We work with voluntary and statutory, local, national and international organisations (see clients ) concerned with increasing young people's influence in decision-making. Many of the groups we work with provide support and services to young people facing various issues, for example bullying, depression, illiteracy, homelessness, sexual abuse and drug addiction.

Are any of these statements true for you?

“We've worked with young people for a long time, but we feel increasingly under pressure from donors to show how they influence our services. How can we show our funders that we do this?”

“We're committed to young people being involved in decision-making but it's so difficult to achieve with the young people we work with. How can young people with so many issues in their lives make such a big commitment to our organisation?”

“Our young people are not afraid to speak up. Our problem is that they agree with everything our youth workers say. How can we help them to give us more critical feedback?”

“Our youth workers bring a diverse range of experience and expertise. Unfortunately this means that they're not always on the same page about what youth participation actually is. How can we make sure we're all working from the same understanding?”

Working with us is most likely to benefit you if:

• you are committed to doing what it takes to increase and improve young people's participation in your organisation. You have some resources to make it happen and people at all levels agree that user involvement needs to be more effective.

• you see user involvement as integral to your organisation, not as just another project or programme. You're prepared to ensure that Board members, managers, staff, volunteers and young people throughout the organisation work together to implement the strategies you come up with.

• you are prepared to reflect and learn during the process of working with us. You are ready to commit the time needed to prepare for sessions and to discuss them afterwards, learning from the experience.

• you are ready to hand over some power and responsibility to the young people you work with. And you're prepared to positively challenge and question young people in order to encourage them to play this new role.