Youthwatch Hampshire
Youthwatch started in 2023, with the aim of finding out what children and young people aged 14-21 experience when using local services like doctors, dentists and hospitals.
We are part of Healthwatch Hampshire and work alongside them to ensure all views are heard and that local decision makers hear from all corners of our County.
We work on lots of exciting projects like our brand new ‘Friend in Need’ resource- supporting secondary school age children who are worried about a friend's (change to friend’s) mental health.
We are always happy to hear from new volunteers - whether it is long term, as part of university hours or ad hoc, we would love to hear from you. Check out our how to get involved section.
Projects
Vaping project
Two proactive young Youthwatch volunteer recognised the impact that vaping was having on their peers and wanted to take action. They developed a series of questions to explore how much young people understood about the risks and dangers of vaping, and to gather ideas on how to improve the information and advice available to them.
Read the report
Check out our blog post for more detail.
Friend in Need
Our volunteers noticed a gap in resources on how to have conversations with friends who are struggling with their mental health, and so have created and released a new project aiming to help their peers do just that.
They worked together to come up with resources and conversation starters, and we have collated them into this project! We have the project in video, PDF and via a Canva link.
Check out our blog post for more detail.
Resources available to young people
Download the PDF version
Canva presentation of the project
How to get involved?
Do you have personal experience of health and social care services?
Are you interested in a career in health and social care?
Do you want to make services work better for children and young people?
There are a range of ways you can get involved with Youthwatch.
There are opportunities depending on what you enjoy and how much time you have to give, but the main thing is you enjoy it and have fun all while making a difference.
Some of the roles we have are:
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Sharing your views and ensuring the voices of young people are heard by the people who design services
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Supporting us with social media/website
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Helping us to research for and write articles for projects like Friend in Need
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Joining Healthwatch Hampshire at events, speaking directly to young people to find out what their experiences are
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Working on specific projects, like access to doctors and accessible information