Tim Davies tells us he’s off to the pub having just finished a substantial revamp of the Hear by Right website. Hear by Right sets out standards and principals designed to help organisations involve young people in what they do and how they do it.

The mapping tool looks promising as a means to encourage collaboration between organisations, although there seems be a bit of a gap where brum sits. It’s great to see Tim so closely involved because he is working methodically and intelligently to explore how social media will improve participation. With the site they aim to:

Create a space to share learning from the many 100s of authorities and organisations using Hear by Right to map and plan for change.
Curate and share some of the best resources to support the participation of young people in decision making Encourage organisations to be more open about the challenges and successes in engaging young people in decision making.
Make clear the neccessary link between participation in decision making and real change for the lives of young people.

Our experience with podcasting as a tool to encourage conversations (and using the microphone as a tool which a lot of people find gives them a bit of extra power and confidence) is that we can relatively easily share skills and engendered huge amount of enthusiasm. However maintaining the momentum is the challenge – it needs to be planned for from the start.
Loads to learn and this site is a great place to start learning.
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