On Saturday we hosted the My Place Pioneers as they led a co-creation workshop for local young people and decision-makers.

This pilot project empowers local young people aged 13-18 to be researchers, advocates and leaders for the diverse communities they represent, and supports them to build a positive future for their place and their community.

We began the day with a presentation from the Pioneers on their training, research design, research process and key findings from the last couple of months.

The group split into two to investigate the impact of regeneration and feeling safe in Finsbury Park, which led us on to group discussions on how to tackle some of the issues the community are facing.

Themes included developing Finsbury Park in a way that retains and enhances the existing sense of community, making it more accessible for local people to get involved in decisions about regeneration, tackling crime and investing in measures to improve community safety, and improving the opportunities, activities, spaces and training opportunities available to young people.

Councillors from Hackney and Haringey, researchers from The University of Westminster and King’s College London, members of the Finsbury Park and Stroud Green Neighbourhood Forum and the team from Levitt Bernstein worked together with the Pioneers to generate some potential solutions.

We ended the workshop by committing to ways in which we would work together in the future to achieve these aims – how decision makers can create more ways to involve young people and communities in their decisions and ways for communities and young people to hold them to account.

It was a fantastic day full of inspiration and energy from the young people involved. We can’t wait to see what they do next!

On 3rd December, My Place will be screening a documentary that follows them on this journey. Keep an eye on their website for more information.