My name is Kainaat, I am 19 and work as a Young Consultant for Participation People.
I have worked within youth voice engagement for five years, representing my borough as a Member of the Youth Parliament and engaging in a number of impactful projects in my local area with the support of Participation People.
Coming from a single-parent, low-income household, I have always felt excluded from many conversations that ultimately impact my future. However, throughout the last five years, Participation People have helped me grow my confidence and improve my ability to talk to different audiences, from young people to CEOs. These skills have helped me with group assignments at university as well as interacting with people on a day-to-day basis.
At Participation People, we always aim to work hard to make changes we believe in. An amazing project we worked on was a Knife Crime Report created by Hounslow Young Researchers for social impact. When I was elected Member of the Youth Parliament, a key part of my manifesto was to address the issue of knife crime. However, as a youth council, we identified a key gap in research exploring the extent and impact of the issue in our community. Young people were not being asked their opinions, which meant the policy on the topic did not reflect their views. As a youth council, we decided to take action and conduct research that better reflected young people’s views on knife crime in Hounslow.
Over the course of six months, we conducted various focus groups, sent our surveys, and spent a long time analysing data. We then presented our key findings to the council and the report itself is still being used within the council to advise knife crime policy today.
Overcoming barriers
When I started working on projects with Participation People, I was extremely shy and quiet, which some people would not believe looking at me now as I’m a huge chatterbox! Participation People has helped me to gain confidence in my voice and ability to create positive change for young people in my community.
If I were a CEO…
If I could be the CEO of a company, I would have a panel of young people advising on policies. A phrase that really resonates with me is ‘nothing about us, without us’. If you want to evoke change, you must engage with young consultants, young volunteers and young researchers for social impact.
Sign up and get involved!
My one piece of advice for any young person joining Participation People for the first time is to truly have fun, embrace the experience and give it your all. As with anything in life, you have to be open to the process to fully benefit from it, so give it your best shot and focus on enjoying the journey!
Thinking of getting involved with one of our projects? If you’re a young person searching for a platform for your voice, we’d love to hear from you.