1. Edinburgh Youth Social Inclusion Partnership Involving young people in developing solutions to exclusion Supporting evidence-based change in mainstream practice Providing evidence through action research Young people are participants, not objects of action research

2. Making participation a priority Young people’s views and experiences used to form a baseline: The Bottom Line Grant applications require participation to be a priority Grant recipients encouraged to attend training and offered ongoing support Projects required to monitor nature and extent of young people’s participation EYSIP maintains direct contact with young people via regular outreach

3. Action Research Young people define the problem, explore the context, help to analyse and interpret Model proposed Tested with young people and refined through practice Evaluation with young people of success/failure Evidence used to shape service provision and policy

4. Outcomes for young people Learning and capacity building. Listened to and respected Improved services New opportunities Different relationships with services Better communication and connections between services Political awareness Challenges to policy makers and politicians The chance to be part of ‘something bigger’

5. Participation can be one-off or sustained, individual or collective This stage adapts to level of participation desired by young people This stage tends to involve more advocacy than participation ParticipationAdvocacy

6. Levels of participation: key factors for young people The nature of exclusion experienced by the young person The nature of the target group: specific or diverse Previous experience of participation Focus of the work, and level of identification with the issue being explored

7. Levels of participation: key factors for workers Time Place in organisation/team Commitment at different levels within the organisation to change Flexibility and adaptability during the project Prior connections with young people

8. Political Pressure Preference for recognisable structures and easy access Clear thinking required to deal with the conflict between adults and young people in constituencies Consultation is service-led agenda

9. Impact of EYSIP programme Approaches to measuring levels of engagement and what young people get out of it Worker/organisational learning Visibility of young people in mainstream Tools, training and networking Accreditation of young people’s participation