Focus on IARS

Independent Academic Research Studies (IARS) with the support of London Councils is hosting London’s Youth Policy Forum (LYPF).

IARS is the leading youth led social policy think tank championing the value of the youth led sector. The need for a forum to support London’s youth-led sector was identified in a recent report produced by IARS ‘The Needs of the Youth-led Sector During the Economic Downturn’ focuses on the affects of the recession on the youth-led sector. The full report can be found here

The Forum which is hosted by IARS,  and funded by London Councils, is providing  the opportunity for youth-led organisations, infrastructure organisations and representatives from other sectors and government to work together at a London-wide and strategic level on the following issues:

§ Providing capacity building information around the 2012 Olympics games for young people
§ Ensure that youth-led organisations receive adequate support from the relevant infrastructure organisations and authorities, especially around the 2012 Olympics.
§ To promote networking between youth-led organisations, policy makers and other sectors

The Forum will also focus on the following more general tasks:

§ Raise the profile of the youth-led sector across funders, government, the media and third sector.
§ Enable the youth-led sector’s voice to be heard across different sectors and government.

The Forum held its first Task Group Meeting in September 2009 to agree on the focus of the Forum for the coming year.

Task Group Members comprise of: Envision, Ygen, Hackney 2012 olympic & paralympics games unit, Headliners, London Voluntary Service Council, Plenet, Youth Access, Fundamental Architectural Inclusion, VInvolved, British Youth Council, Children England, Southwark Young Advisors, London Civic Forum.

The Task Group agreed that the Forum will focus on raising awareness of the youth-led sector to funders, infrastructure organisations and regional decision makers. Members of the Forum suggested a briefing is produced that will highlight the principles of the youth-led approach. IARS will provide a lead on this briefing. The first step will be to produce an article for Youth Voice, IARS’ youth-led policy journal, which will explore more fully the idea of the youth-led approach and will form the basis of the briefing.  

IARS is currently recruiting members for the forum. In particular we are interested in applications from youth-led groups, third sector infrastructure organisations and funders of youth organisations/ services/ activities

There are two types of membership. The Task Group who meets three times a year and a wider Network Membership who inputs into the work of the Task Group.

To see the terms or reference and application forms or if you have any further questions please email: contact@iars.org.uk or ring 0207 960 0219

More information on the IARS website.

this page last updated 12th November 2009