to oversee the group and to ensure everyone’s safety.
Evening participation sessions
We provide a variety of evening sessions, once a month for children, young people and young adults up to 25 years old to attend. These sessions are relaxed and allow our young people to meet with professionals to discuss relevant topics. We will provide light refreshments and there will also be some arts and crafts activities to do if the young person wishes.
Parents, carers and any caring adult are more than welcome to attend however all we ask is that ALL attendees complete a Microsoft form to register their attendance. This is so we have an idea on numbers attending and ensures we are compliant with our insurance policies.
Growth
We are always looking to grow our membership database, ambassador team and our school and evening participation sessions. If you would like to become involved, please send us an email to [email protected]
