As part of an ongoing commitment to protecting Children’s Rights and amplifying the Voice of the Child, Barnardo’s has developed an ambitious strategy to further support and facilitate young people sharing their voices and influencing change. Barnardo’s has a commitment to working towards becoming an organisation with ‘experts by experience’ who are increasingly present in different roles with a corresponding increase in their voice and influence within all departments of the charity. Barnardo’s Corporate Strategy 2016-2025 also commits the charity to centring the voice of children and young people alongside our scale, knowledge and expertise to help change the lives of children and young people throughout the UK.
In May 2019, EiA partnered with Barnardo’s to run a 2-day national programme, which focused on employability skills and personal development for the young people who they support. The programme was hosted in Birmingham and saw 100 young people travel from all over the UK to attend.
Part 2 of the programme Day two was held in 6 locations across the country. The learning continued, with a mini business challenge; helping attendees to practice their skills and share their voice, with a commitment that senior leaders will review these ideas and provide feedback. The participants explored and presented ideas of how they could improve the Barnardos’ voices programme for their region.
Barnardo’s were impressed with how engaged the students were during the programme, its flexibility and how it was moulded around the young people’s needs.
