Participation People - Youth Engagement Programs and Participation

What we can do for you

Services work better with young people. We make this happen by being playful in practice; serious about solutions. We facilitate award-winning youth engagement projects that help decision makers deliver better services.

Inspire Change

We can transform the culture of your organisation by changing your approach to working with young people. We address common business challenges including staff skill and motivation, keeping up with current trends AND marketing your services to young people.

Gain Data

We help you understand the lived experience of young people by using proven, youth-led, award-winning programs. Our insight and feedback projects are bespoke to fit your needs. They will give you fantastic data to help you make better decisions. They also offer young people fantastic experiences to develop personal and employability skills.

Take Action

We keep young people engaged from the start of the program until we find the solution together. We work with them to find out what they think and what needs changing. Then we work with both young people and decision-makers to deliver some serious solutions.

Our vision is of a world where every child and young person has the knowledge, skills and belief to have a positive impact in their community.

Meet the team

We are made up of the most passionate, charismatic and friendly people from across the world! Including young people in leadership!

Antonia Dixey

Chief Executive (CEO)

Antonia is our Founder and CEO. Her vision is for every single child and young person to have a voice, and for them to be listened to and have their views acted upon. She has facilitated, managed and engaged with young people on many youth engagement projects in the UK, Armenia, Canada, South Africa and South America.

Collette Debono

Project Admin & Support

Collette is passionate about working with young children & people, and has worked for 10 years with young children. She believes that all children are entitled to have a voice, and is committed to help them flourish into confident young people. Collette has gained her NVQ’s in Child & Young Persons Development, and has recently extended her skills into a research admin role.

Ed Cooney

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

Ed has worked with young people in various environments ranging from English language summer schools, the Cub Scouts and supporting young people through their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Ed is passionate about encouraging young people into social action and equipping them with the skills to get their voices heard in a fun environment!

Conor

Youth Voice and Influence Contractor

Conor has worked with Participation People for 6 years in a variety of roles including: Wandsworth Youth Council Chair, Young Ambassador and supporting politicians to scrutinise their work. Conor is passionate about supporting professionals to inspire young people from low socio-economic backgrounds and with speech and language impediments to achieve. He is a fantastic facilitator with an infectious sense of fun in his delivery style!

Farhana

Youth Voice and Influence Contractor

Farhana has worked with Participation People for 5 years. In her words, “I went to one Youth Council session and never looked back!” She is working her way through university to be a teacher, inspiring 11-18 year olds learn, develop and thrive through play! Farhana is passionate about supporting young people who’s voices often get overlooked speak up loud and proud.

Hanna

Youth Voice and Influence Contractor

Hanna has worked with Participation People for the last 4 years in her role as Chair of Dorset's Care Leaver Forum. Supporting vulnerable young people to gain meaningful employment and in her words, "escape the system" is a particular passion of hers. She is an brilliant facilitator with both young people and professionals; helping them have the “tough” conversations in a safe and inclusive space.

Finlay

Youth Engagement Cockapoo

I’m Finlay the cockapoo. I’m a member of the Participation People team too! I like lots of cuddles and to help young people when they are stressed and upset. I live in Dorset but do lots of travelling across the UK to help the team empower young people to have their voice & engage in conversation. I think I have the best job of all!

Hannah Hazell

Programme Manager, Specialist and Targeted

Hannah has been enthusiastic and passionate about working with young people since she was a student in Nottingham. Hannah has experience working with a variety of young people from different backgrounds, including care leavers, university students and groups of young women in Senegal (West Africa.) Nothing gives her greater satisfaction than seeing young people develop and grow with confidence over time!

Temi Oluwadare

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

Temi has a desire to impact her world around her and believes that this starts with impacting young people. She has many years of experience working with young people on social action projects, mentoring schemes, residentials’ and more. She has worked on a range of projects that aim to leave a lasting impact in the community. These range from homelessness to the elderly. A number of charities she has worked with aim to give back to the community and unite people together, these are two key principles that she lives by.

Finlay Wyer

Youth Research Lead

Finlay has been a Young Researcher for 3 years with Participation People. With a keen eye for detail he now supports and trains other Young Researchers (and the Participation People Team) in participatory action research. He is a keen runner and lover of the outdoors when he isn’t crunching numbers or cross tabbing data sets!

Natalie Brobin

Youth Voice and Influence Contractor

Natalie’s favourite things about #YouthVoice facilitation include: how much young people smile and how inventive, dedicated and compassionate they are. Natalie loves working as part of a diverse team of staff and young people to facilitate positive social change! She is a mother of 2, and prior to working with Participation People, she was an A Level Teacher in Design and Technology and Camp Manager and Andrew Flintoff’s Cricket Academy Camp.

