Health (YW4H)

The National Youth Agency's Youth Work for Health (YW4H) team builds on the foundations of the Young People's Development Programme (YPDP), a Department of Health /(former) Department for Education and Skills pilot scheme that concluded at the end of March 2007.

Developing Young People’s Voice and Influence in Health Services - NYA Seminar Reports and Resources

NYA held a ground breaking seminar in developing the voice and influence of young people in health services. Held at NYA’s Leicester offices, 30 delegates, speakers and young people met to discuss and debate the issue. Presentations were given by representatives from Dudley Youth Service with Dudley NHS, Leicestershire and Rutland Community Health Services with Connexions Leicestershire and from Government Office North West.

About The NYA's Youth Work for Health team

Over the last five years The NYA's Youth Work for Health team have been funded by the Department of Health (DH) to work with front line projects delivering an innovative programme of targeted support to young people at high risk of poor health outcomes. The Youth Work for Health (YW4H) pilots grew from the initial Young People’s Development Programme to test new ways of integrating health messages within youth work.

The Team have published the Good Practice Guidelines For Healthy Youth Work - a comprehensive quality assurance tool for organisations that want to extend and improve their services on health issues and ‘Sexplanation’ - a 21st Century update of the sexual health youth work resource the Grapevine Game.

The NYA's Youth Work for Health team is also a partner with the DH on ‘You're Welcome’ – the department standards for promoting better young people friendly health services - and have worked on the development of the Teen Life Check website.

In addition the team offers training to local authorities and third sector organisations on a range of health issues, including sexual health and substance use and we have funding from the DCSF to work with local authorities to improve their services on health within non-formal education including developing e-learning tools on health for the youth work sector.

Health e-learning

The National Youth Agency is exploring the potential for e-learning in the youth sector. Supported by the Department of Health and working with e-learning experts OCB Media, we have developed a unique set of online resources to help professionals work more effectively on health issues with young people. The free health-e modules are designed as a short introduction to four key health areas: healthy lifestyles, healthy relationships and sex, mental and emotional wellbeing, and substance use. Find out more >>

We hope they will stimulate your interest and encourage you to take up further training in the future.