Waltham Forest Young Advisors

Summary

The Waltham Forest Young Advisors, and sister Group YIAG, were set up in 2008 and 2009 respectively, and form the largest, most active teams in the Young Advisors network.

Our Young Advisors are trained & accredited consultants who work with the council and its partner’s services to ensure they are young-people friendly. They are trained youth consultants and advise on local services for young people and improving existing services and input into council Scrutiny boards.  Young Advisors have worked with CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), Public Health & the NHS, LBWF Culture & Events team, Housing & Regen, as well as businesses and local community groups like Wood Street Walls.
Youth Independent Advisory Group (YIAG) 

The YIAG are a group of young people, some of whom are ex-offenders, victims of crime or come from areas where youth violence is a part of their lives. They run regular peer sessions at schools, colleges, Pupil Referral Unit’s and the Youth Offending Service and also engage with the police on how they deal with young people; the group seek to improve community safety. 

The YIAG provide a youth input to the Safer Neighbourhood Board, the Stop & Search monitoring group, Communities Scrutiny, the council’s Gang Prevention Programme, the police and the new Violence Reduction Partnership.

The YIAG are also trained and accredited as Young Advisors

Waltham Forest Council works with young people aged 14-25 years through the Young Advisors and the Youth Independent Advisory Group, to involve its young residents in local decision making and improving services. Representatives from both groups make up the council’s Youth Mayors team and sometimes work jointly on projects, for example as Youth Mental Health Ambassadors and our new Streetbase peer outreach programme.

The WF YA & YIAG were set up in 2008 and 2009 respectively and form the largest and one of the most active teams in the Young Advisors network.