The Young Voices Conversation is a joint initiative that we run with South Wales Police, providing opportunities for young people aged between 11 and 25 to talk to us about policing, crime, and community safety.
Through establishing this forum, we want to encourage and empower young people to:
- Have their voice heard and express their views
- Share their ideas and suggestions with us
- Speak directly with the Police and Crime Commissioner, the police and other organisations.
- Share their personal knowledge, awareness and experience of community issues.
- Work with us in developing creative and positive solutions for young people.
Our Young Voices Conversation is a tiered approach, offering young people the opportunity to engage with us and take part at local and regional conversations:
- Local Conversations – Throughout the year, Officers/PCSOs utilise networks within their communities, such as youth groups/forums and organisations to facilitate regular informal conversations with young people. These local conversations will provide an opportunity to explore matters that young people want to discuss with us, as well as topics that you would like to understand a young person’s perspective on.
- Young Voices Forum – We summarise the feedback and ideas shared by young people from local conversations and feed this into our Young Voices forum. This enables us to collectively review the issues raised and understand the similarities and differences in concerns and opinions of young people across our force area. A small group of young people are invited to attend the forum and discuss the findings from their local conversations with the Police & Crime Commissioner and senior leaders.
- Feedback – Following on from our Regional Young Voices Forum, young people are invited to attend a ‘feedback session’ to hear updates from the Police & Crime Commissioner and relevant leads within the organisation on how the issues raised have been considered and progressed. We also summarise these updates in a written document, so that Officers and PCSOs can share wider with the groups they’ve engaged with.
If you are interested in getting involved, please email us: engagement@south-wales.police.uk