The National Youth Agency - YRN newsletter Issue 1

YRN newsletter Issue 1 - December 2007

Welcome to the first e-newsletter from the Young Researcher Network (YRN). We hope that this e-newsletter will be of use to all members of the network, young people and workers alike.

Also of interest...

The e-newsletter will be produced bi-monthly. If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see featured or would like to contribute to this e-newsletter please contact us at yrn@nya.org.uk.

About the YRN

The Young Researcher Network is a new initiative from The NYA. The YRN was launched as a means of:

supporting young people’s influence on local and national decision making
increasing young people’s participation in research
building on the requirement on local authorities to consult young people
building stronger partnerships with local organisations
increasing our own capacity to carry out quality research

Our Mission Statement developed with the help of experienced young researchers says: This network will value, support, and encourage research led by young people. It will empower young people and raise their voice and influence on matters that affect their lives.

For a greater understanding of the work of the YRN please view our eight objectives.

Launch Conference: The YRN officially launched with a conference entitled Encouraging Research Led by Young People held at Warwick University at the beginning of December. This was a lively and informative event and the feedback has been positive. A variety of workshops that introduced different ways of doing research were offered. We have started to gather the presentations from both the workshops and the keynote speeches and these are available for download. One of the workshops specifically addressed the use of social media and helpful worksheets are available, but you have to visit our yrn blog to get them. So while you are there why not have a go and tell people what you thought of the conference!

Who makes up the Network? The network itself is made up of 15 partner organisations as well as The NYA. The conference was the first time that the network met as a whole. We are pleased that we can now publicly announce the network partners. More information about how the YRN will support these partner organisations is available online at www.nya.org.uk/youngreserachernetwork.

Future e-newsletters: We are hoping that our e-newsletter will develop to suit your needs and that young people in particular will contribute their own stories and experiences of doing research, successes and pitfalls! We would also like to highlight relevant social policy that we think may provide opportunities for young researchers in the future, as well as keeping you up to date with the work of the network. In order to help us met your training needs can network partners please remember to complete the online needs and skills analysis.