A Message from Our Founder & CEO
2024–2025 was not a year for business as usual.
As young people increasingly opt out of systems that feel irrelevant, unsafe, or performative, one truth became impossible to ignore: youth participation without real influence is no longer enough.
This year, Participation People made deliberate choices. We worked with fewer young people — but more meaningfully. We delivered fewer projects — but with greater depth and consequence. And we prioritised ethical, paid participation that sits closer to power and decision-making.
Our Global Impact Report 2024–2025 reflects a year of clarity over comfort — and what becomes possible when young people are trusted to shape outcomes, not just comment on them.
2024–2025 Highlights
Less volume. More influence.
This year marked a strategic shift towards youth-powered diagnostics, system-level work, and early-stage decision influence — where participation matters most.
Paid, ethical participation as standard
100% of Young Consultants were paid and supported, with clear feedback loops showing what changed because of their involvement — and what couldn’t.
From consultation to influence
Young people didn’t just share views. They trained leaders, challenged assumptions, and shaped policy, safeguarding systems, digital safety thinking, and organisational strategy.
Fewer projects. Higher stakes
Our work focused on areas where youth voice carries real risk and responsibility — including safeguarding, digital safety, health, identity, and early-career trust.
Sector Impact at a Glance
Statutory & Safeguarding Systems
Young people moved from the edges of engagement into system-shaping roles, influencing how safeguarding partnerships listen, decide and act.
Corporate & Digital
Fast-paced, paid youth hackathons proved that ethical youth engagement can happen at speed — shaping real-time thinking around digital safety, trust and risk.
Voluntary & Health
Youth participation models were strengthened to protect young people from burnout and extraction, while increasing their strategic influence within organisations.
What This Year Proved
Young people don’t disengage because they don’t care.
They disengage when nothing changes.
When participation is early, paid, and connected to real decisions, young people stay — and systems get better.
Looking Ahead
This is not youth engagement as usual.
In the year ahead, we’ll continue to prioritise:
Youth-powered system change
Governance and leadership influence
Work where trust, safety and credibility are on the line
Participation People exists to build youth-powered systems — together with young people, not on their behalf.
👉 Explore the full Global Impact Report 2024–2025 to see what changed, why it mattered, and what youth-powered work really requires.
