Mr. Cohen Taylor:

On that meaningful engagement, it might be worth telling the committee a bit more about myself. I came to the Northern Ireland Youth Forum at the age of 16. I was extremely shy and self-conscious and did not have very much belief that my ideas or how I thought about politics was all that important. The youth work process and that work I was taken on through, as happens across so many organisations across the world, was what empowered me to able to sit in an arena like this today and be able to contribute. Our youth work practices are underpinned by participation models and in particular by the Lundy model, which the committee might be familiar with. Therefore that idea of not creating spaces that are tokenistic for young people but of actually empowering these young people to be actively part of a process and to be able to see the results of a consultation, is valid.

Whenever there is engagement with young people, a politician might then act on that advice but might forget to email or contact the young person afterwards to say this is what he or she has done and this is how the politician has acted on the feedback given. A lot of the time it is not about politicians not doing things but is about a breakdown in communication. That is why it has to be a long-term thing. It has to be meaningful in terms of being honest with young people about what can be achieved but also going that extra mile to try to act in the ways that legislators and politicians can make a difference, as well as communicating that to the young people. Regardless of where a young person starts, the right youth work approach, the right people around them and the right type of political education, as well as education more generally and hearing other perspectives in their educational environment, can have a real impact on them and empower them.