National award for Borough of Rochdale Young Advisors group

Anne Drury, Participation Worker (CAMHS Rochdale); Teegan Gritt; Leon Hollinrake; Curtis Greenwood; Vicky Rothwell; John Swallow, Listen Up Project Coordinator (Rochdale and District Mind)

The Borough of Rochdale Young Advisors group won the Best New Young Advisor Team Award for the impact the new team have made in the Borough of Rochdale at The National Young Advisors Annual General Meeting.

Competition was fierce for the award with the Young Advisor Network growing substantially this year with a host of new teams being added. However, rising above all the other new teams across England, the team from the Borough of Rochdale scooped the award to rapturous applause.

Laura Beesley, Team Leader Sure Start/Early Help & Schools, said: “The Young Advisors have made a significant and important contribution to the co-design of emotional and mental health services for young people. The Young Advisors brought a perspective and experience that generated a different type of conversation in our co-design sessions. The final specification is much richer as a consequence of their engagement.”

Since April this year a group of young people, aged 14 – 19 years, from the Borough of Rochdale have been training to become community consultants, specialising in emotional health and wellbeing.

Supported by Rochdale CAMHS: Pennine Care and Rochdale and District Mind the young people joined the National Young Advisor Network in April 2015.

The network provides a range of training in consultancy techniques for teams of young people who show community leadership.

The consultancy training, lasts 12 months and equips young people to engage with local decision makers and work collaboratively with local commissioners to improve local services for children and young people, in this case, in the area of young people’s emotional health and wellbeing.

Young Advisors also work with business leaders, bringing unique expertise and knowledge about being young to influence strategic planning, decision-making and marketing.