What we can do for you
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.
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.
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
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.
Josh is a youth participation specialist and researcher, and is passionate about creative approaches to working with young people. He draws on extensive experience in working with both young people and practitioners and in designing, delivering and managing youth engagement projects and programmes.
Shannice is a recent graduate from drama school where she studied drama and applied theatre. During her time she discovered youth engagement and participation through drama and realised the importance of it. She’s delivered outreach workshops and programs in UK cold spot areas such as Oldham and Cornwall and the beauty of involving ALL young people having a voice and expressing themselves. She now wants to continue giving the youth a voice in new, exciting & engaging ways.
Jack has been an active member in youth participation and engagement for a while having been elected as the member of Youth Parliament for Dorset, working on UNESCO projects with Jurassic Youth and helping at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival. He is looking forward to working with Dorset Youth Council Enables and helping future generations of young people become actively engaged in youth democracy, voice & engagement.
Ann is excited about getting the young people of Dorset involved in their services, hearing what they have to say and being part of their journeys into adulthood. Originally from the West Midlands, Ann now well and truly feels as though Dorset is her home. Having worked in the charity sector for 12 years in admin roles for a Children’s Centre and The Children’s Rights Service.
Lucy has been involved as a young person in many different projects and is passionate about getting young people involved in decision making & engagement. Through meeting many different yet inspiring young people through not only local but also national campaigns. Lucy now wants to help facilitate youth voice in a fun, engaging and proactive way.
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.
Kate has been doing Youth Voice, Engagement & Participation work for more than 20 years, and wrote the proposal for and co-founded the UK Youth Parliament in 1999. She is a JNC Qualified Youth Worker and recently qualified as a Level 4, Family Worker. Kate believes that in the process of giving young people a voice, we are also giving them the skills to succeed and to become tomorrow's leaders.
Tara has always had a passion for working with young people. Tara’s experiences ranging from her time at secondary school, University as the Students’ Union President and ultimately through being elected on to the National Union of Students, National Executive Council (NUS NEC) facilitating youth sessions, empowering & engaging young people, running sporting opportunities. Tara is committed to empowering every young person she interacts with to use the power of their unique voice, experiences and engagement to change the world around them.
Hetty has supported youth teams, projects and programmes in the public, education and charity sector that seek to improve services including health and children’s services. She is committed to genuine and effective engagement and participation and knows how powerful this can be, ensuring all voices are heard in shaping the services being delivered and received across the UK.
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!
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What our Clients say
"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!"
"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."
“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.”
"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."
"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!"
"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."
"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."
"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. "
"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!"
"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."
Get started by talking to us! We would love to hear from you. Whether it’s a problem, an idea…or some underspend!