I initially got involved because over the summer I met some of my favourite people on this planet and I knew that if we all did the additional projects together, I’d get to see them a lot… for free. I’ve volunteered for Young Action Wiltshire for years anyway, so it wasn’t like I was signing up for something I knew I’d hate – I was just initially doing it for the people I’d get to be around. That being said, after I was told what we, as a group of Young Listeners would be doing, I was really excited about it. We had to go through hours of training in safeguarding; we have to be able to alter how we handle groups of young people based on their age and situation; and we learnt how to just generally talk to people in order to carry a conversation and harvest the information we need to feedback to HealthWatch.
Before ever carrying out a listening I was sceptical at the impact it would make on people. I questioned the ideas behind having young people talk to young people because I didn’t personally know how or think it would benefit anyone. This was until we actually started the listenings and I got into it. A young person is talking to someone of a similar age to them – give or take a few years – and it’s clearly so much more unintimidating than a young person talking to someone with a clipboard and a monocle. The people I’ve listened to have certified this in the things they’ve said or how they’ve said them. An 11 year old girl wrote me a note saying, ‘thank you for helping me with my bullying, you are all so kind and helpful’, and an 18 year old I was talking to switched from barely saying anything to essentially vomiting his strong views on mental healthcare to me.
A lot of the skills we have picked up I believe to be truly valuable to later in life. I can’t speak for all the Young Listeners, but I know that for myself, I feel a lot more confident when talking to groups of people and I know how to conduct myself around different age groups.
listen up 