Participation Awards

members of NICCY Participation Awards panel Welcome to my 2011 Participation Awards page. These awards are designed to recognise the work in the civil service and public sector to involve children and young people in policy development and decision-making. The Awards were launched on 12th August.

A panel of 8 young people, aged 14-16, helped me develop these awards to raise awareness of good practice in organisations, and award the very best participative practices. All aspects of the awards including the application form and guidelinesand the young person's reference form, have been created and overseen by young people.

If you are in an organisation that works with children and young people, involves children and young people ,and makes sure they have a real, meaningful role in your work, then these awards are for you!

Patricia Lewsley, Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People.

Latest on the Awards

Awards Ceremony

On the 23^rd November the Commissioner presented the first recipients of NICCY’s Participation Awards in the Long Gallery at Stormont. The event was sponsored by Junior Ministers Martina Anderson and Jonathan Bell. The event was also attended by the Minister for Justice David Ford.

We were delighted with the quantity and standard of applications. We had 24 applications from a range of government departments and public bodies working in the fields of health, arts, justice, transport, public safety and regulation.

Assembly Commission recieves gold

The Commissioner paid tribute to the magnificent efforts of every entry at the awards ceremony. She presented the Assembly Commission the Gold Award in recognition of their work with the Youth Assembly Panel project.

If you have any queries around the awards please contact Laura McFall on 028 9031 1616 or email laura@niccy.org.

What the Commissioner Said...

Commissioner, Patricia Lewsley said that the awards were open to all government departments, arm’s length bodies and other public sector organisations.

“It is fitting that my Participation Awards 2011 have been created and developed by a panel of dedicated young people,” said Ms Lewsley. “They have shaped these awards to acknowledge good practice, and demonstrate how positive change can happen with good, early participation.

“So much legislation and so many policies affect the lives of young people that it is vital that they are involved at the earliest possible stage,”

What our panel members said...

The young people involved in the project said:

“It’s our turn to award government and the public sector, we know that some parts of Northern Ireland’s civil and public sector need to do a lot more work to include young people in appropriate decision making.

“But we also know there is good participation work to help shape policies in a way that includes young people, improves the policies, and brings forward realistic change.

“With the Commissioner, we want all the civil and public sector organisations to take up the challenge of the Commissioner's Participation Awards 2011.