Youth Voice and Engagement
Empowering young people across Greater Essex,
Active Essex has empowered young people to lead, influence and shape physical activity across Essex, creating a sustainable youth-led movement that builds skills, confidence and opportunities through Move With Us.
Over the last 12–18 months, Active Essex has seen the impact of sustained investment in youth voice come to life. Building on foundations laid over the previous 5–6 years, young people across Essex are now shaping decisions, influencing strategy and leading action to ensure opportunities to be active genuinely meet their needs.
Active Essex’s youth voice work has been broad, inclusive and intentionally long-term. Central to this is the Move With Us (MWU) campaign and brand, which has evolved into a genuinely youth-led movement. Children and young people now feel ownership of Move With Us, leading the charge in shaping how physical activity opportunities are designed, communicated and delivered across Essex.
A key milestone has been the creation of the Move With Us Ambassador Programme at county level. This has provided a clear route for young people who want to be more involved, make a difference and influence decision-makers. To date, 24 young people have applied and signed up as MWU Ambassadors, receiving training, support and meaningful opportunities to contribute.
Ambassadors have already played an active role in:
- Creating National Fitness Day challenges for primary and secondary schools.
- Submitting insight and data to the UK Government's 'Deliver You' strategy.
- Providing feedback and challenge directly to the Active Essex Board.
- Selecting winners for the Essex Activity Awards and Barclays Girl's Football kit competition.
- Going the extra mile, including once ambassador completing an activity marathon to raise funds for the Active Essex Foundation.
Alongside this, the Active Essex Children and Young People (CYP) team has developed the Move With Us Leaders Academy – a modular, free-to-access award that uses sport and physical activity as a vehicle to build life and employability skills. Targeted at secondary-aged students, the programme develops communication, problem-solving and teamwork through two distinct entry routes, delivered either within schools or by community organisations.
Young people are not only trained but actively encouraged to volunteer and support others to be active through a reward and recognition model. Participants also benefit from a menu of large-scale county opportunities such as The Invincible Games and the Active Essex PE Conference, where they can volunteer, gain experience and build confidence.
Youth voice has also been strengthened locally through the School Games Organiser (SGO) network. Active Essex has provided funding, resources, guidance and capacity-building support to help areas develop local SSP / School Games Youth Boards. As a result, six SGO areas now have sustained youth boards, with young people involved in planning, decision-making and event delivery. In Castle Point and Rochford, the SSP Youth Board has influenced wider place-based work and will now transition into the Children and Young People Board for the Pride in Place programme on Canvey Island.
Active Essex has played a central role in every aspect of this work, from establishing and coordinating the Move With Us Ambassador Programme to designing the resources, structure and delivery model for the Move With Us Leadership Award. This has included providing face‑to‑face and online training for schools and deliverers, offering funding opportunities to the School Games network and locally trusted organisations, and embedding youth voice into flagship initiatives such as the Invincible Games in partnership with the Multi Schools Council.
In addition, Active Essex has created frameworks and guidance to support the development of Youth Boards, helping to ensure this strategic and practical support moves youth engagement beyond consultation and into genuine co‑production.
Active Essex has worked in close partnership with a wide range of organisations to strengthen youth voice and engagement across Essex. This includes collaboration with the School Games Organiser network, local district councils and Essex County Council colleagues, particularly within skills and employability.
Active Essex has also worked alongside locally trusted organisations, community clubs and groups, as well as National Governing Bodies of Sport, to ensure opportunities are aligned, inclusive and embedded within both local and county‑wide systems.
Key learning points include:
- Understanding the local landscape and embedding youth voice within existing structures wherever possible
- Ensuring young people are involved in action, not just consultation
- The importance of recognised, free-to-access awards, as cost can be a major barrier
- Balancing influence on the future with visible impact in the here and now
- Clearly communicating volunteering and progression opportunities to both young people and supporting organisations
Each month we showcase young people with inspirational stories about getting themselves or others active, shared through blogs and communications channels.
Looking ahead, Active Essex will continue to grow and evolve the Move With Us Ambassador Programme, ensuring it remains shaped and led by young people themselves. There will be a renewed focus on strengthening the promotion, uptake and support of the Move With Us Leadership Award across schools and community providers, helping more young people access leadership and volunteering pathways.
Active Essex will also work to better connect youth voice with local councils and wider system partners, including opportunities linked to UK Shared Prosperity Fund activity and initiatives such as the Epping District Council partnership with Google. Alongside this, improving the links between youth boards and full decision‑making boards at both local and county level will be a key priority, ensuring young people’s voices influence strategy and delivery across the system.
At Active Essex, the views of children and young people are key to the way we design, deliver and shape our work. Their insight and lived experiences provide essential insight that help ensure our programmes remain meaningful and responsive to the needs of the children and young people across Greater Essex. Through programmes such as the Essex School Games, Move With Us Ambassador's, we are able to regularly engage with young people, understand their needs to implement action. The perspectives of children and young people are not just an addition to our work, they are essential to shaping it.Tom Weller, Relationship Development Officer
