Hopefully your managers and colleagues are all agreed that involving young people is the perfect solution to increasing usage, planning successful activities, and promoting social inclusion. The next stage of the process is to decide which young people you want to involve in your services and how you are going to get them on board. Do you want to find a way to reward your prolific readers or is your main concern to start a dialogue with the young people who sprayed graffiti on your library wall?

This section looks at:

Planning for young people's participation

Before you can decide which young people to consult with, you need to know why you want to involve and consult them. It might be that your library has funding for a new building and you want to involve young people in helping you design the new space, or maybe you want help with programming some innovative events to attract socially excluded young people.

There are three main audiences you might like to involve:

Current library users
Young people who have no contact with the library service
Young people who have a negative relationship with the library service

Sometimes it will be appropriate to involve your regular library users - for example, your Teen Reading Group. They might be interested in helping you choose new stock or giving you ideas on how to make the young people's area feel more welcoming.

However, if you want to attract new users, look further afield for young people who don't currently access the library. They can tell you why the library doesn't appeal to them, and how it could be made more accessible.

Participation can also be an effective way to deal with problems with anti-social behaviour. You could ask your graffiti artists why they don't think the library has anything to offer them and engage them in a positive makeover project for the library exterior. A good example of this happened at Dudley Wood Library - have a look at this case study of the Dudley Graffiti Project (Word, 51kb)

The importance of partnership

The most effective way to get young people involved in shaping library services is by making links with partners who already have contact with your target audience. Once you've made contact these partners can be invaluable in brokering relationships between the library service and the young people.
They can devise projects with you, bring groups along to your events, and may even be able to carry out consultation exercises on your behalf, as they already know the group and how to manage them.

Before making contact with these partners you need to think about what you are offering to the young people and to the professionals who work with them.

In schools:

English teachers will be interested in consultation exercises that involve group discussion and presentation skills, as well as areas that are directly related to literature
Art and design teachers will be interested in helping out with projects that have a visual content such as makeover projects and publicity design
IT teachers will be interested in projects that involve the production of websites and publicity
Learning mentors work with young people who are at risk of exclusion. They will be interested in projects that could develop the literacy and personal skills of their young people
Citizenship teachers will be interested in projects that get young people involved in their local community

With youth services:

Youth workers work with young people in a wide range of contexts, such as youth clubs, projects for excluded pupils, Connexions centres, and specialist projects with a focus on particular areas such as music, drama or literacy. Their roles vary but they tend to work alongside young people, helping them to achieve their own ambitions. Youth workers are likely to want to help you if they can see that your project has appropriate incentives for the young people they work with, and that it can contribute to the personal, social, creative or educational development of their young people. Find out what the focus of the youth group is, and what is likely to motivate them before deciding on your approach.
Many local councils employ a Youth Participation Officer to increase the level of young people's engagement in shaping council services.

For an example of such partnership, read about how Swindon's Partners for Change project (Word 61kb) is involving hard to reach young people in decision-making and service provision within the library services.

With young people's groups:

Increasingly young people are setting up and getting involved with young people led organisations, such as the UK Youth Parliament. The library service's community information database may be a good place to start in identifying local young people's groups or your local youth worker for suggestions of local groups

Incentives and tips for involving young people

It doesn't matter which young people you want to engage with, young people respond well to incentives, and before you approach them you need to think about what is likely to motivate them to be involved (this could, in itself, be a mini consultation exercise!)

Incentives could be any of the following:

Financial: Many youth organisations pay young people for their time. If your authority isn't comfortable with this approach, consider vouchers for W H Smiths, sports shops, department stores, or cinemas.
Activity-based: Once you know what the young people like to do, perhaps you could offer them the opportunity to take part in an activity alongside the library involvement. This could be completely unrelated to the main activity, for example, a trip to Lazerzone, or it could be incorporated into the project. Perhaps the young people could learn to use video cameras whilst recording their views about the library, or maybe they could work with a graffiti artist to make a mural for your new building.Celebrations: Most young people enjoy a good party. For young people who have been involved in a major project such as a library makeover, consider a presentation ceremony, performance, or launch event. Let the young people make the plans for food and music, and if you can get a local celebrity to attend, even better.
Awards and Certificates: There are a number of ways of recognising young people's achievements. Young people's involvement in shaping library services could contribute towards school coursework or an Asdan qualification within a youth work context. Young people can also be accredited through the Young People's Arts Award - see www.artsaward.org.uk (launches new website) - and volunteer award schemes, such as Millennium Volunteers. See www.milleniumvolunteers.gov.uk (launches new website). Even if you don't link young people's involvement into formal accreditation, many young people appreciate a certificate or official letter recognising their contribution. They can use this in their portfolios and records of achievement. Ask the young people whether they would like a certificate.
Refreshments: Don't underestimate the importance of refreshments in motivating young people. If you have a decent budget, offer them takeaway pizzas (or an alternative) as part of any consultation exercise. If funds are tight, at least make sure you provide drinks and biscuits.
Freebies: If you don't have a budget to reward young people consider what the library service could easily provide. Offer the young people free DVD or CD rentals or extra-long Internet sessions

Next section: Methods for involving young people