Narges Rahmani

Youth Voice and Influence Contractor

Narges has been a member of her local Youth Council for 5 years and is always looking for new opportunities. She loves meeting new people and learning about their lives; influencing others for the better, even for a small moment, is what she aspires to embody. As well as socialising, Narges loves technology and spends a lot of her time programming or learning more about computer science.

Fredrick Duncan

Youth Voice and Influence Contractor

I’m really excited to bring my passion, charisma and sense of humour to youth voice forums, projects and activities with Participation People. My favourite quote, which sums up my role with Participation People; "I know that it's monotonous but finally comes a time where you can express yourself (with your craft) and this brings you such a pleasure that all the dull hours are forgotten you just need practice, practice and more practice.” Looking forward to practicing my youth voice facilitation skills with you soon!

Alice Gray

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

Since volunteering with young people whilst at University, I’ve worked with young people in various roles including ESOL, in schools and on NCS summer programme. I love the energy young people bring, and feel we have so much to learn from them. Seeing young people’s confidence grow is my favourite part of youth work. I’m really looking forward to working with all the young people and the team at Participation People!

George Cowan

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

George has worked within the University students' union movement, enabling and empowering students to take ownership of their voice to get the most from their university career. George's passion is ensuring that everyone has equal access to the topics that matter to them, with a journey to embolden their voice along the way!

Emily Niner

Senior Youth Voice and Influence Contractor

It is important to me that I am always working in a role where I can empower people who are regularly and systematically ignored. For the majority of my career, I have worked with autistic young people and people with learning disabilities on projects covering health, education, research and arts and heritage, ensuring that their voices are heard in the areas that matter to them. I am incredibly passionate about genuine participation, inclusive practice, person-centred care and access to justice.

Hannah Rae

Evaluation and Impact Manager

Hannah feels privileged to have worked with and for young people in various roles both in the UK and internationally. She has created and managed national Youth Voice projects and programmes, developed training packages and bespoke programmes to upskill professional adults engaging with young people and has worked to help bridge the gap between education and employment by shining a light on the importance of core skills such as communication, collaboration, resilience and problem solving. Hannah is committed to enabling all young people to have their say, be heard and realise their aspirations regardless of background and circumstances.

Kim Emenike

Youth Voice and Influence Contractor

Kim has had experience with engaging with participation programmes from the age of 10 years old such as Greenwich Young People's Council and Greenwich's Children In Care Council. She has experience with working on youth programs for example as an Assistant Wave Lead for National Citizens Service (NCS). Kim is a Care Leaver and is a strong advocate for young people who are Care experienced. She believes young people, particularly Care Leavers, need to be given a platform to share their experiences. The current 'system' is broken and she is therefore determined to be the driving force to fix it.

Jodie Lancashire-Clark

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

Jodie has been working alongside young people in various environments, ranging from tutoring, babysitting, mentoring and Girlguiding. She loves their creativity, openness and out of the box thinking. Jodie is passionate about making a real difference in the community by helping to educate and change people's views, to support and provide equal opportunities and to embed an inclusive culture across society, and she strongly believes the best way to accomplish this is with the help of young people!

Charlotte Patterson

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

Charlotte Patterson is a North-East creative, theatre-maker & facilitator - currently based in Liverpool. She is one half of feminist theatre duo ‘Bite! Theatre’, and teaches drama in a local Toxteth-based youth group ‘Staged Kaos’. Recipient of an MA in Performance focusing on Installation & Post-Human thought. As well as a First Class BA in Drama and Theatre Studies - specialising in Disability Studies & Invisible Disabilities.

Latoya Gayle

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

Hi my name is Latoya,and I have been supporting and working with young people for many years (16 years to be exact).I enjoy seeing young people excell beyond the expected limitations, using their voice to action and materialise the change they want to see. Helping them to unlock all their inner powers, potential, skills and unfiltered passion. I love seeing young people succeed, whilst making the most of every opportunity. As they say "The sky's the limit!”

Charly O’Brien

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

Charly has worked with lots of different groups of young people over the years in various settings. She is passionate about supporting young people to be the creators of their own futures. Charly is an experienced facilitator and volunteers with the Scouts, leading projects such as the #YouthShape Initiative in Scouting. Charly is always looking for new opportunities to empower young people in decision towards real life changes and excited to be part of Participation People’s Team, to help her do just that!

Ella Green

Youth Voice and Influence Officer

Ella cares about making the world a kind place where everyone’s voice is heard. She has experience working in the charity sector with young disabled and/or neurodivergent adults, refugees and women’s groups. Ella loves seeing people connect with others and make changes in their communities. She wants young voices to be amplified because young people are the future and deserve to live in a world that they create!

Melissa McCormick

Communications Advisor

Melissa has extensive experience in supporting businesses, organisations and upper schools in the promotion and facilitation of events for young people. She has a real understanding of the importance and significance of ensuring that communications with young people are relevant and engaging, and that the voices of young people are heard and valued.

