Year: 2025

Youth Voice and Participation Handbook

Sound Connections has been experimenting with Youth Voice & Participation since 2008. We were inspired by research produced by the Participation Works consortium, partnership founded to further understanding and practice of youth voice, particularly across the voluntary youth sector. We were especially influenced by the milestone report, Building a Culture of Participation (Kirby et al., 2003) the findings of which we began to test and implement in our youth voice and leadership programme, Wired for Music.

Over the years, we’ve learnt about the profound impact a youth voice approach can have on practice, people, planning and policies. Quite simply, we are not the same organisation we were ten years ago. Today, young people are integral to how Sound Connections operates: they shape our programmes, produce their own events, advise us on funding decisions and sit on our board. They also play a key role in our work advocating for youth voice practice across the creative and cultural sector, especially the consultancy we provide to other organisations looking to learn more about youth voice and embed it in their programmes and strategies. It has been an eye-opening and transformational journey, and one that we want to share as widely as possible.

And that’s why we’ve created this handbook. As far as we know, to date, no-one has attempted to produce a guide to youth voice for the creative and cultural sector. This handbook is for you if you or your organisation work creatively with young people. You might work in arts, culture or heritage, in a youth work or educational setting, or in another sector where creative engagement is enhancing the lives of young people. We are delighted to launch the Youth Voice & Participation Handbook and we hope that you will find it informative, intriguing and inspiring.

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Building a Sustainable Society Through Child Participation: Nordic Research and Practical Application

1.2 Aims of the Book
This book has two main aims. First, it seeks to engage in critical examination of the concept of child participation from multiple perspectives—those of children, professionals, and society—to illuminate how participation can be meaningfully realized. Drawing on legal, social, and economic frameworks, the book discusses both the benefits of children’s participation and the barriers that hinder its full realization. It also delves into the relationship between children’s rights and their practical implementation, exploring the gap between the law in books and the law in action (Pound, 1959).
Second, the book aims to provide an interdisciplinary discussion on child participation, drawing on empirical examples from the Nordic countries. While the Nordic region has strong welfare states and a tradition of progressive child rights policies, challenges remain in translating legal commitments into practice. By shedding light on these challenges, the book contributes to a broader understanding of how societies can better ensure that children’s voices are heard and valued.

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MYAN Youth Engagement Strategy

This paper outlines MYAN’s Youth Engagement Strategy, which provides a framework for working alongside young people and support them to actively participate in civic life, influence policy, and strengthen their leadership. It sets out MYAN’s approach to meaningful participation, guided by the voices of young people, and highlights the structures, goals, and commitments that underpin this work.

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Child-Friendly Justice Assessment Tool

This Child-Friendly Justice (CFJ) Assessment Tool aims to support member states in meeting the standards for child-friendly justice in all situations in  which children are likely to be brought into contact with the justice system, for whatever reason and in whatever capacity – as offenders, victims, witnesses or parties – in judicial proceedings (criminal, civil or administrative law) or non- judicial proceedings. The Assessment Tool is intended to assist member states in best implementing the Guidelines of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Child-friendly Justice (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Guidelines’) and in best self-assessing their progress in doing so.

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Unequal Childhoods: Rights on paper should be rights in practice

Eurochild is the largest network of organisations working with and for children throughout Europe, striving for a society that respects, protects and promotes the rights of all children. We represent over 225 organisations and individuals from across 41 European countries, reaching approximately 5,000 organisations and individuals on the ground. Our mission is to promote the rights and well-being of children in policy and practice, through advocacy, membership exchange, and research. We aim to bring about tangible positive changes in the lives of children, particularly those affected by poverty and disadvantage.

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How to do the CRWIAs The Right Way – A young people’s guide to doing Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments

The Right Way is a project from SYP to support and challenge decision makers in Scotland to meaningfully engage young people in their work. How to do CRWIAs The Right Way is a young people’s guide to help decision makers create ambitious CRWIAs that champion and advance young people’s rights in Scotland.

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Children’s Rights in Brief #3 – Respect for the Views of the Child

The Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) is an independent statutory body, which was established in 2004 under the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 (2002 Act). Under the 2002 Act, as amended, the OCO has two core statutory functions:

to promote the rights and welfare of children up to 18 years of age; and
to examine and investigate complaints made by or for children about the administrative actions of public bodies, schools and voluntary hospitals that have, or may have, adversely affected a child.

This briefing is third in a series that the OCO is producing to raise awareness of children’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).1 We are creating this series in line with our duties:

to encourage public bodies to develop policies, practices and procedures designed to promote the rights and welfare of children (section 7(1)(b) of the 2002 Act); and
to collect and disseminate information on matters relating to children’s rights and welfare (section 7(1)(c) of the 2002 Act).

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Children’s Rights in Brief #2 – The Best Interests of the Child

The Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) is an independent statutory body, which was established in 2004 under the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 (2002 Act). Under the 2002 Act, as amended, the OCO has two core statutory functions:

to promote the rights and welfare of children up to 18 years of age; and
to examine and investigate complaints made by or for children about the administrative actions of public bodies, schools and voluntary hospitals that have, or may have, adversely affected a child.

This briefing is second in a series that the OCO is producing to raise awareness of children’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).1 We are creating this series in line with our duties:

to encourage public bodies to develop policies, practices and procedures designed to promote the rights and welfare of children (section 7(1)(b) of the 2002 Act); and
to collect and disseminate information on matters relating to children’s rights and welfare (section 7(1)(c) of the 2002 Act).

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Children’s Rights in Brief #1 – The UN Convention on the Right of the Child

The Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) is an independent statutory body, which was established in 2004 under the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 (2002 Act). Under the 2002 Act, as amended, the OCO has two core statutory functions:

to promote the rights and welfare of children up to 18 years of age; and
to examine and investigate complaints made by or for children about the administrative actions of public bodies, schools and voluntary hospitals that have, or may have, adversely affected a child.

This briefing is the first in a series that the OCO is producing to raise awareness of children’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). We are creating this series in line with our duties:

to encourage public bodies to develop policies, practices and procedures designed to promote the rights and welfare of children (section 7(1)(b) of the 2002 Act); and
to collect and disseminate information on matters relating to children’s rights and welfare (section 7(1)(c) of the 2002 Act).

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