Engaging Successfully With Young People

Are young people important to your organisation’s efforts?
More than ever before, involving young people in the design of services that impact them is crucial.

Whether you’re in government, healthcare, sports and recreation, public transport, education or vocational pathways, involving young people in the design and delivery of your services will make your efforts more successful.

This workshop series will give you the confidence to engage with young people successfully. Underpinned by co-design principles, you will learn as you go from an expert facilitator, from other participants and from applying new methods to your own work.

Day 1 workshop: Planning your engagement with children and young people

Day 1 will help you plan and design your engagement with young people. It will take you through the key questions you need to consider before you leave the comfort of your office.

You’ll learn from relevant case studies of engagement with children and young people and you’ll leave with a completed Engagement Canvas for a project you are considering.

After Day 1 you will understand how to:
- Frame a realistic and achievable purpose for your engagement
- Apply Hart’s Ladder of participation to engagement design
- Use food and play to meet young people’s needs
- Incorporate tikanga Māori into your engagement
- Evaluate your engagement without inducing survey fatigue
- Work with young people safely and ethically
- Structure your engagement so it’s not a one-hit wonder.

Day 2 workshop: Facilitation for engagement with children and young people

If Day 1 is about planning, Day 2 is about practicing engagement with children and young people.

The aim of this workshop is to build your confidence in facilitating with young people. Face-to-face interactions are essential to building trust with young people.

If you’re wondering how to facilitate events and conversations where young people can thrive, this practical workshop is for you.

After Day 2 you will understand how to:
- Apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs when working alongside young people
- Tailor your engagement methods to different age groups
- Create a safe space for diversity
- Safely involve young people in decision-making
- Create mana enhancing spaces for everyone, even those young people who find it hard to focus
- Use technology to strengthen your engagement with young people.

Who should attend?
This training is for anybody whose work impacts young people. It will be most valuable for:
- Council officials responsible for positive youth development
- Central government officials who want to better understand the needs of young people
- Sport and active recreation staff who want to reverse the trend of declining youth participation
- DHB or PHO staff who want to codesign services with young people
- Non-profit staff members who want to better meet the needs of young people in their community.

The content is designed for people who are new to engagement with children and young people but it will also provide a valuable extension for more experienced practitioners.

About the Presenter:
People describe Paul as an insightful guide through complex issues. Before joining Business Lab, Paul was a key member of Lifehack, a systems-level intervention in youth mental health and well-being that focused on co-design and capability-building. The Lifehack team open-sourced all their resources and learnings to improve the capability of organisations to co-design with young people.

Paul has facilitated engagement with children and young people processes from Kaitaia to Christchurch, with clients from central government, local government and community organisations. His workshops are well-known for their engaging content and delivery style, with bullet-pointed PowerPoint slides nowhere in sight.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulrmcgregor/