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The stratergy brings together for the first time all of the Government’s policies for young people aged 13 to 19. It therefore covers a wide range of issues – from education and youth services, to health, crime, housing and more. Nine government departments have been involved in developing it – including the Department for Education, the Department of Health, the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. Young people and youth professionals have also been involved directly in developing the statement through extensive collaboration and consultation. Sheffield Young Advisors have a case study in the stratergy talking about their role in preventing the riots in Sheffield.

Case study: Young people’s role in preventing disturbances
Young people in Sheffield took action in August 2011 to discourage their peers from joining in the disturbances that were taking place in other cities across the country.
On Tuesday 9 August, Sheffield Futures – the city's main provider of youth services and youth engagement groups – met partner organisations including Sheffield City Council and South Yorkshire Police to discuss a strategy for preventing riots in Sheffield. As an organisation that puts young people at its heart, Sheffield Futures decided to involve young people in its planning, knowing that this would be vital to success. They then took the lead in establishing a panel of young people representing all existing local participation groups including Young Advisors, Sheffield Youth Council, and the UK Youth Parliament. The panel of young people was briefed on what was happening. They couldn’t understand why people would want to wreck their own environments in which they live, play and work – so they came up with a slogan ‘Steel City NOT Steal City’ to show that they were proud to be from Sheffield. They recommended the quickest and most effective way of sending a positive message to the young people of Sheffield was through social media networks. Throughout the week that followed the panel monitored social media sites. They passed on any intelligence they gleaned to the police within minutes enabling officers to target potential ‘hotspots’ in a low key manner without antagonising situations. They used social media to inform the young people of Sheffield about what was really happening. The panel also put together an information leaflet outlining young people’s rights and responsibilities, and the consequences of their actions in relation to the riots, which was distributed widely through all youth workers and youth centres in Sheffield. Interviews with panel members on local radio and in local newspapers made clear that young people were taking positive action against the riots.
One Sheffield Young Advisor said “Through joint working between professionals and young people we were better able to create a powerful force to counteract the riots. This relationship will continue to have a positive influence within the city both now and in the future.”

To download the full stratergy go to our Download Center

On the 19th of December Emma & Luke went down to London to attend a young peoples riot panel with minister Andrew Stunell (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) and Baroness Newlove. They were joined by other Young Advisors from across the the country to discuss how they were affected by the riots and talk about what they did to help with the aftermath or in the Sheffield teams case, help in preventing them from happening at all in their city. They also gave their ideas about what could be done in the future to prevent them from happening again.

On Wednesday the 16th Of November 2011 Sheffield Young Advisors went down to London to attend the Young People Chamber Of Commerce boat party. They were invited by their very own Adam Bradford who helped organise the event. The party was for young people to network with each other and celebrate the amazing work they do for young people or have done as young people
Click Here for more photos of our London trip.

Adam Said: "Hi im Adam, im a Young Advisor and we're having this boat party for young people to get together and find out what each other do, and just have some fun basically"

On the 9th of November 2011 Sheffield Futures was visited by the Children & Young Peoples Minister Tim Loughton. He came to hear about Young Peoples Participation & Involvement in Sheffield and to talk about Sheffield not rioting. We delivered a presentation about the Participation and Involvement teams (Sheffield Young Advisors, Sheffield Youth Council, Sheffield UK Youth Parliament & Sheffield Community Assembly Youth Forums) and then had a discussion with him and other senior members of Sheffield Futures, South Yorkshire Police and Sheffield City Council about why Sheffield didn't riot and our roles in helping prevent it from happening in our city.

Tim Loughton said: "The reason I came here was that Nick Clegg told me about what happened here…I think we have more of a lesson to learn from activities here. Because it was done by the young people it is really positive. Lessons can really be learned from the work you have done here".

Emma Hazlehurst said: "In Sheffield communication has been [and continues to be] the key to this positive work".

In relation to the discussions around the prevention work done by young people in Sheffield, the Minister said: "We're currently working on a document called Positive 4 Youth and we will ensure that a big section on [the activities undertaken by] Sheffield will be in it"

Sheffield Young Advisors teamed up with Sheffield Youth Council, Sheffield UK Youth Parliament & Sheffield Futures to run a stall at Fright Night 2011. Over 40,000 people attended Fright Night this year and our stall was very popular with them. We had display boards from each of the Participation and Involvment groups with information abotu them on. Young People who visited our stall also had the chance to win free After Dark 2011 tickets. To do this they had to sign up to 'be a friend of Participation' where thay will recive updates on things that relate to them and given the chance to give us their opinions through surveys and questionairs. They then got to play 'Scary Squares' where they had the chance to win 2 tickets to after dark. We gave out over 100 tickets to the event.

For more pictures visit our Photo Album page

On Friday 12th August Luke, Ellie and Emma H (Sheffield Young Advisors) were joined by Luke Hague from Sheffield Youth Council and Harry Carter from UK Youth Parliament for a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. This meeting was about the recent work this team had being doing on the riots in the previous week. They also discussed with him their thoughts on these events across the UK, and why they thought there had been no trouble in Sheffield. The young people and Sheffield Futures staff discussed with him how we had been spreading the message to keep calm and not copy other cities across the country. They told him how Young People in Sheffield are proud of there city and therefore do not want to go around destroying it and ruining their communities they thay had worked hard on, to build strong.

For more photos of the meeting go to the Photo Album Page

Emma, Vaz and Sarah went down to BBC Radio Sheffield to talk to them about the recent riots and the work Sheffield Futures and Sheffield Young Advisors have been doing to prevent it from happening in Sheffield and there view on why it didn't happen. We were asked questions by Dean Pepall about what we wanted to ask Nick Clegg and why we thought Sheffield had stayed calm and not got involved in the violence.

Sheffield Young Advisors won the Special Recognintion Award at the Sheffield Celebration of Success Awards on Thursday 7th July at the City Hall. The category was for an Individual or Team who have gone above and beyond to support schools, residential establishments and other organisations delivering care, support and education for children and young people in Sheffield this year.

Gary Buxton (CEO National Young Advisors) said: "Soooo impressed!! We've tweeted the news this morning to over 1,800 people... We'll pop it in our eNewsletter and on our site so thousands of people will be able to salute your success!! Well done everyone... You are A-MAZ-ZING!"

Sarah Stevens said: "I am sooooo proud of you all!!! Getting a national award in December was great - but to get the TOP award of the night in your own city is just amazing!! WELL DONE TO YOU ALL!! :-) :-)"

Sheffield Young Advisors won the National Young Partners Award on Saturday the 4th December 2010 at an ceremony in London. The awards were hosted by the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS).

The awards were set up to celebrate young people’s involvement in decision making within voluntary and community youth organisations or projects. The awards provided an opportunity for organisations and projects to demonstrate what young people and adults can achieve through working in partnership, sharing ideas and inspiring each other.

Sarah Stevens said: “Winning this award is a tremendous achievement for Young Advisors up and down the country as it recognises all their hard work. For Sheffield Young Advisors it is an honour to win, they did a fantastic job"

Phabian said: “I am proud to be a young person who is helping, rather than just being helped.”