James Rimmer

Programme Manager, Universal

James has worked with young people in many different contexts since he was a teenager, most recently in a South London school as a teacher and in various leadership roles. He is passionate about seeing impactful change in local communities, developing meaningful relationships and empowering young people to be the best they can be.

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What our Clients say

We've worked with some truly amazing people and organisations, across the youth and engagement sectors, here are some kind words from just a few!

Sam Ponniah

Chair - Wandsworth Youth Council

"The Participation people are absolutely fantastic at engaging young people. The enthusiasm and passion they have for engaging young people is only surpassed by their fantastic planning and efficiency. They greatly inspired me as a young person to make loads of changes in my local community, while developing my skills all on a tiny budget!"

Joanne Rich

Youth Engagement Manager - Affinity Sutton

"Antonia and her team have been a delight to work with over the past couple of years. They have delivered training to different groups of our young people and always provide informative, but most importantly creative sessions. The creativity they utilise within sessions is so unique that I have asked them to train our team in the skills they use, as they are relevant to any area of community engagement."

Nisha Plaha

Senior Representation Officer - London Borough of Newham Council

“The Participation People contributed to achieving our highest election turnout in our seven year history of the Young Mayor scheme, standing at 73% of young people voting in the borough. I would recommend Antonia and her team to others looking to deliver similar objectives, particular when considering delivering youth engagement activities.”

Lily Macbeth

Youth Researcher - 16

"With Young Researchers I have learnt how to consider a target group in order to make a survey accessible. In the future I will have a better understanding of target audiences and this will help with public speaking and interview situations."

Umar Kankiya

Youth Voice Coordinator - London Borough of Newham

"If you are working in Youth Participation and don’t know The Participation People, you need to know them! They are going places. Fun, fantastic, passionate, enthusiastic. That’s them!"

Paul Armitage

Youth Marketing Lead - Manchester Commissioning Unit

"I’m always in awe of Participation People’s creativity, and their ability to inspire people to get on board with ideas and buy-in to the importance of engaging with stakeholders; even people who were initially on completely different pages."

Helen Killingley

Grant and Learning Manager - Spirit of 2012

"Participation People have embodied their motto “playful in practice, serious about solutions” to the full. They challenge and support Spirit of 2012 at every turn to maximise the work we do with our Youth Advisory Panel and empower the members individually and collectively to identify and achieve goals for themselves and for the organisation. An inspiration and pleasure to work with."

Clare Thomas

CEO - Hope Support

"They have been invaluable in adding focus and very user friendly tools to further our work of listening to and capturing our young people’s voice. They have delivered training to our young people as well as our staff and have included our young people’s thoughts and ideas in all the work that they have done across the County. "

Hanna Baxter, 18

Youth Researcher - Care Leaver

"Working with Participation People has opened so many doors for me, whilst simultaneously making me aware of issues within my own community. Participation People have opened my eyes to new jobs and opportunities that I wouldn't have considered before. They have helped me grow! I am now far more confident, have better self esteem and know how to influence decision makers. They are brilliant!"

Louise Clapton

Community Partnerships Coordinator

"Having attended and been motivated by a Participation People workshop at the Hospice UK conference in November 2018. We at Dorothy House Hospice Care have found working with the Participation People on our Youth Climate Report has been a really engaging and fun experience! A wide range of internal and external stakeholders had the opportunity to express their ideas and thoughts on how the hospice engages with young people and moving forward, develop this area of work through interviews and an interactive and lively workshop. We look forward to putting ideas into practice."

Sophia

Care Experienced Young Person - Aged 14

"Participation People are great, because they come to you. They speak your language. They will do everything they can to make sure you can get to a session or have a voice on stuff that matters. Not only that, but they help other people do that too. There were years when no one listened to me or what I wanted. Participation People changed my views and expectations of professionals. I now know that I can ask for what I want and have the tools to do just that. My future looks much brighter and that is thanks to Participation People."

Kieran Coleman

Care Leaver

"When Working on Projects with Participation People you gain lots of new experience and knowledge of the social care system but also you get to have you voice heard by many different professionals that are willing to listen and help make a difference for all young people. By working on a project with PP you don’t just get the experience and knowledge but also you gain a lot of new confidence along with making new friendships groups that you are able to share experiences with along with having the ability to say what you feel needs to be changed or how things should be done."

Theresa Leavy

Dorset's Director of Children's Services

"Participation People approaches are refreshing, creative and inspiring and have enabled us to grow a culture of participation and we will strive to embed these principles throughout our services."

Richard Selwyn

Transformation Director, Birmingham Children’s Partnership

"Participation People have a modern approach to engagement that is refreshing. And their independent review of our system maturity will help Birmingham to further develop our co-production and co-design with children and young people."