We are delighted to announce the launch of our FBB Youth Board with the first virtual meeting taking place in December.

15 of our dynamic teenage participants ranging in age from 13 to 16 years, from 9 partner schools across London and the North West met up virtually to get to know each other and work out how the board can best represent all our participants in making suggestions for improving the FBB experience for all.

Placing young people at the heart of the organisation’s decision making process is an important part of the strategy. The youth council provides a vehicle for young people to ensure that their voices are heard and reflected in any organisational decisions. 

After some fun icebreaker activities our 15 youth representatives identified characteristics that they hoped to develop in order to make an important contribution to the group including:

Teamwork/ Aspirational/ Listeners/ Responsibilities/ Leadership/ Resilience/ Respectful/ Independence/ Good ideas.

Roya, our inspirational FBB Practitioner who has been the driving force behind making the meeting happen, commented:  

This creation of the first ever FBB Youth Board is an extremely exciting and also an important step for us as a charity for young people. It is incredible and will always make me smile how young people thrive and the wealth of experience and knowledge they possess when you give them the platform and opportunity to do so. We are not just a charity for young people, we are now a charity that grows WITH young people at the heart of our structures. We know young people can not just lead the future, but can lead today - and we want to give them the opportunity to do so."

The group also agreed that the purpose of the Board is:

• Giving advice to the Main FBB Trustee Board about what can be done to make FBB better.
• Asking your friends about FBB to get feedback.
• Creating and delivering parts of FBB events.
• Learning and developing as a group.
• Helping to make FBB socials better.

It is inspiring to hear how much the participants enjoyed the experience with Vojitech summing this up:

"Hi my name is Vojtech. When I got picked on the youth board I felt very happy to where I made it. Then I had a meeting with the FBB it was very fun and we got to do activities. I’m excited for the next meeting, because we all know each other and see what we will do next!"

Barak, our Youth board Trustee, who chaired this first youth board meeting reported observations made during the meeting to the main board Trustees on 9th December at one of their quarterly meetings. So the Youth Board’s role in influencing FBB’s direction has already started.

Now it is time for all participants to have their say. Each Youth Board member is going to contact at least 3 participants to ask:

• How can FBB best support young people in the New Year?
• What would you like to see on FBB socials?
• What’s been your favourite FBB project and why?

Watch this space to find the answers after our next youth board meeting in March 2021.