A human rights charity received valuable advice from members of Norwood’s groundbreaking Young People’s Focus Group (YPFG) on how to spread the word about human rights. Using a small grant from the Access to Volunteering fund, the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) has spent the last six months asking disabled children and young people for their advice on how to make its resources and training on children’s rights more accessible.
Members of Norwood’s Young People’s Focus Group tested out activities on children’s human rights, critically reviewed resources and have given their honest feedback on how CRAE can improve the way it supports young disabled people to get involved in its work.
CRAE exists to make sure the rights of all children in England are respected and protected. However, many disabled children and young people don’t know about their rights and often find it difficult to take action and campaign for change.
Carla Garnelas, CRAE’s acting head of policy and public affairs, said: “The input from children and young people that we have worked with through Norwood in Redbridge has been absolutely fantastic. They have really helped us think about how we can do more to enable disabled children and young people to learn about their rights and campaign for change locally and nationally. Their critical, honest and open feedback has made a massive difference.”
Hayley Shenholds, Norwood’s participation worker, added: “This was a really exciting opportunity for the YPFG members to get involved in, as the issue of children’s rights is not something that young people are often asked their opinion on. They enjoyed being the experts and advising CRAE with their views and we hope that this important work can benefit other children and young people in the future.”
The Young People’s Focus Group (YPFG) was founded in 2005 with the aim of giving the children and young people with disabilities who use Norwood’s services the opportunity to express their opinions and make their own decisions about how they want their services to be run.
For more information, visit www.crae.org.uk or www.norwood.org.uk/ypfg
