Young Advisors of My Rights, My Say come together again

Innes Burns, Participation and Communications Officer for My Rights, My Say, tells us about the latest Young Advisors meeting.

Over the weekend, my colleague Beth and I continued our work with the My Rights, My Say Young Advisors.

It makes my week seeing them. They’re such legends.

If you’ve not heard of them before, you can read about the work they do here. 

The session was focused on continuing to develop an understanding of their experiences at school and also exploring the idea of advocacy.

Both key components of how My Rights, My Say carries out its work for children and young people.

We started off by reminding ourselves what My Rights, My Say is all about. It’s here to help children and young people have their voices heard when decisions are being made about their education and support.

The project is supported by four organisations: Children’s Views, Enquire, Cairn Legal and Partners in Advocacy. Each plays a different role, but we all work towards the same objective.

We also talked about our ‘Working Together Agreement.’ This agreement was developed with the group and is aimed at supporting everyone (including staff) to understand how we work with each other. We allow everyone the space to talk, we communicate kindly, we listen and we make sure everything we do is accessible for everyone. It’s a good reminder that the way we work together is a reflection of our wider goals in ensuring every voice matters.

Our first activity of the day was the ‘emoji wall.’ We used post-its and pictures to share how we feel about different parts of school, placing them along a line from happy to neutral to sad or frustrated.

We then asked the Young Advisors to choose something at school that frustrates them and show us, through drawing, writing, or a conversation with Beth and me, what the ideal version of that would look like. They gave some fascinating insights about how teachers, uniforms and certain subjects can improve their experience at school.

After that, we started talking about advocacy. We learned that advocacy is all about helping someone’s voice be heard.

We don’t define advocacy as speaking for someone or telling others what to do… advocates of children and young people in this field listen carefully, help you explain what’s going on, and make sure adults actually hear and understand what you’re saying. Partners in Advocacy does this kind of work with young people who might be struggling at school or feel like no one’s listening to them. Sometimes it’s just about helping teachers see things from a young person’s point of view.

Once we understood what advocacy meant, we moved on to building a CV for an advocate. We imagined what kind of person we’d want to help us share our views. We talked about what makes a good listener, how you can tell when someone’s really paying attention, and what kind of person you’d trust to stand beside you in a meeting.

By the end, we’d created a brilliant picture of what a great advocate looks like: kind, patient, respectful, calm, understanding, and someone who really listens.

It was such a thoughtful and positive session. We explored what it feels like to be listened to, what happens when voices aren’t heard, and how advocacy can make a difference. The insights provided by our Young Advisors will be a huge help to those carrying out this kind of work in our service.

More than anything, it reminded us that being heard matters. That’s what My Rights, My Say is all about.