From Engage to Exchange - youth engagement training

Designed to radically shift your youth engagement practice from engagement to exchange, this 2-day training has been co-produced with lived experience at its core. Demonstrating Youth Exchange in action throughout both days, facilitators draw their collective expertise from a combination of lived experience and professional practice.

Attendees can expect to engage in a combination of reflection, discussion and action that:

• addresses some of the key barriers to young people's participation
• challenges assumptions and preconceptions about youth work, young people, disadvantage and participation
• develops strategies and tools to radically shift the way you engage and exchange with young people
• provides an insight into participatory practice from a young person’s perspective.

Who should attend?

This training will hold relevance for anyone seeking to build their own, their organisation's or their program's capacity to engage with young people, particularly those who have experienced socioeconomic disadvantage.

It is aimed at direct service staff, team leaders, managers and young people working in the community sector.

What will you learn?

Day one

Day one will explore the notion of exchange as a practice, providing opportunities to look at what and why this shift away from traditional participatory models is needed.

Day one will enable you to:

• assess your own and your organisation’s approach to youth participation and engagement
• understand the concept of youth exchange and how it can be applied to your context
• identify barriers to youth exchange and opportunities for tackling these within your organisation or your own practice.

Day two

Day two will cover practical strategies to embed effective exchange practices within programs and organisations. We will identify and adapt tools and approaches to fit your context.

Day two will provide you with:

• tools to meaningfully engage and exchange with young people
• strategies to address systemic and organisational barriers to working alongside young people
• a documented plan for moving forward.

More information

The language of youth participation has woven itself into policies, charters, frameworks and practice manuals across the welfare and support sector. From youth centres to residential care units, from agency boardrooms to government committees the notion of needing to ‘hear the voice of young people’ is considered a given.

Despite this almost universal commitment, the practice of engaging young people as informants is inconsistent at best, and (arguably) damaging at worst.

If we go a step further and look at where young people are not just heard, but are active participants in and drivers of action and change, the examples become even thinner on the ground. We go a step further. We aim to see young people as partners in an important exchange process; exchange of ideas, of knowledge, of skills, expertise and information.

Getting started

The Y-Change team are currently undergoing a period of growth and transformation and so our Youth Exchange training offerings are limited. You can join our waiting list to be notified of when our training calendar is back up and running.

If you would like to make a general enquiry, please fill in our enquiry form.