Summary of the Challenge
The voices of young people are often overlooked, but they have arguably the most significant long-term stake as they will likely be hit hardest by the actions of current and past societies.
However, young people are rarely engaged in sustainability research due to the complexities around engaging them in research.
Our Response
We will test a methodology for the visioning workshops that we have developed specifically for youth participation. The workshops with children will focus on what they think life will look like in 2038 across homes, energy, transport, food, and work. The workshops will also ask what children want and hope life will look like by 2038.
The research will hold one workshop with younger children aged 7-11 and another with older children aged 14-17 who are entering or exiting from the GCSE period.
We will produce a policy briefing featuring multimedia material generated through the workshops which will be presented to policy makers and public and private sector leaders working towards the transition in South Yorkshire and beyond.
We hope that the research will invite decision makers to take better account of the perspectives and needs of children, as those who will live with the legacy of their policies and actions for longer than anyone else. Recommendations for further involvement of children in the development and enactment of transition related policies will also be included, and will be informed in part by the children's own views on how they would like to be engaged.
