What Young People are Calling For

"Keeping the promises you make" + "Speaking up if someone does something wrong" + "It’s a choice of action not just words" + "It is also about preventing bad things from happening" + "Creating action and space to back young people to lead" +

"Keeping the promises you make" + "Speaking up if someone does something wrong" + "It’s a choice of action not just words" + "It is also about preventing bad things from happening" + "Creating action and space to back young people to lead" +

Young people and their communities have been calling for accountability for a long time, but systems and services are still causing harm.

Accountable Futures Collective exists to redefine and drive accountability to young people by combining the best of what already exists, along with new thinking and ideas.

Accountability to young people is about recognising and supporting young people’s power to shape ‘what good looks like’ and adults bringing skills + knowledge to back that vision.

Created by the Accountable Futures Collective Impact Board

Today, most youth engagement practice looks like what we call ‘VPC processes’:

  • Voice: listening to young people and hearing their perspectives, perhaps taking their advice

  • Participation: young people making decisions about their lives and policies that impact them

  • Co-design: a structured process of designing policies, products or services with young people

Accountability to young people encompasses and also stretches beyond these VPC processes to ensure:

Young people are meaningfully involved in all stages of VPC processes (strategy creation, data analysis, sense-making + making recommendations)

Meaningful action is taken on solutions arising from VPC processes in the form of clear commitments that are shared back with young people

Decision-makers are held accountable for commitments made processes through new mechanisms and monitoring over time, embedding VPC processes beyond ‘once-off’ projects

Over time, services and systems become tangibly and measurably accountable to young people at all levels.

In the future, the standard becomes that young people are partners in decision-making and adults, services + systems are accountable to young people, their needs and their vision.


Young people’s responses and ideas:

^ click the arrows to see different questions + answers

This Mentimeter is open for any young people to contribute to and is intended as an open source collection of different views and ideas. This Mentimeter is lightly moderated for safety. The views included do not necessarily represent the views of Accountable Futures Collective or anyone associated with AFC, but we intend to be responsive to all that young people share.