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Youth Voice opportunities

The iTHRIVE and participation team work in partnership with schools, youth groups, NHS, Kent Police and individual young people to capture their voices about a variety of different topics, ranging from:

  • mental health and wellbeing
  • SEND (special educational needs and disabilities)
  • violence reduction
  • school experiences

The feedback and experiences of young people are used to improve and develop services for all young people across Kent. We also run fun summer activities, research projects, wellbeing meetings for young people and other opportunities that could help build a young persons resilience, such as the Big Mental Health Conversation.

Opportunities are open to all children and young people up until the age of 18, or 25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Join a group

If you know of a young person who would like to get involved, we offer a range of opportunities.

Sign up to a group

i-THRIVE youth group

This group is for young people aged 11 to 17 years who have had experience of using mental health and emotional wellbeing services within Kent and who are passionate about mental health and making change! Young people do not have to share their own experiences to attend this group, but it is a safe space to do so, if they do.

The aim of this group is to:

  • drive improvements in mental health services
  • improve and make recommendations for mental health support within schools
  • improve young people's mental health and wellbeing.

We meet online via MS Teams, and face-to-face for holiday activities.

What young people have said they enjoy about the iTHRIVE group:

  • An opportunity to share own experiences.
  • Fun activities.
  • Opportunities to talk to mental health services to change the system.
  • Passionate about mental health and want to create change.
  • Work as a team, socialise and develop skills, learn about iTHRIVE and hearing other people’s stories.

Amy Nichols, Emotional Wellbeing Participation Worker at Kent County Council leads this group.

Have Your Say group

This group is for young people aged 11 to 18 years who have or know of someone with SEND within Kent, and are passionate about wanting to make a difference for young people who have SEND.

The aim of this group is to:

  • drive improvements in SEND services
  • help improve and make recommendations for SEND support within education and other services
  • develop resources to help SEND young people, education professionals and other services.

Join us for fun activities in a friendly environment, learn new skills, make new friends and play games whilst talking about things that matter to you. We meet one Saturday a month from 10am to 12pm at County Hall, Maidstone ME14 1XQ.

Tromie Dodd, Participation Worker, and Amy Nichols, Emotional Wellbeing Participation Worker at Kent County Council lead this group.

Speak Out group

This group is for young people aged 11 to 18 years to:

  • make new friends
  • have fun
  • learn new skills
  • develop your resilience and wellbeing
  • have your say about what matters to you and make a difference.

We meet online via MS Teams every 2 weeks on a Wednesday, 5pm to 6.30pm, and in-person for holiday activities.

The aim of this group is to:

  • support young people’s personal development
  • create new content
  • represent and channel youth voice for collective action at events
  • develop trusted relationships and better partnerships with adults
  • raise awareness on topics of interest to young people
  • drive improvements in young people’s services
  • help improve and make recommendations for young people’s support within education and other services.

Tromie Dodd and Jamie Freeman, Participation Workers at Kent County Council, lead this group.

Reading for resilience group

This group is for young people aged 12 to 18 years. It is a great way for young people to make new friends, have fun and enjoy sharing books that inspire and captivate their imagination. It can help make sense of feelings and emotions in a creative way. You choose the books we read around the themes of resilience, identity and emotional wellbeing. We read together and share the storytelling, discuss the narratives and characters. We share experiences and offer wellbeing support and coping strategies.

We meet online via MS Teams  every 2 weeks on a Wednesday, 5pm to 6pm.

The aim of this group is to:

  • support young people’s personal development
  • encourage young people to read
  • help you understand emotions and feelings better
  • develop a sense of belonging.

Tromie Dodd, Participation Worker and Sarah Haigh, Emotional Wellbeing Participation Worker at Kent County Council lead this group.

For more information about these groups email kycc@kent.gov.uk.